Politicians Say the Most Unscientific Things!

Washington sometimes seems like a place where the scientific method goes to die. More often than not, laws are passed based on ideological desires rather than rational considerations. Facts are made to fit arguments, when they should be molding them. Issues are brought to the forefront by attention-grabbing anecdotes, not any sort of evidential need.

So it is not surprising that this sort of unscientific thinking occasionally yields inane blather. Here, we count down nine of the silliest things politicians have ever said on matters of science. Happy Election Day!

9. Representative Paul Broun: "I've come to understand that all that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang Theory; all that is lies straight from the Pit of Hell."

8. President Ronald Reagan: "Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."

7. Senator John McCain: "It's indisputable that (autism) is on the rise among children, the question is what's causing it. And we go back and forth and there's strong evidence that indicates it's got to do with a preservative in vaccines."

6. President Barack Obama: "We've seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it's connected to the vaccines. This person included. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it."

5. Representative Dennis Kucinich: "While we wait for scientists to sort out the health effects of cell phone radiation, we must allow consumers to have enough information to choose a phone with less radiation."

4. Delaware senate nominee Christine O'Donnell: "American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains."

3. Representative John Shimkus: "If we decrease the use of carbon dioxide, are we not taking away plant food from the atmopshere?"

2. Representative Joe Barton: "Wind is God’s way of balancing heat. Wind is the way you shift heat from areas where it’s hotter to areas where it’s cooler. That’s what wind is. Wouldn’t it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up?"

1. Representative Hank Johnson (speaking about the island of Guam): "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize."

(Image: AP)