Pat’s at it again

Pat Robertson’s at it again! In this super-funny post on whyevolutionistrue which linked to a talk show with Pat Robertson, that famous televangelist and now a chancellor of his own university, he answers a question on “Why are there miracles for Africans but not Americans?” hinting at possible links to Ivy League education and teaching of Evolution.

I immediately recalled Bill Maher’s reference to Pat Robertson’s “Diploma mill” which apparently produced  all those brilliant people in the Bush administration. Interestingly, Bill asked in that rant (sarcastically of course):

…whenever there’s a bush administration scandal it always traces back to some incompetent political hack appointment and you think to yourself, where are they getting these screw ups from. Well now we know. From Pat Robertson. I’m not kidding. Take Monica Goodling, who before she resigned last week, because she’s smack in the middle of the US attorney scandal, was a third ranking official in the justice department of the United States. She’s thirty three years old, and though she never even worked as a prosecutor, she was tasked with overseeing the job performance of all ninety three US attorneys. How do you get to the top that fast? Harvard? Princeton?

No. Goodling did her undergraduate work at Messiah college in on the side of home of the fighting christies, and then went on to attend Pat Robertson’s law school. Yes Pat Robertson,  the man who said that the presence of gay people at Disney World would cause earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor, has a law school (emphasis mine. Maher continues…)

I find the width of the US political spectrum both worthy of praise and disturbing at the same time. A country with freedom of the expression so firm to allow people to enjoy Bill Maher’s brand of political satire (insightful, supremely funny not the least bit unprovocative jibes) as well promote (at least during the Bush administration) Pat Robertson and his ilk is indeed intriguing to me. Of course, since my “data” on the US is a only slightly more than what Hollywood seeks to paint as the US, I can only comment from a distance, but when I see the religion-evolution debate in the US, I shudder to think what would happen if Indian politicians would begin to care having an opinion on these things. Thankfully, till date the “wrong” flavour of economics and caste have kept them busy and one does not easily come by local politicians in India having a “position” on Evolution or such.

Notes:

• See for example Bill Maher’s monologue first monologue when Pope Benedict resigned and subsequently when Pope Francis took “office” or his characterisation of France for nice examples of Maher’s flavour of comedy, recalling George Carlin’s style of unflinching, cut-and-dry sarcasm in his stand-up “Religion is bullshit”!
• See excerpt from Dawkins’ documentary on “The Genius of Charles Darwin” in which he interviews feminist creationist Wendy Wright for the sort of issues on which a lot of time is spent in “debating” for example, if creation (and its vaaaarious brands) could be positioned as “alternate theories”, cos Evoultion is just another theory as declared by this suburban school board in Georgia and of course held in high regard in many circles in the US! Show me the evidence, she says.
• Berkeley’s Understanding Evolution is interesting, cos by its existence explains the reach of the “teaching both sides” discourse for example.
• [Added on 11 April 2013]…apparently, nearly half of US Americans are (or believe something similar to) young earth creationism, which holds that God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years. Hmm…perhaps the Flintstones lived around…..4000 years ago may be?