Do You Believe?

Some of you may have already read about the New Republic's survey of conservative pundits' views on evolution (subscription required, but my email link still worked, even though I did not re-up). But I wanted to make a few points on the responses.

First, Bill Kristol's response is shocking:

William Kristol, The Weekly Standard

Whether he personally believes in evolution: "I don't discuss personal opinions. ... I'm familiar with what's obviously true about it as well as what's problematic. ... I'm not a scientist. ... It's like me asking you whether you believe in the Big Bang."

How evolution should be taught in public schools: "I managed to have my children go through the Fairfax, Virginia schools without ever looking at one of their science textbooks."

"I don't discuss personal opinions"? Huh? Aren't you a pundit, a talking head? Isn't discussing your opinions your job? If you're not discussing your opinions when you appear on "Fox News Sunday," then whose opinions are you discussing? Karl Rove's?

"I'm familiar with what's obviously true"--OK, what is that? Wouldn't a good follow-up have been: Do you believe in the Big Bang? Are you familiar with "what's obviously true" about it? With what's "problematic"?

And he never looked at his kid's textbooks? Well, let's not listen to this guy re: parenting.

But David Brooks's response may be worse:

David Brooks, The New York Times (via email)

Whether he personally believes in evolution: "I believe in the theory of evolution."

What he thinks of intelligent design: "I've never really studied the issue or learned much about ID, so I'm afraid I couldn't add anything intelligent to the discussion."

Isn't "I've never really studied the issue or learned much" the worst dodge ever? I mean, what is there to know? I've attended a couple of public sessions about the subject, but I can't say that I needed to go to those events to have known enough to answer the question asked.

The shame here is that Brooks, Kristol, and other conservative pundits in the survey shill for Christian conservative opponents of the teaching of evolution in science classes, shill in effect for the intelligent design movement, but don't care enough to know the facts, and most of them don't even agree with their rank-and-file "partisans" when it comes to the origins of life. But instead of saying what they really think--on a major issue of the day--these guys continue to shill for the Christian conservatives . . . even if they won't discuss their own opinions.

That might be, er, politically inconvenient.