Christofascism is killing edumication- It's so easy a caveman could do it...because they are
When stupid just isn't enough to get the job done, there are cretins like Mike Azinger who will lie, cheat, and steal for his flavor of God
Let’s take a moment to imagine what might happen if Christofascism, willful ignorance of science, and the willingness to lie in the service of your One, True, and ONLY Faith © arrived at the same place at the same time. What you’d have is something or someone that looks and sounds a lot like West Virginia State Sen. Mike Azinger (R), who’s hardly an effective representative of his faith or what’s left of his morality.
Sen. Azinger, not to put too fine a point on it, is willing to lie, shade the truth, misrepresent science, and speak ill of other faith traditions to see his pitifully dishonest version of Christian doctrine become law in West Virginia. He does all of this to ensure that his radical anti-abortion agenda becomes law. It’s every bit as lamentable and fraudulent as it sounds. Truthfully, it’s far worse.
Though I usually try to give people of faith the benefit of the doubt until they prove themselves unworthy of it, Sen. Azinger demonstrates from the outset that he’s the sort of liar who gives Christianity a bad name.
A lawmaker from West Virginia called evolution a “quickly dying theory,” claimed that there’s a “flash of light” the moment sperm meets egg which amounts to a sign from God, and insisted that all Jews believe life begins at the moment of conception.
Those lies were all told by Republican State Sen. Mike Azinger during a floor debate on SB 468, a controversial bill that would force public school students to watch right-wing propaganda regarding child development.
The bill explicitly says students would have to watch “Meet Baby Olivia,” a video produced by the anti-abortion group Live Action.
“Meet Baby Olivia” is some of the worst and most transparently misleading anti-choice propaganda I’ve ever seen. To call it medically and scientifically inaccurate would be an understatement, but I’ll leave it at that since I’m not a medical professional and lack the vocabulary to adequately express my disgust.
Early in the video, after a sperm fertilizes an egg, the narrator claims, “This is the moment that life begins.” (It is not.) It also refers to stages of development using the made-up term “weeks after fertilization” instead of weeks after the last menstrual cycle, which would be medically accurate. The narrator also refers to a “fetal heartbeat” even though, at six weeks, it’s not a fetus and literally doesn’t have a heart.
The video has been criticized by groups who actually know what they’re talking about:
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a professional organization with over 60,000 members, said in an email that the video is anti-abortion misinformation “designed to manipulate the emotions of viewers.”….
Iowa physicians and educators said in a letter to state lawmakers that by using weeks after fertilization, the video misleads viewers because the framing indicates milestones happen about two weeks earlier than is accurate.
Azinger defended his bill with false and factually incorrect arguments, which seemed to be what the video is based on from beginning to end.
[T]he bill was being debated in the State Senate when Sen. Azinger rose up to defend it.
First, he responded to a Democrat who pointed out Jewish people do not believe life begins at conception and that teaching public school students otherwise amounted to religious discrimination.
I’m hardly an expert, but if memory serves, Jewish doctrine doesn’t teach that life begins at conception…but Sen. Azinger isn’t one to let the truth get in the way of perfectly good lies and propaganda.
First of all, it's essentially an absurdity that all Jewish people believe that lifehood, for lack of a better term, begins at another time other than conception.
Any Jew who believes the first five books of the Bible would, by definition, believe that life begins at conception because Genesis 4:1, for one example, says “And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived.”
There. Right there. “Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bare Cain.” So any Jew that believes the Torah, which is first five books of the Bible, I believe, would have to believe that.
It’s interesting that a Christian Nationalist sees nothing wrong with telling Jews what they believe…and getting it wrong. Sen. Azinger’s arrogance is exceeded only by his audacity.
He’s flat-out wrong about everything he just said. The Talmud says life begins “when the baby’s head emerges from the mother’s body.” To insist all Jews share one mind on this issue, and then to get that issue backwards, could be described as a form of antisemitism
The Bible verse he quoted doesn’t even say anything to the contrary; it just says Eve had a baby. Even if she did, so what?!
More importantly, 83% of Jews support abortion rights, according to the Pew Research Center in 2018, and that’s before Roe was overturned.
For Azinger, a Baptist and Christian Nationalist, it’s not surprising that he pretended to be an expert on Judaism or that he got it all wrong.
Ah, but Sen. Azinger was just getting warmed up and preparing his audience for the next phenomenally ignorant thing he was about to vomit forth.
All of a sudden, we have a lot of senators who are all upset and worried about accuracies in science class. I think it was the senator from Taylor who mentioned that, “Hey, look, evolution's been taught in science class for how long now?” And that's a quickly dying theory that many, many understand to be an absurdity in and of itself, just because it can't pass the first test of First Cause.
So this is a great bill. It shows conception. And Google it: At the very nanosecond of conception, there's a flash of light. When conception occurs in human beings, and I believe it's across the whole animal kingdom, at the point, the second, of conception, there is a flash of light.
That's God telling us, I believe, that life begins there.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Evolution is “a quickly dying theory?” That “many, many understand to be an absurdity in and of itself?” Because it can’t pass the “first test of First Cause?”
It’s almost too much to know where to begin. But, as with all absurdities and astonishing lies, let’s start with the beginning, shall we?
Who says evolution is a quickly dying theory? Well, for one, it’s not dying…and two, it’s evolving (hence the name). Evolution as a theory of human life is based on extensive scientific research and a lot of scientific conjecture. As the scientific community’s knowledge regarding the origin and development of life changes, so does our understanding of evolution. So, yes, our knowledge of evolution is EVOLVING.
I suppose the concept of “irony” is lost on cretins like Sen. Azinger.
Evolution is not a “quickly dying theory” in any place except the fever dreams of Creationist Ken Ham. We teach evolution because the evidence fully supports it, not because it’s some liberal religious belief. Arguing that the promotion of anti-abortion propaganda belongs in science class because we teach accurate science regarding evolution is harmful and utterly inaccurate.
Just because West Virginia Republicans don’t understand the theory and instead cling to a religious lie isn’t a valid justification to teach kids a different kind of religious lie.
But evolution in not a “quickly dying theory,” despite Sen. Azinger’s desire to substitute his Creationism (which doesn’t even qualify as a “theory”) for actual scientific rigor.
And who are these “many, many” who understand evolution “to be an absurdity in and of itself?" That seems an awful lot like Donny Diaperfull saying, “Many people are saying….” when, in fact, no one, save for the voices in his head, is saying a thing. Sen. Azinger is trying to provide credibility to his argument where none exists.
Long answer short, he’s lying.
As for passing the “first test of First Cause,” Sen. Azinger is expecting a scientific concept to pass a theological test. To call that patently absurd doesn’t begin to describe the idiocy behind his argument…because his theological concept could never pass even a moderately rigorous scientific test.
Sen. Azinger’s argument is the equivalent of asking someone to disprove a negative. It’s as ridiculous as it is nonsensical. Yet, he’s convinced himself that because evolution can’t pass the “first test of First Cause,” it’s an invalid theory when, in fact, it’s his argument that’s invalid.
Life doesn’t begin at conception. Sorry, Senator, it just doesn’t…and nothing in your argument proves otherwise. What you’re pushing is purely dishonest and false Christofascist propaganda.
And you represent everything wrong with the worst sort of modern religion.
There is no “flash of light” at conception. It’s an exciting lie, but like many lies, it has its roots in the truth, which makes for a compelling story.
That myth is based on a 2016 scientific paper that documented the release of zinc that accompanies egg activation. Because the zinc was coded with a special tag, scientists were able to illuminate its release at the moment of fertilization… leading a bunch of ignorant writers to claim there’s a “spark” at conception. They were wrong.
Here’s how the National Catholic Register (!!!) accurately described what’s happening:
Researchers wanted to see the zinc, so they simulated fertilization in the lab and put the eggs in a solution containing a fluorescent tag (FluoZin™-3). When the zinc is released, it is chemically labeled because this tag bonds to it. The tag (also called a fluorophore) can be illuminated with light of one color, and it emits light of a different, specific color. That “fluorescence” can be detected under a suitable microscope, thus revealing the zinc.
So, no message from God telling us that LIFE HAS BEGUN!! No “AHA!!” moment that the anti-choice crowd could use to fortify their propaganda. It's just a scientific experiment they twisted to their advantage.
And who would’ve thought the National Catholic Register would be the “good guy” in this scenario?
The sad thing is that the “bad guy,” Sen. Mike Azinger, is one step closer to imposing his own unique brand of Christofascist ignorance on West Virginia’s schoolchildren. His bill passed the Senate on a 27-6 vote and moves on to the Republican-dominated House for consideration.
Now we know why West Virginia ranks 47th in the country in edumication. Not that anyone should be particularly surprised….
Stoopid iz az stoopiz duz…and in red states, they’re deciding how to edumication children in ways that have more to do with religious indoctrination that education. If that doesn’t scare the shit out of you, I don’t know what would.
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