Are you stressing about the midterms? I’m trying not to. How things look politically in March are not how things will look politically in October. That’s what I keep telling myself. One of the biggest success stories of the 2020 election cycle was the success of Georgia Democrats and how they got people out to vote. Georgia turned blue in a big way, not only helping to elect Joe Biden, but electing Raphael G. Warnock and Jon Ossoff as their senators. Sen. Warnock defeated Kelly Loeffler, and this year, he’s running for a full six-year term. His likely Republican opponent? Herschel Walker, a former football player who doesn’t believe in evolution. Walker has a lead in the polls in the Republican primary, and “evolution” is one of his wedge issues, apparently.
Leading Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker expressed skepticism about human evolution during an appearance at a local church on Sunday.
“Now think about this: At one time, science said man came from apes. Did it not?” Walker, a Republican, asked his host, Sugar Hill Church pastor Chuck Allen. “Every time I read or hear that, I think to myself, ‘You just didn’t read the same Bible I did.’ Well, this is what’s interesting, though… If that is true, why are there still apes? Think about it.”
Scientists have thought about it for hundreds of years. They have concluded that humans, like apes, are primates. Humans share DNA and many traits with other primates, including humans’ closest living relatives, chimpanzees. But that does not mean humans evolved from chimpanzees or any other still-existing ape species.
Scientists say that what is true, however, is that all existing primates — including humans — evolved from a common ancestor that was distinct from other mammal species by at least 65 million years ago. Chimpanzees and humans’ evolutionary path then separated six or seven million years ago, though the two species still share 98.8 percent of their DNA.
Walker, a College Football Hall of Famer who played for the University of Georgia and was an NFL running back, announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate last summer. Walker currently has a strong lead in the Republican primary race as well as in some polls for a likely general election contest against Democratic Sen. Raphael G. Warnock, a pastor himself.
A rep for Walker’s campaign didn’t address his remarks about evolution at Sugar Hill Church but did email a brief statement to PEOPLE. “The country is unraveling thanks to Raphael Warnock and Joe Biden and the media wants to talk about Herschel in church on a Sunday morning,” Mallory Blount said. “No wonder we’ve got problems.”
I just… whew, okay. I agree that there are more pressing concerns than “does this Republican douche believe in evolution,” but from that one issue, we can glean so much. We know he doesn’t believe in science, which means he’s bad on vaccines. We know he’ll want to defund public schools for teaching science. We know he’s bad on reproductive rights too, and that he’ll use “but is it in the Bible” for every argument. My hope is that Raphael Warnock is popular enough to withstand this bullsh-t because in the year of our lord Beyonce 2022, we really don’t need another f–king Scopes Monkey Trial.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
The extent to which Republicans are trying to keep people so, so profoundly ignorant and anti-modernity (not even just anti-science, but against the whole spectrum of modern advances beyond the European Dark Ages) is really … something. (My whole family is creationists and of course majority of them are also very far right, hardcore Republicans. Anti-modernity is more prevalent and powerful than some might realize.)
It is wild. This, the frothing masses at school board meetings over critical race theory, it all is designed to just whittle away public education and keep the populace dumb. I think their next culture war, honestly, is going to be basic sex ed.
The Republican dream is a world in which a woman’s consent is irrelevant.
I’m confused what they want. Would they like us all to be feudal serfs with only our guns and our Gatorade to water crops with, while we curtesy to our local pastor? Would they like the Catholic Church to run the government again? That went really well in the past.
There’s a video out there on Twitter about Walker’s past stalking and spousal abuse accusations. It’s pretty awful. HE’S pretty awful.
*Me reading the title* : confused but intrigued
*Me opening the post and seeing the first picture*: well, I should have seen this one coming
Yeah. Fcuk, I also should have seen this coming.
Palm slap.
…with face.
Separation of church and state is pathetically lacking.
Also asking why are there still apes is akin to why is the sky blue if air is clear? I’m sorry you’re too stupid to investigate these answers at all, so please kindly remove yourself from society.
He’s terrible, but wait until you hear his son’s bad takes. They are both incredibly disturbed, and sources of much secondhand embarrassment.
Oh boy there is so much to unpack in that, when one has to weigh up 6-7million years vs a 2500year old story that no one really wants to examine to closely and apply critcal thinking to. In the end each has its place and can exist along side each other with caveats. and science helps explain a lot of things. to this day i have not been conked on the head by a piece of mana falling from heaven for daily sustenance.
Yeah, he’s also a wifebeater. Although that seems to be a feature not a bug for republicans anymore.
Sounds like a solid Republican candidate for…VP maybe
Ah, geez. OK, I lived & worked in Georgia for six years & I can totally believe this is his thinking, as well as that of a whole lot of other ‘good’ church-going people. I’m an archaeologist, and a co-worker (Georgia born & bred, graduate of one of their universities) didn’t want her daughter job-shadowing me because I might talk to her about evolution, and that she (my co-worker), KNOWS where’s she’s going when she dies, she’s going to heaven. Now, how the heck she went from archaeology to evolution to death/heaven I have no idea, but that was a pretty typical conversation with her. And she had a degree in ecology. How she got through her science courses with not ‘believing in’ evolution is beyond me. And on a typical day in federal archaeology, I’m not discussing or thinking about evolution. North American sites aren’t that old! We did have some Mississippian mound sites on our district, which pre-date that magical 6000 yo date creationists have for the planet, so that likely bothered her. And a town nearby had a creationist museum, which had dioramas of dinosaurs and human beings. I wanted to visit for the shock value, but I’m willing to bet I would have been chucked out the door once I started snorting in derision. Ugh I could go on. And the thing is, in her small town? She’s on the school board, which makes decisions on hiring teachers. I cannot tell you the angst this married couple from Philadelphia gave them, what with her keeping her given name, he having his hair in a pony tail, and their not declaring a home church. I got out of there as soon as I could, although six years was far too long.
I had a friend who didn’t believe in the theory of evolution. I didn’t understand because otherwise she was well educated, came from an old moneyed family and lived in NYC not the hills of Tennessee. She was otherwise delightful and we just did not speak about evolution, religion or politics in front of her. Now…we’ll she moved to Florida a few years ago and has become an unhinged Trumper and believes in QAnon theories (yes she’ll believe any crazy theory thrown out there but turn her nose to science and vaccinations). So his belief on evolution to me shows me what kind of deranged Republican he’s evolving into and should be addressed.
I always find it funny when people say they don’t “believe in evolution”. That’s akin to saying they don’t believe in gravity.
I really do think he suffers from CTE as well as just being a terrible person. Don’t get me started on his son who clearly has some anti black issues.
As a fifth generation Georgian, and a liberal Democrat, I am astonished at how many people are willing to vote for him because he played football for UGA.
My friends and I are working hard to turn the state blue!
Thank you CL and friends for all your hard work in GA!!!
+1
Jesus take the steering wheel….this dude repeatedly threatened his ex-wife’s life, lied about his so-called financial success and scared his business associates with his crazy behavior. He’s even admitted he’s had serious mental health issues and wrote about being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (used to be called multiple personality disorder). Don’t even get me started on his spoiled brat, Trump-humper of a son….SMH.
Come on y’all….. someone has to be graduating at the Bottom of the class! I see this guy working on his PHD from FBU right now between interviews… in a few short days he’s going to have his doctorate in Eastern European no fly zones… aim for the stars little buddy!
Seriously though, the lack of critical thinking demonstrated by the GOP voters is comical until you see it in action … voting in reprehensible people you wouldn’t want as your neighbour, let alone representing you in government (looking at you Ms Marjorie Taylor-Green).
We have our fair share of dummies here in the north … for now they are a loud irritant, working on their own bespoke Omicron variant … but until they succeed at destroying their lungs (and those kids who are unvaccinated) they are among us.
Good luck Georgia!
Herschel is a bad bad person. He’s so awful maybe it will rally people to come out and vote against him. I’m in GA and will proudly be voting for Warnock again.
It’s not that they don’t believe – it’s that they don’t understand.
It’s amazing if you ask the non-believers to explain evolution to you, their understanding is along the lines of an ape suddenly became a human.