Internet slanders or no, Sarah Palin has reportedly spoken words demonstrating her dangerous lack of thought about evolution and education. Now it seems that Matt Damon’s dinosaur question may be more than just a puffed-up Internet rumor as well.
The L.A. Times has a source who claims to have spoken directly to Palin about dinosaurs in 1997, when she was mayor of Wasilla. Stephen Braun reports that the notoriously soundbite-ready VP nominee told Philip Munger, a music teacher at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, that “dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time” 6,000 years ago—an statement that’s so horribly incorrect on so many levels, yet still all too common in creationist lore. Munger said Palin insisted that “she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks.” Were these pictures on display here by any chance?
Granted, Munger is no fan of the photogenic governor: He writes the actively anti-Palin blog ProgressiveAlaska, and has appeared on ultra-liberal Air America radio to speak out against her. Still, unless yet another blogger digs up evidence that he’s lying, there’s no proof that their exchange is a myth. And, of course, all this could be cleared up by a simple Q&A with Palin herself—if such a thing was possible.
Image: Flickr/williac
September 29th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
http://enigma.charliewagner.com
Monday, September 29, 2008
Out Of Her League
Sunday, September 21, 2008
These People are Friggin’ CRAZY!!!
September 29th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
During a series of interviews by the Anchorage Daily News in 2006, when she was running for Governor…
On Creationism: “The simple yet elegantly awkward moose proves God’s creation and not evolution is the source of all life. How could something as oddly shaped and silly looking as a moose evolve through so-called ‘natural selection?’ Is evolution a committee? There is nothing natural about a dorky moose! Only God could have made a moose and given it huge antlers to fight off his predatory enemies. God has a well known se nse of humor, I mean He made the platypus too.”
On oil exploration and drilling in the ANWAR: “God made dinosaurs 4,000 years ago [sic] as ultimately flawed creatures, lizards of Satan really, so when they died and became petroleum products we, made in his perfect image, could use them in our pickup trucks, snow machines and fishing boats.”
On Alaskans serving overseas in Iraq : “Well, God bless them, and I mean God and Jesus because without Jesus we’d be Muslims too or Jewish, which would be a little better because of the superior Israeli Air Force.”
September 30th, 2008 at 4:48 am
[…] Internet slanders aside, Sarah Palin has reportedly spoken words demonstrating her dangerous lack of thought about evolution and education. Now it seems that Matt Damon’s dinosaur question may be more than just a puffed-up Internet …[Continue Reading] […]
September 30th, 2008 at 10:49 am
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Publishing this kind of unreliable, hearsay, anecdotal, tabloid drivel demonstrates the type of methodological incompetence you ascribe to Sarah Palin. Get a clue. I hope your next story rises out of the gutter.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I expect Discover to correct this lie immediately!!!
This is most assuredly a falsehood. Since when do blogs become news sources?
http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/newsquotes.asp
September 30th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I am surprised by this article and the lack of research and investigation relating thereto. The real truth, as told by a friend of the cousin of Palin’s hair dresser, is that Palin is an Alien from another time warp.
Discover is a respected scientific based periodical; let’s keep it that way.
September 30th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Oh, gee. “Creationism is not Science.” What a revelation! I never thought of that!
I, like most readers of this publication, say “Duh!” The only reason you posted this blog is to forward your political agenda. Please stop. We have more overheated political rhetoric than we need right now.
September 30th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
These are important issues. A simple solution would be to have a credible journalist or electronic news interviewer follow up on this and actually ask Mrs. Palin what she does believe. Or would that be treating her unfairly? An example of liberal bias in the media? Part of the mocking attitude of all who oppose this great govenor who singlehandedly has kept us safe from Russia and courageously risked her political life to prevent the building of “the bridge to nowhere”?
Surely DISCOVER can get someone to do better research. The American people deserve a chance to get to know this possible VP who appears to be stuck in the religious right’s primitive time warp.
September 30th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
This should be titled, “Rumors Aside, We’re Still Spreading Rumors.” I do not care for Sarah Palin’s politics and I think she’s woefully inexperienced, but I do not feel it’s appropriate to publish an article along these lines. You’re essentially asking her to prove a negative, and I expect better logic from a science publication.
I couldn’t find the Anchorage Daily News “quotes” above from Spradlin, but I did find much more reasonable comments from Palin in a 2006 ADN article:
http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/elections/story/8347904p-8243554c.html
Clarifying her “teach both” comment on evolution and creationism, Palin is quoted as saying, “I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.”
She further says she is the child of a science teacher, and while she believes in a creator, she would not say she did not believe in evolution. She claims she doesn’t know. Since with the exception of evangelicals, the majority of US Christians believe in evolution (source: Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life), this is not implausible.
From the same article: “Palin has occasionally discussed her lifelong Christian faith during the governor’s race but said teaching creationism is nothing she has campaigned about or even given much thought to.”
Until you have a better source than playing on classic logical flaws (”unless yet another blogger digs up evidence that he’s lying, there’s no proof that their exchange is a myth”), you should really stop this kind of post.
September 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I thought Discover was a Science based magazine not a religious and political magazine. Religion and Politics do not belong in magazine devoted to Science. If you continue in this vein, I will cancel my subscription.
September 30th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
It is pathetic that a science magazine sends out unverified “information” like this. The simple act of checking the Urban Legends website http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/newsquotes.asp or some other PRIMARY source is something I would expect from REAL scientists. I’m embarrassed that a website I use as a teachng tool for my students is being directed/edited in this way. I expect science information, not political PREACHING. Please attempt to be objective and avoid the politics.
September 30th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I have to agree with the other posters. While I am no fan of Palin’s, it is irresponsible for Discover to report such an article. It discredits Discover Magazine and makes the readers wonder what else we have read may not be true. I am severely disappointed by this. I really expected more from Discover Magazine.
September 30th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Ms. Lafsky - Pretty lame. Pretty….pretty…..pretty…lame.
You’re “reporting” on rumors and supposed facts that have no verification. Whether you like Palin or not (and clearly you don’t) I think it would be better to just stick to proven information.
Discover magazine is becoming a gossip rag.
September 30th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
do you angry folks who are posting the Snopes link notice that it doesn’t actually address the quotes described in the LA Times story? that is debunking a different (and totally fake, clearly labeled, satirical) set of quotes, kindly posted above by Michael Spradlin. if you can find evidence that she did not tell Philip Munger that dinos and humans coexisted, please let the world know, but until then, you’re missing the mark.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Quote Curious: “if you can find evidence that she did not tell Philip Munger that dinos and humans coexisted, please let the world know, but until then, you’re missing the mark.”
Ethically: Guilty until proved innocent? Hearsay is true until proved untrue?
Scientifically: Evidence of negative is logically impossible.
But Curious sounds like a troll anyway.
Discover Magazine on the other hand should be ashamed to publish this rumor and hearsay as credible anything. Not Science, not science policy, just rumor. You are about to run off a 25 year subscriber.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I heard a rumor that Barack Obama thought it was a good idea that babies who were born from a botched abortion should be left to die. Oh, wait…that’s not a 10 year old second hand rumor by a far left-wing nut job, it’s an ACTUAL FACT. Something the above blogger doesn’t really know. But then again science is just as much as a religion as religion. C’mon. Darwin is only theory with little or NO evidence to support it, the big bang isn’t really he beginning of the universe (try to explain something from nothing science whackjobs - that violates a law of physics) and Newton’s gravitational formula is WRONG (I saw that on the Discovery channel). The problem with the science religion is you get people like Barack who look at human beings as organisms who should be experimented on and thrown away when not convenient to them. That’s more scary than anything Gov. Palin could say.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:48 am
Michael Spradlin! Shame on you! That is blatant plagarism from a website that isn’t even worth the electrons it’s created with. If you would like to know which website I am speaking of go to the flying spaghetti monster home page and follow the link.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:48 am
Spend the time you would blogging on searching for the truth and you just may become more enlightened than you are now accepting a “truth” that was handed to you. Read a good book instead of the “Good book”!
October 1st, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I don’t know if this is a reliable source, but I would speculate it’s at least close to the truth. From what I have heard from Sarah Palin,she is not a believer is science. Everything comes from God and if it contradicts his holy power or the Bible then she is against it. That’s really not too bad if you think government and religion should be merged…
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 am
Since Discover is one of my favorite “popular” Science magazines and has always gone out of the way to print articles portraying varying points of view (prs and con on anthropogenic Global Warming, articles on the variation in the sun’s output contributing to Global Warming are examples.)
How could you possibly use outwardly political Blogs as news sources! These Blogs (on all ends of the political spectrum) are full of intentional lies and distortions. They have no place in the pages of your magazine or your web site. I have heard Palin say (despite her Evangelical Religious beliefs) that as the daughter of a Science teacher, and an advocate of science education, she unequivocally believes evolution should be taught in Science class. Religion is a personal matter and should not determine our science curriculums.
To say I’m appalled by Discover’s editorial decisions in this matter is an understatement.