Godsmack

   This portrait looking down on Saturn and its rings was created from images obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Oct. 10, 2013. It was made by amateur image processor and Cassini fan Gordan Ugarkovic. This image has not been geometrically corrected for shifts in the spacecraft perspective and still has some camera artifacts.The mosaic was created from 12 image footprints with red, blue and green filters from Cassini's imaging science subsystem. Ugarkovic used full color sets for 11 of the footprints and red and blue images for one footprint.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini .
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/G. Ugarkovic

I am sure that most everybody has seen or read about the new Pew findings on Americans' views on evolution and the apparent gap on this issue between Republicans and Democrats. People who identified as the former have became steadily more apt to deny evolution, to think that man has always existed in this present state. In fact the GOP numbers have dropped 11 points in the last four years, from 54% to 43% now denying that humans have evolved over time. People are really digging in.

"These beliefs differ strongly by religious group. White evangelical Protestants are particularly likely to believe that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. Roughly two-thirds (64%) express this view, as do half of black Protestants (50%). By comparison, only 15% of white mainline Protestants share this opinion.
There also are sizable differences by party affiliation in beliefs about evolution, and the gap between Republicans and Democrats has grown. In 2009, 54% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats said humans have evolved over time, a difference of 10 percentage points. Today, 43% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats say humans have evolved, a 24-point gap."

Of course there are a significant number of dems in the anti science creationist camp as well. I am not letting them off the hook. I am not going to go over too much of the nuts and bolts of this whole tortured ground but did want to offer up a few things.

In November a GOP operative wrote an interesting piece giving a counterbalance to the republicans' anti science argument. Mischa Fischer says that more liberals believe in pseudosciences like astrology and the like and so we should cut the young earther repubs a little slack. The article, which ran in the Atlantic is titled The Republican Party Isn't Really the Anti-Science Party - Conservative conflict with science on evolution and global warming has been exaggerated—while liberals get a free pass for their own failings.

Rather long title but you get his point. I am not sure that there is the same partisan split for believing in the occult. Last pol I know who hit the news with astrology was Nancy Reagan and she was certainly no Democrat. Fischer says that it is in fact two to one, dems. Still a bit hard to conflate occasionally reading your horoscope and accepting that the entire fossil record is a satanic conspiracy.

Fischer also lambastes libs for being mean and not so scientific in regards to nuclear power and gmo's and maybe fracking. I think that he is basically full of shit but he probably thinks the same about me. I can give you plenty of scientific reasons to be wary of nuclear power, gmo's and fracking, he just doesn't want to listen. Stewart Brand be damned.

The best thing I have read on the subject is on the frontlines themselves, the comments section of Townhall. These people think that evolution and science are hoaxes and they aren't backing down. read as much as you can stand. For some people stupidity is a badge of honor. Or go back to the Conservative Bible Project thing I posted a few weeks back:

Jesus's recognition that the truth would remain hidden from arrogant "intellectuals" while simultaneously revealed to humbler, more openminded people. This foreshadowed the creation of theories to pull self-centered intellectual wannabees away from God, such as the Theory of Evolution, the Theory of Relativity, the homosexual agenda, the secular culture of abortion, Communism, and countless other liberal and atheistic ideas and ideologies. 

Pew survey results released in October showed that 46 percent of Republicans said there was "no solid evidence" the earth is warming; just 26 percent of Democrats shared that view. Relativity, global warming, evolution, gravity, all bad. Province of arrogant intellectuals. There is a great quote about god and reason in the Thomas Jefferson book.

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
Thomas Jefferson

And there is this article from David Graham at Atlantic today.

"One possibility is that respondents who identified as Republican and believed in evolution in 2009 are no longer identifying as Republicans. Fewer scientists, for example, are reportedly identifying with the GOP, and the overall trend is for fewer Americans to call themselves Republicans. But both Gallup and separate polling from Pew found approximately the same party ID in 2009 and 2013.
Another is that the rise of "intelligent design" education has helped to swing younger Americans against evolution. Yet the age breakdown remains similar in 2009 and 2013, with respondents ages 18 to 29 most likely to believe in evolution.
What does that leave? Maybe the gap represents an emotional response by Republicans to being out of power."

Are we not getting pulled back into the dark ages? Stand up for science and reason. God can take care of herself.