Global Warming, Evolution and Team Eve

Jon Huntsman, the 2012 GOP candidate for President, tweeted, "To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy."

To which, Time's Joel Stein tweeted back, "I'll call you Not the GOP Nominee."

That exchange gives me the opportunity to round up news items on some of my favorite topics. After the jump, Global Warming, Evolution and Creationism, the conversation starters - and enders - that never let you down.

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Jon Huntsman was reacting to news that another 2012 GOP candidate for President, Rick Perry, accused scientists of manipulating climate data to keep "dollars rolling into their projects" and that there are "almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change." The Washington Post did a fact check and awarded Perry Four Pinocchios for these whoppers. Still, Jon Huntsman knows the score. In the GOP, he's the crazy one.

As for Evolution, Perry said, "It's a theory that's out there. It's got some gaps in it. In Texas we teach both Creationism and evolution." Awww, I wish he wouldn't drag Texas into it. We're already the laughingstock of the nation (jump to 2:06). Just when those laughs are dying out, Perry is out telling everyone that Texans violate the Constitution by teaching Creationism. But Perry knows his GOP primary voter. Gallup surveys indicate that 68% of Republicans do not believe in evolution, suggesting "This appears to be substantially based on a belief in the story of creation as outlined in the Bible -- that God created humans in a process that, taking the Bible literally, occurred about 10,000 years ago."

That brings us to Creation. Specifically, the story of Adam and Eve. Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at Caltech, has no business getting involved in the topic, even admitting that it would be hard for him to think of a less interesting question, but he can't resist a little trolling anyway. He says:

"The choice given to Adam and Eve was a simple one: (1) obey, or (2) attain knowledge, in particular of good and evil. If those are my two choices, I'm choosing 'knowledge' every day. Count me on Team Eve on this one. As far as I'm concerned, this wasn't the Original Sin, it was the Original Heroic Act."

If so, then Adam and Eve also learned the Original Aphorism: No good deed goes unpunished.

Who knows? Maybe we can get Rick Perry to respect science a little more if we call it "Team Eve." Count me in.