Dorling Kindersley, via Getty Images |
One in three Americans does not believe in evolution! That is what the Pew Research Center reports.
The article should have said that one in three Americans is invincibly ignorant. Ignorant! It is like saying you do not believe that the sun is hot, or that water is wet. It is like saying, right out loud in front of people who can hear you, that earthquakes do not exist, or that it is not cold in Antarctica or hot in the Sahara.
Of course the denial of evolution rests on religious grounds. Actually, it does not rest on religious grounds: it rests on the back of the great turtle that holds up the earth so that it does not sink into the sea. It is Turtle Talk. The earth is flat.
The next time you hear someone say that the earth was created by an Old Man about 6,000 years ago, remind yourself that the earth is about 800 million times older than that, and that the Big Bang which, so far as we can understand it, is three times older than the earth.
No, don't bother! Just say, "Bless you, brother! Don't rile the turtle! And don't sail over the edge!"
Why am I thinking about the woman whose husband kept all of his money in cash under the mattress, and who made his wife promise to put it into the casket with him when he died, because he might need it in heaven? She promised. Well, actually, she put the money back into the bank, and put a check into the casket.
Thank-you for the "Don't rile the turtle! And don't sail over the edge!" response. It will hep keep me calm the next time a run across one of those who are indeed invincibly ignorant.
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