Wickersham's Conscience

To have a brief discussion on politics and evolution.

The Obama administration is drawing a lot of fire for its recent regulation requiring all employers provide health insurance plans that provide free contraceptives. The political reality is that most Americans – and most Catholics – support the idea.

Approval of Free Birth Control by Belief Groups - Graphic by Sarah Kliff

But let’s set the politics aside and examine the biology of the issue. You know, the science?

Any species that engages in conduct that is contrary to the species long term survival is dooming itself. The peacock’s tail: It may be very appealing to peahens, but it’s a serious handicap when you are trying to escape a predator.

Start with the premise that there are a couple billion too many people on the planet. If you disagree with that premise, you are irrational and should skip ahead to the next blog post. Now, if your species is able to develop a tool that allows you to voluntarily control that population, it beyond stupid not to use that technology. It is contrary to the species’ survival; it’s against our collective self-interest.

As the chart shows, Catholics are smarter than their Catholic leadership. They ignore Catholic dogma. Especially American Catholics ignore the prohibition on contraception. Overwhelmingly. Really since contraception became widely available. All those tirades from the pulpit and still something like 85% of American Catholics have used forms of birth control unapproved by the Church.

No, it’s the White Evangelicals who object to birth control, demonstrating that they are not as smart as their leaders, and insist on following contra-survival strategies. They insist upon procreating in the name of their god and exploding the population bomb that imperils the planet. Thats bad enough, But as the Republican’s strategy shows, they insist, in the name Christianism, in imposing their values and their world view on their fellow Americans. Clowns like presidential wannabe Rick Santorum want us to procreate until the poor, exhausted environment collapses under the weight of humanity.

Is this part of the denial of evolution? The rejection of science? For humanity as a whole, it’s a burgeoning evolutionary crisis. Hello?

We’ll now return to your regularly scheduled nature photography.