Hershel Walker, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Georgia, asked this question recently.
Yep. He really did.
He's not the only one to have asked it either. As a country, the U.S. has failed its citizens when prominent people running for a prestigious government office still ask this.
From one of my favorite authors, Frans de Waal:
Senate candidate Herschel Walker suggests evolution isn't real:
"Science said man came from apes ... If that is true, why are there still apes?"
This is an oft-heard argument that reflects a major misunderstanding of evolution. You may also ask why I still have cousins even though I descend from my grandparents? Or, we all know that dogs came from wolves, so why are there still wolves?
There are many ways of pointing out the silliness of this question, a staple of creationists, but the main point is that we share with the present apes a common ancestor who lived 6-8 million years ago. We descend from this ancestral ape as did our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos. These apes evolved since then, too. And like us, they still exist because they did well. Not as well as us, but well enough to still be around. Let's hope we can keep it that way.
Well, I'm not sure we can "keep it that way." This is the 21st century; and in the most technologically advanced country in the world, a candidate for the U.S. Senate shows the world he has no concept of the scientific fact of Evolution. This amazes me.
But it doesn't matter what Hershel Walker believes, because Evolution is real and is a scientific fact. Anyone mouthing off nonsense like Walker did does not belong anywhere near a position in government that could affect people's lives.
Walker has shown us that he's an ignorant person, unwilling to educate and enlighten himself on basic accepted facts. The Republicans who encouraged him to run for office don't care, as long as he knows the talking points that appeal to Trumpublicans, he's good with them.
7 comments:
This is the same group of morons who protested against allowing Homo Sapiens to teach their children. It's a very shallow gene pool with even fewer teeth.
Sorry to say this but, this issue goes well beyond just tRumpublican. They are just the mouthpieces behind the ignorance.
And in a nutshell, we get the answer as to why Congress has ceased to function.
We've outsourced the function of law and politics to people of all stripes who don't have an animating political philosophy, a set of foundational principles or any ethical ethos beyond "I'm not them" or "Elect me and I'll own them."
In other words Dave self interest, greed, and ignorance is their driving motivations. Simply put these folks answer to their demons.
Two phrases spring to mind that explain, "Why are there still apes?"
"I love the poorly educated." You-Know-Who, Trumpistan
"Ignorance is strength." Big Brother, Oceania
American as apple pie.
I will never forget a 2006 Frontline series called "Country Boys". If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it and you can watch it online. It followed two teenage boys in eastern Kentucky. It has scenes from an alternative high school they both attend. One scene had their science teacher talking about how some people would like you to believe that we came from apes! She went on and on about how crazy that was.
Then, if you remember the 2016 GOP debates when they had a whole slew of candidates onstage and someone asked who of them believed in the theory of evolution. Hardly any raised their hands. Is it any wonder why we are in the shape we are in...
possumlady
Of course most of those GOP candidates in 2016 knew the theory of Evolution is accepted science. They just needed to pander to their less enlightened base, and so they had to pretend their ignorance in hopes of winning the nomination.
Anyone who has a drop of science education knows that we share a ancient ancestor with the great apes, but even that is too difficult for the unenlightened to understand, so Evolution to them gets reduced to a sound bite: We came from apes!
"Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."
We'll always have willfully ignorant people among us who'll pander to the lowest denomination among us.
There's even a guy running for the Senate in Georgia who struts his ignorance in front of the public as a badge of honor to gain votes.
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