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Rick Perry wrests control of the Tea Party, proudly displaying the union badge of willful ignorance

The Heart v. Darwin

The recent run in between Bill Nye (the science guy) and FOX news host Charles Payne on the subject of climate change was a classic playing out of the battle between those who prefer to think versus those who prefer to believe. Payne was hoping Nye would prove once and for all, in five minutes or less, that global warming is both real and that it is man made. Having absolutely no proof to posit anything to the opposite, Payne grew exasperated at minute number two, drew his broadsword, and accused Nye of “confusing viewers” (but, one suspects, mainly Payne).

Using the brain hurts . It’s much easier for some just to use the heart. Just ask Glenn Beck, Christine O’Donnell, and Sarah Palin. The Tea Party’s got a lot of heart, but, one might suspect, little else.

Perry has moved quickly, toppling Bachmann from her throne as queen of the party. Tea Partiers apparently prefer rugged, macho anti-intellectuals (who are men) over plainly crazy zealots (who are women).  Perry recently announced that evolution is “just a theory,” and one that has “got gaps in it.” I will leave it to the learned Dr. Perry to offer up his treatises about the gaps in Darwin’s “theory,” but I won’t hold my breath while waiting for them. Perhaps he’s referring to the famed Missing Link gap, the mystery man absent in Darwin’s chain of human physiological development. If so, then one good studious look in his mirror might just eliminate at least that gap for him.

That a theory needs to be studied and tested against observable scientific data over a period of time is too trying for some to wade through or wait for—much less, believe in. It’s much easier and faster to just jump at God.

It’s not that Republicans or Tea Partiers generally love God and hate scientific study, although it may be as uncomplicated as that. Their wariness about scientists who actually take the time using their brains to plot man’s evolutionary progress or the evolving weather patterns may stem from a simple C and D student complex manifested first in grade school with their unsuccessful attempts to memorize, much less grasp, the periodic table. Could it be that an early sense of existential failure, harbored over time, led them to a general sense of suspicion and envy about those who not only passed science courses, but loved them?  It may be more complex than that, but in general, Tea Party members don’t strike as particularly complex.

And as scientific advancement is itself evolutionary, maybe it drives some who are in somewhat of hurry for easier answers to dunk their heads in a heart-long rush to God. Why waste time trying to understand a science that requires ever more sophisticated and unending study when God never changes and He is right here right now?

Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman, and Sarah Palin each wear their love of God and their disdain of science prominently on the sleeves of their political vestments, which works for a large portion of the American electorate. In such a climate, one would be hard pressed to mount a successful political campaign by proclaiming an everlasting love and belief in the Higgs boson.

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