Sarah Palin critical of the Pope for not being enough of an extremist nutjob

[masonryan]

It's about time we took religion out of politics

OH really, so where would people get their morals from to serve as a foundation for Law?

[Dominic Connor]

How does believing life 'just happened' and that you're descended from pondscum not make you a moron?

It in no way proves she is a moron, indeed it would be stupid of her to say that she did believe in evolution.

Mrs. Palin is a professional politician in America, a country where evolution is a minority belief and amongst activists in her party a belief that is rather unpopular.

The system of primaries in the USA give very much more power to activists who get to vote on candidates than in the UK, meaning that in both parties there has been considerable polarisation.

For a Republican candidate to say she believes in evolution is terminal for their career, it is as if Mr. Cameron were to start referring to the Falklands as the Malvinas or to support legalisation of drugs. You may or may not think those are good ideas, but he'd be out of office if he did.

Mrs. Palin is a product of the US education system where evolution is often not taught and she certainly has not studied biology to any great depth, so all we know is that on a topic she has not taken much interest in, she states a view at variance with observed evidence.

That does not equal stupid.

Ignorant perhaps, but she'd sneer at your failure to understand the political realities above and her understanding of such things s of course greater than mine as well.

There is of course the possibility that she is lying about her beliefs, certainly she would not be the first politician to do so.

Personally I think she shares a world view with Britney Spears. Ms Spears does not want to get naked with me or even dance all night in Rome with a cowboy, these are lyrics to songs, she says them well enough to make a living, but they are just words.

[masonryan]

I probably do, and let me introduce you to a nice chap from Wales who certainly does; View Profile: Pondlife - Contractor UK Bulletin Board

So you descend from pondscum? Prove it.

[DirtyDog]

These are not the real reasons Palin gets all the public abuse that she does.

I never said they were - you said

Remove all the insults against Mrs Palin and we're left with no serious criticisms of her office.

Looking at her record, I think that there were serious criticisms of her office.

[DirtyDog]

Remove all the insults against Mrs Palin and we're left with no serious criticisms of her office.

She used to be a recruitment agent. Bet that changes your opinion of her now, eh!

[masonryan]

It in no way proves she is a moron, indeed it would be stupid of her to say that she did believe in evolution.

She is accused of being stupid because she doesn't buy evolution. The people who make such accusations strangely think they are being intelligent in making such crass generalisations.

Funny how they supposedly hate religion due to its unchanging pillars, yet won't have a word said against their evolution theories.

[Mich the Tester]

She is accused of being stupid because she doesn't buy evolution. The people who make such accusations strangely think they are being intelligent in making such crass generalisations.

Funny how they supposedly hate religion due to its unchanging pillars, yet won't have a word said against their evolution theories.

Now you've demonstrated real stupidity. Firstly, I don't 'hate religion', but that's besides the point. What I object to is 'unchanging pillars'; unchaging pillars are evidence of stupidity. Science changes all the time; the understanding of nature developed through many centuries of experimentation and empiricism changes because new insights are gained all the time. It's stupid to think that what we consider to be true now will certainly be considered true in two thousand years' time, just as it would be stupid to assume that what people took to be true two thousand years ago can necessarily be seen as truth now. In other words, knowledge is gained, wrong turnings are made and then hopefully reversed by scientific process, and humans muddle on trying to gain more understanding. Evolution may be entirely wrong, although I think that's unlikely, and creation may be right, or some other idea may be right, but the processes of experimentation and observation are, I think, more likely to bring us to the truth than simply believing scriptures from the past. I think you'll also find that many religious people, from all the major faiths, would support that position, simply because most religious people are not idiots.

[doodab]

It's not obvious that we descend from pondscum (but maybe you do) nor that life 'just happened'.

When you think about it, it's obvious that if you take all the possible random arrangements of subatomic particles only the ones that are feasible & stable will stick around, which gives us atoms, and if you take all the possible random arrangements of atoms the ones that are feasible & stable in a particular environment will stick around and that gives us naturally occurring molecules, which it seems on the early earth happens to include the building blocks of life such as nucleic acids, fatty acids, amino acids etc.

It's also obvious that if some arrangements of those atoms and molecules are more feasible & stable than others, and some spontaneously arrange themselves into emergent complex structures such as phospholipids spontaneously arranging themselves into a membrane, or RNA spontaneously polymerising when catalysed by clay, and others will spontaneously reproduce themselves, then life not only "just happened" but it's an absolutely unavoidable consequence of the way the universe works.

We evolved from the condensation of energy into matter that followed the big bang. Pondscum was just a stepping stone.

[Mich the Tester]

When you think about it, it's obvious that if you take all the possible random arrangements of subatomic particles only the ones that are feasible & stable will stick around, which gives us atoms, and if you take all the possible random arrangements of atoms the ones that are feasible & stable in a particular environment will stick around and that gives us naturally occurring molecules, which it seems on the early earth happens to include the building blocks of life such as nucleic acids, fatty acids, amino acids etc.

It's also obvious that if some arrangements of those atoms and molecules are more feasible & stable than others, and some spontaneously arrange themselves into emergent complex structures such as phospholipids spontaneously arranging themselves into a membrane, or RNA spontaneously polymerising when catalysed by clay, and others will spontaneously reproduce themselves, then life not only "just happened" but it's an absolutely unavoidable consequence of the way the universe works.

We evolved from the condensation of energy into matter that followed the big bang. Pondscum was just a stepping stone.

..

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to doodab again.

[russell]

It in no way proves she is a moron, indeed it would be stupid of her to say that she did believe in evolution.

Mrs. Palin is a professional politician in America, a country where evolution is a minority belief and amongst activists in her party a belief that is rather unpopular.

The system of primaries in the USA give very much more power to activists who get to vote on candidates than in the UK, meaning that in both parties there has been considerable polarisation.

For a Republican candidate to say she believes in evolution is terminal for their career, it is as if Mr. Cameron were to start referring to the Falklands as the Malvinas or to support legalisation of drugs. You may or may not think those are good ideas, but he'd be out of office if he did.

Mrs. Palin is a product of the US education system where evolution is often not taught and she certainly has not studied biology to any great depth, so all we know is that on a topic she has not taken much interest in, she states a view at variance with observed evidence.

That does not equal stupid.

Ignorant perhaps, but she'd sneer at your failure to understand the political realities above and her understanding of such things s of course greater than mine as well.

There is of course the possibility that she is lying about her beliefs, certainly she would not be the first politician to do so.

Personally I think she shares a world view with Britney Spears. Ms Spears does not want to get naked with me or even dance all night in Rome with a cowboy, these are lyrics to songs, she says them well enough to make a living, but they are just words.

This must be the most idiotic post I have ever read. We should frame this one, are you related to moronryan?