Percentage of Republicans who believe in evolution is shrinking

[RainDog]

20. They deny funding for basic research, too

Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga.: ”All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell,”

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/08/least_scientific_members_of_the_house_science_committee/

Broun’s not the only Republican on the committee who has a tenuous-at-best relationship with science:

Then there’s Todd Akin. In the course of his campaign for Missouri Senate, Akin made the following comments about rape: “First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin said. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Maryland Rep. Roscoe Bartlett had a similar take on pregnancies resulting from rape: “There are very few pregnancies as a result of rape, fortunately, and incest — compared to the usual abortion, what is the percentage of abortions for rape? It is tiny. It is a tiny, tiny percentage.”

Texas Rep. Randy Neugebauer is best known for yelling out, “It’s a baby killer!” during the House debate on Obama’s healthcare reform bill. But did you know he also drafted a resolution for Americans to ”join together in prayer to humbly seek fair weather conditions” after a series of destructive tornadoes and droughts?

In 2007, Congress held a hearing on a report that found global warming to be “unequivocal.” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, who has no truck with man-made global warming, was skeptical about testimony regarding a period 55 million years ago when similar dramatic climate change occurred: “We don’t know what those other cycles were caused by in the past. Could be dinosaur flatulence, you know, or who knows?”

Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin is a renowned climate change skeptic who has alternately decried ”scientific fascism” and described research on climate change as an “international conspiracy.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/meet-the-house-gop-s-anti-science-committee

Meet the House GOP anti-science committee

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) told an audience this week that former colleague Todd Akin was "partially right" when he claimed women resist pregnancy from "legitimate rape." Gingrey has something else in common with Akin -- both used to serve on the House Committee on Science.

The outgoing committee chair, Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), has suggested that climate change is the product of a mass global conspiracy of scientists -- the overwhelming majority of whom have concluded that burning fossil fuels cause warming -- to obtain grant money. In 2011, he told National Journal he didn't believe climate change was man-made because "I don't think we can control what God controls."


...incoming chair Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who chastised the "lap dog" media in 2009 for not questioning the scientific consensus on climate change enough.

Lamar Smith, btw, was formerly head of the judiciary committee. He vowed not to allow a cannabis rescheduling bill out of his office - and he did exactly that. Now he's working to dumb down the federal govt's response to science issues.