I just got finished reading an excellent blog post by Donald Prothero at Skepticblog.
Prothero recounts his experiences with a BBC film crew and a group of creationists for a British reality series.
The premise of the series is that the host (Andrew Maxwell, a British comedian) travels with five young [British] believers in some crazy idea, taking them to key locations and putting them in front of evidence that challenges their beliefs.
I won't spoil the blog's main point, but what struck me was how similar the creationists' reaction to facts is so similar to the Republican party trying to figure out what the heck happened on Tuesday.
From the conclusion at Prothero's blog:
None of them [creationists] could give coherent answers to the scientific evidence, yet nonetheless were determined to stick with their beliefs. This was no surprise to any of us, since evidence doesn’t matter to creationists. They have an entire worldview which is wrapped about the salvation of their immortal soul and the fear of rejecting the literal interpretation of the Bible, so that comes first and everything else is unimportant. They reject evolution only because they’ve been told to do so by religious leaders, even though they have no clue what it’s about; what they think they know about it is wrong. Indeed, they showed the classic response of a true believer: when something threatens your worldview, you cling to it even more strongly and find any way you can to dismiss or ignore contrary evidence. That, apparently, is the point of the entire show, since the 9/11 truthers and the UFO nuts act the same way. But given the way the show was framed, it’s clear that the producers want to put these creationists on camera as object lessons on how irrational and dogmatic and impervious to evidence they really are, even while showing less dogmatic viewers that scientists can be friendly and reasonable and have all the evidence.
Stunning.
See the similarities?