It’s been a while since America had a good old fashioned evolution battle. The last significant bout involving the scientific theory was in the mid-aughts, when religious groups tried to float an idea called “intelligent design,” which was effectively laughed out of existence. But someone’s trying to make scientific illiteracy a thing again, and that person is — of course — Marjorie Taylor Greene.
According to Axios, the relentlessly controversial congresswoman went on Real America’s Voice, the podcast hosted by Steve Bannon. Greene is infamous for believing in nonsense. She claims she’s no longer a follower of QAnon, floated something about Jewish space lasers, and seems to think June 31 is a real date. But a thoroughly vetted scientific theory about the origin of species, first postulated by Charles Darwin and buttressed by over a century-and-a-half of exploration — for her, that’s a bridge too far.
Greene and Bannon — who has his own wacko beliefs — were discussing some different deranged theories about how COVID-19 first began. One unproven theory posits that it was created in a Wuhan lab. Some people throw in a line about American funding being involved. Greene speculated that it could have been a scientific breakthrough gone awry, calling it a “bioweapon” and that scientists were trying to “experiment with like some sort of Dr. Frankenstein experiments.”
Bannon, perhaps wondering about her scientific bona fides, then interrupted her, asking if she believes that species evolve. She did not.
“I don’t believe in evolution,” Greene told the former Trump aide. “I believe in God.” She added, “I don’t believe in that type of so-called science.”
This should surprise no one. People who believe in weird things tend not to believe in issues that experts agree is real, from biological evolution to climate change. So, in a sense, perhaps this is not news,
(Via Axios)