US religious Right’s junk science, including on fossil kangaroos

George Bush, a dinosaur, and creationism, cartoon

From The Loom blog by Carl Zimmer in the USA:

Never Mind Those Kangaroo Fossils

Perhaps the notion of conservatives building an alternative to Wikipedia that includes many “scientific” entries based on creationist books aimed at seventh graders sounds like some bizarre hoax.

For those who doubt, there’s now audio evidence.

National Public Radio ran a segment yesterday in which they interviewed the founder of Conservapedia, Andrew Schlalfly.

The interviewer, Robert Siegel, got right to the point.

He described Wikipedia’s entry on kangaroos, which includes details about extinct species of kangaroos known from fossils.

Then he read from the Conservapedia entry, which contains nary a mention of fossils:

According to the origins theory model used by creation scientists, modern kangaroos, like all modern animals, originated in the Middle East and are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard Noah’s Ark prior to the Great Flood.

“A typical difference between Conservapedia and Wikipedia?” Siegel asked.

Schlafly replied: “…it reflects Conservapedia’s willingness to present topics and treatments of subject that is embraced by many conservatives and many members of the American public.”

Yeah right, according to those far Right junk science believers, probably, men and dinosaurs lived together at the same time, not just in Flintstones comics; and the Iraq war is “mission accomplished“; and there were Iraqi weapons of mass destruction … and pigs fly.

Conservatism in the USA: here.

Conservatives Caught Recreating the Bible in Their Own Image Are Preaching to the Right-Wing Choir: here.

Is ‘Intelligent Design’ different from creationism? See here.