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.