Why Sarah Palin clinched my vote.
At the election party hosted by a friend of mine, after I had made
my claim that Obama and McCain aren't very different in their
policies and that either would make a fine president, another guest
asked me why I voted for Obama. My response was: "Because she's a
creationist."[
***] A discussion ensued and I
explained that although I have little problem with intelligent
design as a metaphysics (not a science), creationism has been
proven wrong. I didn't take the time to explain that, in science,
falsification (proven wrong) is methodologically possible but
"proven right" is impossible. I attribute my lack of rhetorical
agility to the several pints of beer I'd had by that time.
In any case, the discussion proved to me that I was a bit guilty of
the same ignorant premature conclusions committed by those who
claim Obama is a Marxist. So, I had to do a little due diligence to
see how premature my conclusions were.
Palin does seem to be a creationist. From
FactCheck.org:
On Aug. 29, the Boston Globe reported that Palin was
open to teaching creationism in public schools. That's true. She
supports teaching creationism alongside evolution, though she has
not actively pursued such a policy as governor.
And that's pretty bad. But there's no evidence that she's actually
a young earth creationist, which is what I thought in the early
hours of November 4th. She may be. Yet she may not be.
Now, when looking at
Scott's Creation/Evolution Continuum, I realize that in order
to give creationists the respect they deserve, I have to identify
the points on that continuum that are significant to me.
In general, I have 5 categories for people I talk to:
- tolerate,
- appreciate but can't sympathize,
- peer,
- appreciate but can't grok,
- over my head.
I think I place my 5 categories on the evolution/creation continuum
as follows:
- progressive creationism - I can tolerate people who advocate
this; but I have grave doubts about their ability to think and
their motivations - e.g. planning for the rapture.
- evolutionary creationism - I can have pretty in-depth
conversations with people who advocate this; but I expect most
spiritual or metaphysical conversations will end up in a
fundamental disagreement.
- theistic and agnostic evolutionism - I fit right in with these
people. However, I'll probably find myself playing the Devil's
advocate for materialist evolutionism.
- materialist evolutionism - I can appreciate this position; but,
ultimately, I will always have a sense of mystery, limits, horizon
points, and the unknown. So, I'm either not smart enough to grok
this position or too addicted to fantasy to give up my
delusions.
In that context, if Ms. Palin turned out to be an evolutionary
creationist, then it's possible I would not have regretted voting
for McCain. But, it's not a risk I was willing to take. If I helped
put a young earth creationist into the office of the President, I
would regret it for the rest of my life. Luckily, I don't have to
worry about that for awhile, now.
***I'm not actually a single issue
voter; but this particular issue is canonical for several issues:
McCain's impaired judgment for picking such a person as his running
mate, denigration and ignorance of science in policy, McCain's age,
the conflation of religion and governance, etc.
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