Science Fact Check: Rand

SciCheck is a service of Fact.Check.org. Much respect!

Where do the GOP presidential nominees stand on evolution?

Jeb Bush: It should not be taught in schools. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee: Doesn’t buy it.
Ted Cruz: Won’t talk about it.
Chris Christie: “None of your business.”
Scott Walker: “I’m going to punt on that one . . . I love the evolution of trade in Wisconsin.”

Regarding that last one, Walker said that in London where his interviewer, Justin Webb of the BBC, said: “Any British politician, right or left wing, would laugh and say, ‘Yes, of course evolution is true.’”

Sister Ilia Delio (Georgetown) explains why the American religious right and the politicians who pander to them are so uniquely idiotic: “A lot of people just don’t know science. They don’t even know basic science. They don’t read anything from science, not even popular science magazines . . . it’s a half-brained understanding of things.”

Well, now about THAT

From Psychology Today:

And here's the meta-analysis in question.

Why Are Religious People (Generally) Less Intelligent?

Understanding the negative relationship between IQ and religiosity

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins reads his "fan" mail

Roll Call of the Idiots

Below is a full list of the science-denying senators who voted that “Human activities don’t contribute to climate change.” See if you can notice what they have in common! (Hint: They're all Republicans.)

Barrasso, John (R – WY)

Blunt, Roy (R – MO)

Boozman, John (R – AR)

Burr, Richard (R – NC)

Capito, Shelley Moore (R – WV)

Cassidy, Bill (R – LA)

Coats, Daniel (R – IN)

Cochran, Thad (R – MS)

Corker, Bob (R – TN)

Cornyn, John (R – TX)

Cotton, Tom (R – AR)

Crapo, Mike (R – ID)

Cruz, Ted (R – TX)

Daines, Steve (R – MT)

Enzi, Michael B. (R – WY)

Ernst, Joni (R – IA)

Fischer, Deb (R – NE)

Flake, Jeff (R – AZ)

Gardner, Cory (R – CO)

Grassley, Chuck (R – IA)

Hatch, Orrin G. (R – UT)

Heller, Dean (R – NV)

Hoeven, John (R – ND)

Inhofe, James M. (R – OK)

Isakson, Johnny (R – GA)

Johnson, Ron (R – WI)

Lankford, James (R – OK)

Lee, Mike (R – UT)

McCain, John (R – AZ)

McConnell, Mitch (R – KY)

Moran, Jerry (R – KS)

Murkowski, Lisa (R – AK)

Paul, Rand (R – KY)

Perdue, David (R – GA)

Portman, Rob (R – OH)

Risch, James E. (R – ID)

Roberts, Pat (R – KS)

Rounds, Mike (R – SD)

Rubio, Marco (R – FL)

Sasse, Ben (R – NE)

Scott, Tim (R – SC)

Sessions, Jeff (R – AL)

Shelby, Richard C. (R – AL)

Sullivan, Daniel (R – AK)

Thune, John (R – SD)

Tillis, Thom (R – NC)

Toomey, Patrick J. (R – PA)

Vitter, David (R – LA)

Wicker, Roger F. (R – MS)

House Republicans yell "Cut!" for Obama's SOTU

From ThinkProgress:

The official website for House Republicans has posted on YouTube a doctored version of President Obama’s State of the Union address which cuts out comments where the President was critical of Republican rhetoric on climate change... 

In the website’s “enhanced webcast” of the State of the Union speech, President Obama’s comments criticizing Republicans for saying they are “not scientists” when it comes to climate change are erased. 

At the 43:25 minute mark, President Obama is supposed to say “I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what — I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and NOAA, and at our major universities. The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe.” 

Instead, the entire section is skipped. Obama’s comments resume with “The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it.”

Ruben Bolling has this "climate change" myth figured out

Via Boing Boing.

Why yes, I DO want to see a list of scientists who became creationists after studying the evidence!

Call me wonky, but I like to read scientific studies.

Here's one about links between the Tea Party and anal eroticism. Fascinating!

From the US National Library of MedicineNational Institutes of Health, W.W. Tilden wrote "The psychohistorical roots of the American 'Tea Party' Movement." And what an abstract!

“Extreme resistance to governmental taxation and authority is derived, according to Freud’s theory of anal characterology, from premature and harshly coercive toilet training, in which a child is forced unfairly and against its will to surrender the products of his eliminations (which represent money, among other things, in the unconscious) to parental authority. Among these individuals anal eroticism plays a significant role in the psychogenesis of paranoia and conspiracy theorizing, which may represent a defense mechanism erected against repressed fears of passive submission.”

Republicans are prone to being enraged—it's science!

I felt a little guilty about that previous blog post, so I went searching for some recent research that would show liberals and conservatives are more alike than we'd think.

What I came across was research by Lafayette College professor Elizabeth Suhay. Her work suggests that liberal blog comments do more to enrage and conservatives than conservative comments do to enrage liberals.

Conservatives. Ha! What a bunch of short-fuse lugnuts, hating on the environment and worshipping their bank accounts.

*cue outrage*

A shout-out to all the climate change deniers!

Chew on this. Oh, and also? Please reduce foul emissions by keeping your pie-hole shut.

Science explains so much.

Via.

Thinking about science? You're a better person for it!

Funny. I always thought that science could be perceived as a moral pursuit. Or to put it another way, what's so funny about truth, impartiality and logic? And now here comes a study via Scientific American to bolster that belief:

The researchers found consistent results. Simply being primed with science-related thoughts increased: 

a) adherence to moral norms 

b) real-life future altruistic intentions 

c) altruistic behavior towards an anonymous other. 

The conceptual association between science and morality appears strong.