Religious Nutcase Elected President of the USA

As Keith Parsons has recently argued, it is difficult to separate religion from politics.  This is especially true of the current political  campaigns for the presidency of the United States of America.

Unfortunately, the uglier side of religion is intruding into U.S. politics.  Currently,  some polls are indicating that the religious nutcase Ben Carson is the leading contender to become the next presidential nominee of the Republicans.  If Carson continues to do well with Republican primary voters, then the title of this post could become a reality.

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No woman (and no one who cares about women) should vote for Carson, because not only would he “love” to see Roe v. Wade overturned but he is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest.  In fact, Carson is unsure about whether abortion should be allowed even when the mother’s life is at risk:

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson said he would “love” to see Roe vs. Wade overturned and make abortion illegal nationwide with almost no exemptions.

“I’m a reasonable person and if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, I’ll listen,” Carson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

While the Republican candidate said he opposes abortions for unwanted pregnancies and in cases of rape and incest, the retired neurosurgeon told moderator Chuck Todd he might be open to allowing abortions to preserve the life and health of the mother.

“That’s an extraordinarily rare situation,” Carson said. “But if in that very rare situation it occurred, I believe there’s room to discuss that.”

http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/dr-ben-carson-i-would-love-see-roe-vs-wade-n451071

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No elderly person (and no one with elderly parents) should vote for Carson, because Carson wants to end both Medicare and Medicaid:

Republicans have fended off accusations for years that they’d gut Medicare for seniors and end the program “as we know it.”

Not Ben Carson. The former neurosurgeon acknowledges he would abolish the program altogether.

Carson, who now leads the GOP field in Iowa according to the latest Quinnipiac Poll, would eliminate the program that provides health care to 49 million senior citizens, as well as Medicaid, and replace it with a system of cradle-to-grave savings accounts which would be funded with $2,000 a year in government contributions. While rivals have been pummeled for proposing less radical changes, Carson hasn’t faced the same scrutiny — and his continued traction in polls has left GOP strategists and conservative health care wonks scratching their heads.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/ben-carson-medicare-medicaid-215055

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No college-educated person should vote for Carson, because Carson rejects scientific conclusions on evolution, the Big Bang, global warming, and homosexuality:

This actually goes way back. In 2006 he clearly stated his anti-evolutionary views and has repeated these claims many times since. In 2012 there was controversy over this when he was asked to give the commencement address at Emory University. In 2004 he said that people who accept evolution “dismiss ethics,” a comment he later backed down on a very tiny little bit (later saying they “might have more difficulty deriving where their ethics come from”).

I’d heard about all this before, but an article at BuzzFeed has something I hadn’t heard: In 2012, in a speech at an event called “Celebration of Creation,” he said that Darwin came up with evolutionary theory because the devil made him do it.

I mean that literally. He said, “I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary.” The Adversary is a nickname for the devil; it’s the actual translation of the word “Satan.” So there’s that.

He also dismissed the Big Bang, calling it a “fairy tale.” The irony of this is palpable. When recently called on this claim, he dug in, saying (about people who think the Big Bang is true), “Here’s the key, I then say to them look, ‘I’m not gonna criticize you, you have a lot more faith then I have.’ I couldn’t, I don’t have enough faith to believe that.”

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/09/24/ben_carson_anti_science.html

 

[When asked about global warming Ben Carson responded:]

“There’s always going to be either cooling or warming going on,” the potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate said in an interview this weekend in Des Moines, Iowa. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s irrelevant. What is relevant is that we have an obligation and a responsibility to protect our environment.”

Carson, a retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, often talks about his medical background and science during his speeches. Pressed on the fact that the bulk of the scientific community believes the Earth is indeed warming, Carson pivoted. “You can ask it several different ways, but my answer is going to be the same,” he said. “We may be warming. We may be cooling.”

 http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-26/ben-carson-not-convinced-on-global-warming

 

During the interview Wednesday morning, when Carson was asked by Chris Cuomo whether being gay is a choice, he replied: “Absolutely.”

“Because a lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question,” Carson said.