Ok, so I said I'd be back tomorrow. But I can't get any rest, so I'll post some stuff.

Via Pam, I see there's a Gallup poll out that says 68% of Republicans don't "believe in evolution." That's not surprising, of course, since the modern GOP requires its members to be insulated from facts and reality in order to maintain their support. What is a little more surprising and quite a bit more disappointing is how many Independents and Democrats also don't "believe in evolution."

Do these people believe in gravity? Do they believe in air? Look, go to a museum and look at a suit of armor. Try to reconcile the 4'6" suit with your storybook image of tall, imposing knights. What happened? How about this: as diets changed and tall persons were favored in society, the average height of humans rose. That's called evolution, folks, even if it didn't take millions of years.

I fully accept the idea that there might some day be a theory that better explains how this world's organisms got the way they are. Even Einstein's theories about gravity have been challenged by new data, even as his ideas challenged Newtonian physics. The important thing, though, is that the possibility of a different, better understanding someday replacing current understandings of evolution is no reason to give equal weight to whatever nonsense some preacher in a cheap suit wants to sell you.

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