Tory MPP Rick Nicholls: 'I don't believe in evolution'

26 posts / 0 new

Wed, 2015-02-25 17:38

Debater

Queen's Park Bureau

Wed Feb 25 2015

When Progressive Conservative MPP Rick Nicholls shouted in the legislature that it’s “not a bad idea” to stop teaching evolution in schools, he wasn’t kidding.

The off-the-cuff remark during a heated debate over the new sex education curriculum landed Nicholls (Chatham-Kent-Essex) in hot water with Conservative colleagues and left him ridiculed by others.

“It obviously didn’t help our position,” said Interim Conservative Leader Jim Wilson, who has frequently blamed his party for poor decisions that led to four successive election defeats by the scandal-plagued Liberals.

But Nicholls stood by his line when asked about it Wednesday.

“For myself, I don’t believe in evolution,” Nicholls told reporters.

The controversial quip came after Education Minister Liz Sandals — reacting to criticisms Tuesday from Conservative MPP Monte McNaughton about modernizing sex ed — scolded that a Tory government “could opt out of teaching about evolution, too.”

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More here: (with VIDEO CLIP)

http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2015/02/25/tory-mpp-rick-nicholls...

Wed, 2015-02-25 17:51

Bacchus

Im pretty sure I dont believe in Rick Nicholls

Wed, 2015-02-25 18:25

josh

If he were in the U.S. he'd be in the mainstream of the Republican Party. At least half of them don't believe in evolution either.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danthropology/2015/02/new-poll-suggests-mor...

Wed, 2015-02-25 18:41

Mr. Magoo

Sometimes card games will have a rule like "if your opponent plays a diamond, and you have a diamond in your hand, you must play a diamond" -- even if it's disadvantageous, and even if it loses you the game.

Sometimes I think it's kind of cool that religious K00ks have a very similar rule that prevents them from hiding or supressing their K00k-ass beliefs. So, Nicholls had a diamond, and according to his own God's rules, he had to play it.

Now I'd like to see some journalists (or better yet, constituents) ask him some more questions, like "do you believe the fossil record was planted by God (or Satan) to tempt man?" If he holds that card, he's obligated to play it.

Wed, 2015-02-25 18:55

Unionist

C'mon, he doesn't really mean "I don't believe in evolution". He does. He just doesn't practise it.

Wed, 2015-02-25 19:01

alan smithee alan smithee's picture

I guess it's easy not to believe in evolution when you yourself haven't evolved.

Typical Conservative. Pea-brained dullard.

Wed, 2015-02-25 19:15

ikosmos

Some might say that the MPP has a point. If someone that ingnerant has achieved high public office, then evolution by natural selection may have to be abandoned as a working hypothesis ...

Wed, 2015-02-25 19:43

Mr. Magoo

Only if people have an averstion to mating with the ignorant, or ignorance prevents humans from reaching sexual maturity. Otherwise, there's no evolutionary pressure to push it out.

Also why humans are unlikely to ever evolve to no longer suffer from poor vision. As long as myopics and presbyopics get to pass on their genes, we'll still need glasses, even in the wonderous future.

Wed, 2015-02-25 21:03

welder

I think Steve Paiken got it right on election night back in June...

This is close to the original quote,but not quite...The question was why does the PC party's message only seem to resonate in rural Ontario...

"The Ontario PC party is: Too old,too male,too rural,too angry,too uneducated,too bigoted,and out of touch with modern realities of the province.."

I see they haven't learned those very important lessons...

Wed, 2015-02-25 21:32

#10

adma

The ONDP came within 7 points of Nicholls last year. Just saying.

Wed, 2015-02-25 21:42

#11

Debater

If Nicholls carries on like this, maybe there's a chance he will go down next time!

Thu, 2015-02-26 08:25

#12

adma

Keep in mind that pre-Nicholls, the seat was solid Liberal under Pat Hoy. So while the PC/Cons have been assiduous in scoring the SW Ontario Heartland vote lately, it isn't like there's no quicksand underneath or anything...

Thu, 2015-02-26 12:19

#13

tducey1

It's opinions like this that are keeping the Ontario Liberals in power.

Sun, 2015-03-01 23:09

#14

Aristotleded24

I have to wonder if people in the PC-dominated regions of Ontario are starting to feel frustrated and embarassed by these kinds of statements by the PCs, and if there are ways the NDP can speak to legitimate concerns these people have. Certainly taking on the Liberals directly and swimming against the Liberal tide in Toronto isn't working for them.

Mon, 2015-03-02 01:19

#15

Mr. Magoo

Quote:
I have to wonder if people in the PC-dominated regions of Ontario are starting to feel frustrated and embarassed by these kinds of statements by the PCs, and if there are ways the NDP can speak to legitimate concerns these people have.

I expect that if there are concerns, they're concerns that representatives like Nicholls don't remember to keep the K00kiness on the down low.

Not much the NDP can do about that.

Mon, 2015-03-02 01:32

#16

Aristotleded24

But that doesn't make any sense. If people genuinely believe what Nicholls claims, then they're not embarassed, and if anything, they want what you would characterize as "k00kiness" to be out in the open, as it would reflect their beliefs.

Mon, 2015-03-02 01:50

#17

Mr. Magoo

I have no doubt that some did a fist-pump at Nicholls' comments.

But I suspect that less-pious others realize that it's better to play their cards close to their chests when it comes to controversial K00kiness.

Don't we generally (and likely not unrealistically) expect that many social conservatives do this? Keep their anti-choice or anti-immigrant or anti-Native powder dry, so to speak?

I'm not, BTW, averse to the NDP or any other party trying to woo these PC supporters, or anything like that. I just don't think this sort of blurt-out is really a deal breaker for most of them, nor do I think they represent fertile ground on which to plant the seed of social democracy.

Mon, 2015-03-02 15:43

#18

Debater

It's very hard to persuade social conservatives to vote for any party other than the Conservatives/PC's.

They tend to view the Liberals & NDP as being a hothouse of moral degenerates and sexual heathens.

Mon, 2015-03-02 18:45

#19

welder

Aristotleded24 wrote:

I have to wonder if people in the PC-dominated regions of Ontario are starting to feel frustrated and embarassed by these kinds of statements by the PCs, and if there are ways the NDP can speak to legitimate concerns these people have. Certainly taking on the Liberals directly and swimming against the Liberal tide in Toronto isn't working for them.

To the first point...I don't think so...There's a reason these areas vote overwhelmingly Tory these days..

To the 2nd...Just wait until Wynne and Souza bring down the budget...It'll be almost Hudakian with a Liberal smile..

Mon, 2015-03-02 20:11

#20

Debater

Conservative MP James Lunney Tweets Against Evolution

03/02/2015

James Lunney, a federal Conservative MP, is using his Twitter account to come to the defence of an Ontario Progressive Conservative who told reporters last week that he doesn't believe in evolution.

The British Columbia chiropractor, first elected as a member of Parliament in 2000, has jumped into a fray that started last week in the Ontario Legislature.

Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP Rick Nicholls, who represents the province's Chatham-Kent-Essex riding, was heckling the provincial education minister on Wednesday when the matter of human origins came up.

. . .

But Lunney has come to Nicholls' defence.

"[Just] stop calling #evolution fact!" tweeted Lunney, who said he had no problem calling it a "theory."

Lunney, who represents the federal riding of Nanaimo-Alberni. seemed to be echoing views he expressed in a statement to the House in 2009:

"Any scientist who declares that the theory of evolution is a fact has already abandoned the foundations of science. For science establishes fact through the study of things observable and reproducible. Since origins can neither be reproduced nor observed, they remain the realm of hypothesis," he said then.

"The evolutionist may disagree, but neither can produce Darwin as a witness to prove his point. The evolutionist may genuinely see his ancestor in a monkey, but many modern scientists interpret the same evidence in favour of creation and a Creator."

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http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/03/02/conservative-mp-james-lun_n_6787...

Mon, 2015-03-02 20:13

#21

Snuckles

Quote:
TORONTO - A federal Conservative MP’s claim that Ontario’s new sex-ed curriculum grooms children for exploitation has drawn the ire of Education Minister Liz Sandals.

“It’s just totally off-base and, quite frankly, disgusting,” Sandals said Monday.

Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant, who represents the riding of Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to order the withdrawal of the “outrageous” new Health and Physical Education curriculum in a statement made in the federal legislature.

Gallant said the curriculum was written by someone charged with making and distributing child pornography and counselling to commit an indictable offence.

Read it [url=http://www.torontosun.com/2015/03/02/grits-condemn-tory-mp-for-sex-ed-re....

Tue, 2015-03-03 19:52

#22

Mr. Magoo

Quote:
Gallant said the curriculum was written by someone charged with making and distributing child pornography and counselling to commit an indictable offence.

It's unfortunately true that Ben Levin was one of many, many people involved with developing the new curriculum.

But it kind of beggars belief that Levin helped develop a curriculum that would make minors LESS vulnerable to predatory pedophiles, rather than MORE.

Trust me, Gallant is only up on her hind legs about this because minors might be taught that sex isn't so disgusting and dirty that it should be saved for marriage.

Tue, 2015-03-03 22:27

#23

Sineed

A deputy minister is far too high up the chain to have done any actual work on the policy. All real work in government is done by people below the level of assistant deputy minister.

Tue, 2015-03-03 22:31

#24

Mr. Magoo

I think the idea is that even if he only sat around drinking $16 orange juice and "conducting" with an air baton, the whole thing is now irreversably tainted and must be discarded wholesale in favour of more abstinence education (and plenty of shaming, just because).

Wed, 2015-03-04 07:27

#25

Slumberjack

Quote:
[Just] stop calling #evolution fact!" tweeted Lunney, who said he had no problem calling it a "theory.

I wish the same for the theory of gravity, if only these prehistoric thoughts and the people who utter them would float away on the breeze.

Wed, 2015-03-04 18:11

#26

Mr. Magoo

It's unfortunate that people who tend to shun science in favour of pseudo-science or faith also tend to read a scientific "theory" as meaning that "even scientists don't agree!" or "even science doesn't know!!", rather than seeing it for what it is: a structural reluctance to declaring something 100% true and certain if there remains even the tiniest shred of doubt.

Math also has theories. Doesn't mean that they don't hold up every time they're applied. It just means that nobody has yet been able to prove them to be applicable in every possible case. Even when no disproofs exist.

Now compare that to "Jeebus told me so in his bestselling book". To some folk, the "theory" of evolution is on (barely, begrudgedly) equal footing with the theory of an invisible, omnipotent magical superhero who lives in space and created us all out of dust and sheer will, 6000 years ago.