Feel like picking your jaw up off of the floor? Then check out this video of Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen casually describing the Earth as being 6, 000 years old. She says it twice:
There are so many things wrong with this I’m not sure where to start.
First of all, why didn’t the room erupt into cackles of laughter at this buffoon?
Second, why does she still have her job? Is it perhaps (shudder) that her Arizona constituents agree with her?
This is a perfect example of how religion screws us up. This woman is in a power position in public policy, and her positions are being informed through the filter of strict adherence to Bronze-Age myths about the age of the earth!
Why do we put up with such nonsense? Imagine if a legislator casually referred to Thor, or Loki, or Shiva during a public policy speech. They’d be laughed out of town. It’s easy to forget that our Judeo-Christian myths are just as debunked and unreliable as all of the old myths we’ve already discarded. They just still get a lot of play because our society demands respect for them.
Why? Nonsense is nonsense.
Later, when commenting on the firestorm of controversy and public ridicule created by her idiotic statements, Allen blithely brushed them off. “People have a right to believe anything they want to believe about the age of the Earth.”
Fair enough. But beliefs aren’t facts. What if she gave a speech referring to the “Stork Theory” of birth? Do you think she’d get re-elected? Well, thinking the world is 6, 000 years old is as untenable a “belief” as believing in The Stork. Or the Tooth Fairy.
It’s time we started saying out loud what such beliefs are: Irrational and dangerous.
I fully believe in everyone’s right to religion. But I also support people’s right to believe in Astrology, or Flat Earth theories, or Healing Touch Therapy. But with everything but religion, we feel comfortable calling such nonsense what it is: Nonsense. Science disproves all of those silly beliefs, just as it disproves ridiculous Young Earth theories.
Yes, Sylvia, you have a right to believe in fairy tales about the Earth’s age. But when you let them affect how you vote on public policy, we have the right to call you an incompetent, deluded fool.
Do what I did. Send Sylvia a piece of your mind. Here’s her email address:
Let’s all stand up for rational thinking and an end to treating ancient superstition as if it’s actually fact!
