The Right's Favorite Historian: Founding Fathers Opposed Darwin

[eqfan592]

On Wednesday, Right Wing Watch flagged a recent interview Barton gave with an evangelcial talk show, in which he argues that the Founding Fathers had explicitly rejected Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.* Yes, that Darwin. The one whose seminal work, On the Origin of Species, wasn't even published until 1859. Barton declared, "As far as the Founding Fathers were concerned, they'd already had the entire debate over creation and evolution, and you get Thomas Paine, who is the least religious Founding Father, saying you've got to teach Creation science in the classroom.

You can read the whole article here: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/06/gops-favorite-historian-founding-fathers-opposed-evolution

I think this sort of revisionist history is one of the most dangerous trends in American politics right now. Religious doctrine of any sort has no place in the science classroom. End of story.

[liberal N proud]

1. Where do they concoct this crap?

Opposing someone who didn't even exist yet. :rofl:

[Orrex]

2. Ben Franklin also famously railed against the evils of using a cell phone while driving

[abelenkpe]

9. lol! awesome. nt

[TlalocW]

16. Ben Franklin would have been too busy

Sending daguerreotypes of his codpiece via Ye Olde Twitter to his French mistresses.

TlalocW

[Orrex]

24. Nice!

:rofl:

[mike_c]

3. George Washington was a known luddite who refused to EVER use computers...

...and James Madison had panic attacks on airplanes.

:rofl:

[plumbob]

7. Jefferson would never use the subway, and Adams never cooperated with the TSA!

Hey, this is easy!

:toast:

[mike_c]

11. Patrick Henry actually said "Give me Liberty Mutual Life Insurance, or give me...

...Death without expensive burial costs!", but his typist was shoddy and left out some of the transcription.

"After this brief message from our sponsors we'll get right back to CSPAN coverage of the Constitutional Convention!"

[eqfan592]

8. You guys all owe me a new computer screen!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:toast:

[struggle4progress]

13. Actually, Washington used Windows at Mt Vernon but he had an early dislike for Apple products

http://www.oldtownalexandria.net.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/mtver1-300x174.jpg

http://www.artexpertswebsite.com.nyud.net:8090/pages/artists/artists_l-z/wood/Wood_ParsonWeemsFable1939.jpg

[Taverner]

4. ...and George Washington...he rode a Dinosaur!!!

I don't what's worse

That they deify the Founding Fathers?

That they have carefully revised their Biographers to change them from wealthy merchants who were at best, Deist into Fundamentalist Christians

That they would take the opinion of a man born at a time when there was no penicillin, we had no idea what radioactivity was and didn't have running water (and consider that this technology was a 'lost' technology, removed by religion) over Scientists and mountains of data

But I think what is worse is that they will stop at nothing to have their sick little fantasy death cult imposed upon us all

[plumbob]

5. Paine, the "least religious Founding Father".

Hmmm.

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon that the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.
-- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1794)

Yeah, you might say that.

[LeftinOH]

6. The Founding Fathers were also ardent environmentalists: They had a minimal carbon footprint. n/t

[A Simple Game]

15. They were 100 percent into renewable energy. Ben Franklin

told me so the last time he dropped in for coffee.

[Deep13]

10. The Founding Fathers also opposed Face Book, color television. nt

[Enrique]

14. Jesus was against net neutrality

look it up.

[JDPriestly]

12. Jefferson was interested in very rudimentary genetics, trying to figure

out the race of people of mixed racial backgrounds. Jefferson imported fruit trees from other places and experimented with growing things in the US that had not been grown here.

What utter nonsense. They all spoke of the creator because several of them were deists. They were philosophes in the 18th century tradition.

How can a person so ignorant about history and literature as this man pretend to have expertise. Has he ever read the literature of the 18th century? Voltaire for starts. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance.

[Thor_MN]

29. There will always be people that fancy themselves as experts at topics,

giving themselves validation. The most vocal of them tend to be the least informed, often doing research to confirm their preconceived notions, rather than research to find knowledge. There is often some type of conspiracy invoked to explain away evidence that doesn't conform to their leanings. The best informed tend not to be very vocal, as they are aware that they don't know everything.

A dead giveaway is one that tells people that they "are known for" whatever. If you have to boast of your "skill", odds are you aren't that skilled, just surrounded by people too polite to tell you what an idiot you are.

[Zenlitened]

17. Agreed:

I think this sort of revisionist history is one of the most dangerous trends in American politics right now.

K&R

[asjr]

18. This is what is so frightful. The people who say

things like this have a wider audience than we might think. Look at Palin and the nut from MN who obviously never studied history and geography. I don't know if history and geography are even being taught in grammar schools or high schools. And the Democrats are not speaking out about that as they should be. Sometimes I think the Democrats are just sliding along thinking they will win in the end. But to win anything except a lottery one must fight! The Republicans can shout louder than Democrats and they do it constantly.

[gtar100]

19. How many of the listeners just took his word as gospel?

Something that can be debunked so easily and I still worry about perfectly friendly people eating this stuff up and poisoning another generation with nonsense.

[The Second Stone]

20. Ben Franklin knew Erasmus Darwin

an ancestor or uncle, I forget which, of Charles

[yellowcanine]

21. They also tried to outlaw night baseball but Franklin prevailed saying it would be a good use

of his newly discovered phenomenon known as electricity.

[yellowcanine]

22. Newt Gingrich says he learns something new every time he listens to Barton.

:rofl:

It is easy to teach someone something new if
a) The student doesn't know much.
and
b) The teacher just makes up shit.

[Leontius]

23. This man is dangerous

[deutsey]

25. George Washington toked weed

He grew fields of that stuff, man, that's what I'm talkin' about. Fields.

He grew that shit up Mount Vernon, man.

He grew it all over the country, man. He had people growin' it all over the country, you know. The whole country back then was gettin' high. Lemme tell you, man, 'cause he knew he was onto somethin', man. He knew that it would be a good cash crop for the southern states, man, so he grew fields of it, man. But you know what? Behind every good man there is a woman, and that woman was Martha Washington, man, and everyday George would come home, she would have a big fat bowl waiting for him, man, when he come in the door, man, she was a hip, hip, hip lady, man.

[mysuzuki2]

28. Dave's not here, man.

[The Doctor.]

26. I'm amazed at how stupid these people are.

I swear, this is so surreal. I remember when anyone who just made shit like this up was laughed off the public stage. Now they are worshiped.

Let there be no doubt about the deliberate ignoramifying of America.

[mysuzuki2]

27. No, No. You misunderstood him!

he meant Erasmus Darwin, not Charles Darwin. Erasmus was Charlie's grandfather. He wrote a description of biological evolution called Zoonomia, based on the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Now the FF's were smart and they knew that the that characteristics acquired by an organism during it's lifetime could not be inherited. They therefore rejected Erasmus' argument as to evolutionary mechanisms. Unfortunately, then they all died before Charles idea of evolution through natural selection was proposed.