Re: Unfair question on CNN Republican Debate

Poll: Do you agree with CNN asking Republican Candidates their views on evolution?

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Do you agree with CNN asking Republican Candidates their views on evolution?

Yes

No

Other

 

 

 

View Poll Results: Do you agree with CNN asking Republican Candidates their views on evolution?
Yes		18	41.86%
No		24	55.81%
Other		1	2.33%

 

 

 

 

 

Jun 7, '07, 8:11 pm

chicago Regular Member   Join Date: May 17, 2004 Posts: 5,861 Religion: Catholic

Re: Unfair question on CNN Republican Debate Quote: Originally Posted by melensdad You assume but you don't know. Why not ask? It seems fair to ask both parties the same questions in the same tone. To defend otherwise is to presume that there is no difference between the candidates. You may be right. But it could also be a little like asking Democratic Presidential candidates about their position on abortion. I mean, like we don't already know? Quote: It is like assuming that all Democrats are pro-abortion and all Republicans are pro-life. Well, you're getting right at it, now aren't you? At the Presidential level, the Democratic candidates ARE all pro-abortion. There's likely little difference between them. But the Republican candidates may be varying degrees of who knows what which could differ widely. So, when it comes to the issue of creationism versus evolutionist thought and teaching in schools, it is probably more of a Republican issue for the Presidential campaign than a Democratic one. While is why it makes more sense to ask it in the one place but less so in the other. Quote: Interestingly in Illinois right now there is a Democratic revolt on the Governor's proposed health care proposal. An amendment that was approved is now under scrutiny by the very Democrats who supported its passage because, if allowed to remain in the bill, and if the bill passes, will use public funds to pay for abortions. The vast majority of Republicans oppose it and now several Democrats, who initially voted for it not knowing the details of the bill, are opposing the amendment they already voted for. There are now not enough votes to pass the bill and Governor Blogo is strong arming everyone he can to get the bill and the budget passed quickly. So it is clear that "party lines" on issues do not mean unanimity. Yes, I agree. Especially in Illinois where many Democrats are still more moderate to conservative on certain issues. But these debates aren't being held for the Illinois legislative races. They are for President. Entirely different context, therefore. (Plus the reality that Illinois politics is all about last minute horse trading. Ultimately the bills and budgets which get passed will have been fully read and understood by few. Each pol will only know what he's getting out of the deal and how the general consensus fell within their caucuses.) Quote: So again, why not ask the same questions of both parties? I have no inherant problem with asking the same question for both parties. But seeing as how each party and it's candidates is unique in outlook and issues of greatest concern, I also find it appropriate to tailor the questions in order to suit the context. If you're just going to ask everyone all the same questions, then don't bother with a debate (especially separate debates for each party). Just hand them all a questionairre. __________________ "Laugh at yourself... everybody else does!" Jun 16, '07, 2:32 pm Dwyer Regular Member   Join Date: February 26, 2007 Posts: 1,359 Religion: Byzantine Catholic Re: Unfair question on CNN Republican Debate Chicago, I also think your comment that some public schools are teaching "creationism" is a mislabelling of what the so called "Intelligent Design" movement in education is trying to accomplish. There was a federal district court case recently about this in Dover, Pennsylvannia. I think the proponents of the Intelligent Design movement were just trying to get some sort of short statement (I think it was no more than 3-4 sentences or 2-3 paragraphs) in the science curriculum that there are some scientists that have put forth a theory (what was it?) that because aspects of life on earth are so complex, they may have been created by an Intelligent Designer, and these aspects did not evolve over time. The Intelligent Designer (I.D.) is not identified as being God or any Deity. It could have been an alien. Creationism was a movement in the 1980's that wanted to teach the story of Genesis as an alternative scientific theory as to how the world was created and how life was created. The two movements are not identical, but the mainstream media had their field day and on National Public Radio (the show "Talk of the Nation") compared the Intelligent Design federal court case with the so-called 1925 Scopes Monkey trial, and said the two movements were the same and wanted to ban the teaching of evolution. Wrong! More misinformation from the mainstream media. Again, the I.D. movement just wanted a small statement to be included in the science curriculum; it wasn't excluding evolution from the science class or throwing evolutionary theory out of the biology class. There may be one state, Kansas, that may teach what you labelled as Creationism; and then, I think it is only in a few school districts. Anyone from Kansas?? Anyways, I think the MSNBCers or whoever asked this question was just trying to make the Republican candidates look silly. This question still captures the public imagination. It's really more of a problem for evangelical Protestants than Catholics whether or not they accept evolution; although Pope Benidict XVI has said in public some interesting statements about evolution. The questioner knows if they answer Yes, it turns off the religious base of the Republican party; if they say No, then it turns off the Libertarians, Liberal Republicans, and Republican Philosophic Pragmatists in the party; and if you try to explain theistic evolution, no one in public school science classes or the media ever talks about that, so most of the general public has never heard of that position, and you only have two minutes to explain it which is hard to do. O.K., and I don't want to get in a battle royal over I.D. That's what the movement is. I don't really want to sit here and type more about it. P.S. I find it sort of odd that God, which was considered a Great Idea by the late Mortimer Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins in their Great Books of the Western World (published by Encyclopedia Britannica) isn't discussed at all in an "educational system." But that is a separate issue because an Intelligent Designer does not necessarily = God.        un 21, '07, 9:16 pm chicago Regular Member   Join Date: May 17, 2004 Posts: 5,861 Religion: Catholic Re: Unfair question on CNN Republican Debate Found this article intriguing in light of this disccusion: http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/20...tml&frame=true Quote: It was a rough afternoon for Charles Darwin's famed Theory of Evolution as leading Intelligent Design experts from around the country descended on the Kansas State Fairgrounds for a scientific forum and tractor pull. From the start, the deck was clearly stacked in favor of Intelligent Design proponents as evidenced by the abundance of t-shirt bearing various slogans including, "God Made Me, Not Darwin" and "Evolution is Evil-ution". __________________ "Laugh at yourself... everybody else does!"

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