They’re not!?!?!
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“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle. One thing that helps toward it is to keep a diary, or, at any rate, to keep some kind of record of one’s opinions about important events. Otherwise, when some particularly absurd belief is exploded by events, one may simply forget that one ever held it.”
George Orwell: ‘In Front of Your Nose’
First published: Tribune. — GB, London. — March 22, 1946.
Reprinted:— ‘The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell’. — 1968.
Machine-readable version: O. Dag
Last modified on: 2015-09-24
This story assumes that Cruz is being honest about what he knows. Always a bad bet with Cruz. What he knows and what he admits to knowing are two very different things.
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On behalf of 6 year olds everywhere, I’m offended.
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Those guys running for president tend to be highly educated per their resume, and Cruz is certainly an elite rank… you’d imagine, his LSAT score was most certainly super-duper. But the effect of education apparently is not homogeneous, and even college-level education does not seem to help Republicans much to understand sciences, namely climate change (see the bar chart around the middle). This is a survey, not about Cruz only. Compared with how effective education is for Democrats, it’s quite stunning.
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Perhaps some sort of coloring book to explain things to him?
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R.I.P. conservatives.
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Dr. in name only.
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A mean little kindergartner the teacher can’t stand…
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If Rafael Cruz is thinking about about the level of a kindergarten student, he’s in perfect position to communicate with his supporters. No point in talking over their heads, you know.
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First, I’m sure Cruz will wear that 6 as a badge of honor. Second, cue the wingnut wurlitzer to throw all the crap at Michael Mann that they did years ago.
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I know personally of a case in a biological science where the candidate was asked at the dissertation defense about the synthetic theory of evolution. The candidate denied the theory, and claimed to be a creationist. The position was defended using the standard “missing transitional forms” and some biochemical issues that hadn’t been solved at the time. (I’m not sure if the creationism was of the young earth variety or not.)
It was a topic of discussion after the candidate was excused. The candidate passed with a single dissenting vote in both cases. Passing the candidate was justified by pointing out the candidate’s abilities in the laboratory and knowledge of the specific sub-field.
So, the answer to your question is, “Yes. Biblical literalists can not only get admission, they can complete doctorates in biological sciences at public universities.” The student would have to choose the program carefully, but it can be done.
There is a rumour that one of Stephen Jay Gould’s last students at Harvard is a Creationist. I think I read about that in Hannah Rosin’s God’s Harvard, a study of Patrick Henry College in Virginia.
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There was an interesting - no, really scary - article about Cruz yesterday on Yahoo! News, where they talked about the fact that Cruz tends to rephrase an issue or a question to fit an argument he has already developed a response in advance for in debates on issues and policy (it mentions that he even attempted to control questions in the debate so that he would look better and embarrass an opponent recently). He is not about truth, but about what will best serve his agenda for himself. Add to this his firm belief that he is anointed by God to lead the government, and you have a very scary monster walking around. The article on Yahoo! also talked about how he has the best campaign network in place, how he is focusing on Southern states that vote on March 1, how he is out fundraising his opponents who are getting all the media attention, and how his father is ginning up the Evangelicals to fall in line with Ted.
The article’s analysis is fairly good with a lot of background on him and his rise to power - something he wants more than anything - and says that when the dust settles, this man may well be the GOP candidate in 2016 and could very easily win. It is the kind of article that if you have a half a Tea Party/GOP brain makes you drool, but if you have a decent mind, you go out and vote for a Democrat to keep this man out of the White House, because once he is in, this political monster has no intention of leaving. And then climate change and his knowledge, or lack thereof, will be the least of our problems.
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As an engineer I don’t have a problem with a mechanic who believes gremlins, fairies, and imps cause problems. As long as they fix the problem correctly. If he says any variant on; “so the fix is to drop this here cross in the gearbox, say the Lord’s Prayer, and fire that sucker up!”, then I have a problem… I’m probably also running as fast as I can away from the plane.
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I’d like to see a Geology candidate defend his assertion the Himalayas formed, from start to finish after the Earth cooled, in less than 6000 years. Or that every continent is the same place it’s always been, because what we see now is exactly as God created it in the beginning.
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Well, duh!
Texas + Republican = Scientifically Challenged.
Everybody knows that.
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Holy hell, Cruz actually looks better than usual there.
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I agree. Cruz knows better, but he’s throwing red meat to his base.
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