Richard Dawkins calls Ben Carson a 'disgrace' for belief in creationism

[Goblinmonger]

"You just told me all the Republican candidates except one don't believe in evolution," said Dawkins. "I mean, that's a disgrace.

"I believe what they're doing is they think that they've got to say that in order to appeal to their constituency," he said. "And if that's true, it's deeply depressing."

"But for a very senior eminent distinguished doctor as he [Carson] is to say that is even worse. Because of course, evolution is the bedrock of biology and biology is the bedrock of medicine. He clearly doesn't understand the fundamental theorem of his own subject. That is a terrible indictment.

Carson is an outspoken Christian whose rise in popularity has placed him second to Donald Trump in the polls. However the former neurosurgeon has drawn criticism for previously saying the theory of evolution was created by the Devil and that the big-bang theory is "ridiculous" and a "fairytale."

Full Article

Seems to be an absence of Dawkins articles today, so thought I'd fill in. Glad to see the voice of reason speaking out in the face of religious whackadoodle.

[yeoman6987]

1. I think the title should be

Carson not believing in evolution is a disgrace. There are many creationists that believe in evolution too. Slamming 60 percent of the population might not be the best strategy.

[Goblinmonger]

2. It's a disgrace that 60% of our population are creationists.

Dawkins is right to call them all out. That Carson is one is especially disgraceful.

[yeoman6987]

6. Oh tell me again how that message is working?

Oh that's right. Except for the presidency we have nothing else. Keep it up and those 32 governors will be 50 states. No gerrymandering involved.

[Goblinmonger]

8. So we need to have Idiocracy but for real?

That's our plan to win elections? Just keep telling people that believe things which we know aren't true that they are wonderful for completely rejecting science? Sorry. I don't want to live in a country that just says ignorance is wonderful because it is ignorance that stems from religion.

And in this case, Carson knows better. He knows vaccines don't cause autism but said nothing. He knows that evolution happens. By "knows" I mean he isn't ignorant of it.

[yeoman6987]

10. Well there you go. Good luck!

[Goblinmonger]

11. Well, that's a deep discussion.

Is there something I'm missing about what you are saying? How do we get that big a portion of the population to not be ignorant?

[cleanhippie]

14. It's always frustrating to see some say "how's that working out for ya?"

And then offer nothing as an alternative to a strategy they see as ineffective.

Makes me wonder if said strategy simply treads on ones privilege instead.

[Act_of_Reparation]

4. Guess what:

60% of the population can be just as wrong as 1%.

[Fumesucker]

12. What percentage of the population doesn't watch Fox?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027318882

Mother Jones Uncovers 2014 Video Of Carson Praising Fox For Keeping America From Becoming Cuba

In a 2014 video recently uncovered by Mother Jones, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson called many Americans stupid and praised Fox News for preventing America from becoming Cuba by giving people like him an outlet to spout his beliefs.

A November 3 Mother Jones article published a video of an October 19, 2014 speech Carson gave at the Richard Nixon presidential library. During the speech Carson criticized what he claimed was the media's attempt to shut him down, while praising his then-employer Fox News, commenting that, "We'd be Cuba if there were no Fox News." According to Mother Jones (emphasis added):

[Warren Stupidity]

29. Wtf.

Are those "turbo mode" creation-evolutionists?

[immoderate]

3. Dawkins thinks the Republicans are faking it. Little does he know...

--imm

[Yorktown]

5. Carson is just one example of the brain dichotomy created by religion

It is one of the most fascinating effects of religion:
it makes some very bright people reason adopt two conflicting sets of 'beliefs'.

My favorite example is Dr. Jason Lyle: he is a bona fide astrophysicist.
That means he had to study how stars and galaxies were formed over billions of years.
And yet, he's a dedicated Young Earth Creationist.

The child's mind -Santa, Creation- coexists with the adult, rational mind.
Fascinating.

1. If the Bible were not true, logic would not be meaningful.
2. Logic is meaningful.
3. Therefore, the Bible is true.

—Jason Lisle

[mr blur]

7. Ah, the old Cognitive Dissonance -

lot of examples of that around here.

[LeftishBrit]

9. He's a disgrace for that reason and many others!

Every time that he opens his mouth, something stupid comes out. This is the point where one would normally say 'he's no brain surgeon' except that incredibly he is.

[struggle4progress]

13. That's not even half the problem; and there's no real political advantage to focussing on it

Ben Carson’s striking ignorance
By James Downie
November 5 at 12:24 PM

... Frankly, I don’t care whether the president believes the pyramids were built by Joseph, aliens or the Egyptians themselves levitating the stones into place. What matters are the ideas — and that’s where the focus should be with Carson, since it’s clear he has no idea what he’s talking about.

In the same week, Carson also said that Medicare and Medicaid fraud is “huge — half a trillion dollars.” If true, that would be almost 50 percent of our total spending on the two programs. The real number is somewhere between 3 and 10 percent — still a problem, but handing the program to a Carson White House would be like handing the drug war over to someone who believes half the United States is hooked on heroin. In the same Miami Herald interview, Carson was completely stumped by basic questions on U.S.-Cuba policy, before having no qualms about holding forth on the president’s Cuba policy.

And on Wednesday night on Facebook, Carson defended his lack of experience by claiming, “Every signer of the Declaration of Independence had no elected office experience.” That is utterly false: Many of the signatories, including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, had been elected to colonial legislatures or other positions (and indeed were partly chosen for the Continental Congress precisely because of their prominence as elected officials). It’s one thing to be wrong about the pyramids, but Carson can’t cite the Founders both for the basic idea behind his outsider candidacy and for many of his policies when he can’t get their biographies right.

That’s just the past week. Zoom out farther, and we find that Carson has changed his Medicare plan from “End Medicare” to a new version that doesn’t make any sense. He refuses to acknowledge that his tax plan would force trillions of dollars in spending cuts to reach the balanced budget he wants, partly because he or his advisers appear to have no idea what does and doesn’t get taxed. (For example, Carson’s calculation would include taxing all government spending, including defense.) And he has confused the budget and the debt ceiling ...

[Goblinmonger]

15. It matters to me if the president thinks the pyramids were built by Joseph for grain.

Because that means, at some very important levels, they're a fucking idiot.

[struggle4progress]

16. The rule is: focus on relevant matters

We agree that Dr Carson is somewhat of a doofus outside his field of expertise, which is perhaps not incredibly uncommon

But most people do not choose to run for President

For a Presidential candidate, the important questions do not revolve around competence in ancient archaeology but around knowledge related to politics and policy: does he know the history that shaped current US political processes? is he informed about existing federal programs? what does he understand about international relations?

If one has a limited opportunity to discuss Carson's shortcomings, one should discuss his lack of qualifications for the actual job, rather than the fact that he'd be a lousy teacher of ancient Middle Eastern history or archaeology

[skepticscott]

17. His connection to reality

or lack thereof, is relevant. His ability to tell the truth, or lack thereof, is relevant.

And yes, everyone has areas that they know little or nothing about. The sane and sensible ones don't make idiotic pronouncements in those areas in spite of their ignorance. Carson does.

[cleanhippie]

18. Some think that Google is an acceptable substitute for areas where they know little.

You can usually spot them by their onerous use of Google to cover their ignorance.

[struggle4progress]

19. Quelle horreur! Someone posted a WaPo op-ed on the very topic of the OP, published

the very day the OP was posted!

[cleanhippie]

22. How disappointing.

I was really looking forward to yet another Google-galop

[struggle4progress]

23. You can console yourself with #20

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1218216984#post20

[cleanhippie]

24. We both know you can do better.

[skepticscott]

25. The answers to your questions become more clear all the time

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/05/ben-carsons-absurd-notion-that-the-founding-fathers-had-no-elected-office-experience/

No, Ben Carson doesn't know jack shit about history. He just makes shit up out of thin air and doesn't care if it's true or not.

But keep propping him up, dude....use Google if you need to. I'm just loving the opportunity to engage his defenders and apologists who call themselves progressives.

[sammythecat]

28. That he denies scientific fact because he thinks the bible says so

is much more than deeply disturbing. It'd be downright frightening if he was the President.

Are we approaching Armageddon? Is all out war in the Middle East an inevitable part of "God's plan" and actually a good thing? Is he going to be consulting his bible for answers to social issues?

The Old Testament Joseph built the pyramids to store grain. Carson says this is just common sense. "Think about it", he says. This is just crazy talk.

It's possible to be smart and delusional. Ben Carson is apparently just that, and I'm not interested in having a President who is both smart and delusional.

[struggle4progress]

20. Ben Carson Admits Fabricating West Point Scholarship

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141253006

[Goblinmonger]

21. He's done.

Some far right-wing religious might hang on to him, but the West Point thing will kill him.

[skepticscott]

26. Of course, the question is, kill him with who?

Does anyone who would have voted for him for president last week care at all about facts or reality? His supporters will just spread the meme that Obama ordered West Point to scrub all records of Carson having been there. Seriously.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. You'd like to think so, but Trump survived denigrating McCain's time as a prisoner of war

That was the kind of personal insult of a man of the right, who had been widely praised for his solidarity with fellow prisoners, that you would have thought would have sunk Trump (if a Democrat had said it, they'd have been hounded out of the country. Or physically attacked). But Trump just shrugged it off, and got more and more popular.

Don't underestimate the Republican capacity for hypocrisy.