My son and I went to the Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. today. We always go to the area that shows the different eras - back by the cafe. I've developed an entirely inappropriate habit of pretending to be a "the earth is 6000 years old" believer when we go. The kids usually play along, trying to persuade me that there's so much evidence that the earth is older. But today, the game was different...
Today, I read each entry out loud - "this beast lived 50 million years ago". Then I would add, "but there are crazy people who believe all these animals were here on earth 6000 years ago". Kept doing it, read an entry, comment on the crazy people, probably 20 times.
And the big light went on for me. People who deny evolution, despite ALL of the evidence - all of the clear evolutionary developments present in the skeletons of animals carbon-dated to different times - are crazy. A person could not be intelligent and sane and believe that the earth was created 6000 years ago.
And if these people are crazy, and they are taking over our country (and school boards) by getting elected (by other equally crazy, stupid people), then we sane people have to start pushing to have all the nutjobs impeached. How many of these folks are out there? Don't know, but let's start some hearings, let's make some noise, write some letters, flyer some cars. We need to ferret out these idiots before we become a country run by close-minded, money-grubbing, anti-science loons. Okay, well, we're a little late, but let's ferret them out now anyway.
We can't keep on saying "freedom of religion - s/he has the right to believe what they believe". We can't - because the reason we can't get the idiots out who are in office now is that the majority of Americans apparently can't be run over with a steamroller full of evidence and see the guilt of the leadership. Just like they can't see the evidence of evolution, or the evidence that real stem cell research will save lives, or the evidence that providing social supports to people in need doesn't just help them, but saves society money in the long run, or the evidence that providing preventive health care to all will create a healthier, more productive work force that will make more money for their employers, or the evidence that actually funding education initiatives is what improves education (not just writing a bunch of nonsensical policy based on what will make money for textbook and testing companies). If a politician isn't sane enough to add 1+1 and end up with 2, then it's off to the cozy room with padded walls.
You can't run a city, or a county, or a state, or a country, if you are crazy. I'm pretty sure there are some laws about that. And these people have to go.