How Old is the Earth?

In High School many years ago, my Social Studies teacher, Brother Leo (A Christian Brother) proposed the following question; "Is democracy always right?". The class debated the issue for the entire period, took a vote and concluded; "yes, democracy is always right". He then proposed the following; a teacher brings a hen into a classroom of grade school children and asks the class to decide whether it is male or female. The class votes and decides that it is male. Did democracy work? Yes it did, but it got it wrong was his response.

Almost half the U.S. population believes the earth is less than 10,000 years old. While studies seem to vary considerably, (2% of the U.S. population scares me) responses do depend on how you ask the question. One Harris poll found that 73% of Republicans believe in creationism as compared to 58% of Democrats and 57% of Independents (high for all concerned, probably because of the question) (The straightdope.com , November 10, 2006).

This is really scary stuff! Mike Huckabee won 5 states in the Republican primaries. He espoused changing the Constitution to make it more like the Bible and he believes that the earth is 7,000 years old. Yes, he believes that people walked with the dinosaurs. Sarah Palin, our latest Republican Vice-Presidential joke believes the same thing.

As I write, this is getting scarier! Theocracies can get in the way of democracy and, in the end, get the question wrong. If you don't believe me, look at Hamas. How can we afford leaders that are so wrong?

The earth is an estimated 4.5 billion years old and that's the fact; and the hen is female, and that's the fact. When was the last time we had a Democrat running for President that believed the earth was 7,000 years old?

George Bush and all the other Republicans should have had Brother Leo's class. Maybe if they had, they would be very careful how they propose to democratize populations that may get the question wrong. Then again, they think they were always right, yet they always got it wrong.

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