10 Controversial Ideas That Really Shouldn't Be Controversial

There is probably no greater manufactured controversy than the "evolution vs. intelligent design" debate. Accepted by mainstream scientists for over 100 years, Darwin's theory of evolution is far and away the most complete explanation science can provide for the diversity of life on Earth.

Furthermore, time and time again the Supreme Court has ruled that evolution should be taught in public schools and should remain unaltered by religious concepts like creationism.

Many of America's problems with science denial is probably best represented by the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY. Set up like a science museum, yet full of exhibits showing model dinosaurs walking next to humans, it is the embodiment of religious belief pretending to be science (with humorous consequences).

The sad thing about this "debate" is that there are so many ways evolution could be disproven, because it makes so many predictions (that all turn out to be true). If creationists could find, say, a Golden Retriever from the Precambrian, it would wreck the whole theory, but try as they might, the entire diversity of human life on this planet always happens to end up in just the right order.

The media is vastly more comfortable with a homosexual- friendly culture than they were a decade ago. We watch Ellen, re-runs of Will and Grace, and get style tips from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Homophobia is in decline. Those without a religious agenda have come to the realization that homosexuals are just regular people who want the same freedoms as everyone else.There’s no mystique or abnormality about it. They are just regular couples that are of the same gender.

In our lifetime we will look back on the gay marriage debates with the same guilt and shame that people must have felt with issues like women’s rights and segregation. To deny two people who love each other the chance to share the same rituals and benefits as a straight couple is appalling. It is incredibly demeaning that politicians throw around the term “civil unions” and treat gay people like they are second-class citizens. These gay marriage protestors speak of morality, but isn’t morality linked more to kindness and equality than to ostracism and exclusivity? 

Are we honestly trying to defend the sanctity of marriage with the current divorce rate? (Ironically, states that ban gay marriage tend to have a higher divorce rate.) The most ridiculous hypocrisy comes from Republican politicians who run campaigns on family values while they secretly have something else going on. Remember Larry Craig, a Republican who (allegedly but c’mon you know he did) solicited sex in an airport bathroom? Are all of these scummy politicians, who are getting caught with hookers and fathering illegitimate children, really trying to defend the sacred union of marriage? There are millions of gay people I'd rather give it to.

I think we can all get onboard with the notion that homosexuality is not a choice. This biological predisposition has to do with the state of the womb during gestation. The result is a mutation much like handedness. In fact, homosexuality is about as common a mutation as left-handedness. 

It may be cliché but knowledge is power. If a parent is adamantly against sex education then they can keep their child in the dark, but it is unfair and unjust to hold back the children who could really benefit from such knowledge.  We should be empowering young people to take control of their lives and their bodies and provide them with the tools to make smarter decisions. In 2006, 7% of teenage girls got pregnant and that rate has only been rising. To just sit idly by and let the rates of teen pregnancy and STIs reach epidemic proportions is wrong.

It has been proven time and time again: abstinence education doesn’t work. While it is a positive message to send to young people to wait to have sex, the reality is (and always has been) that most people aren’t married when they first have sex. Even if teens do wait until they are older, what then? Who will be instructing them on safe sex? Who will tell them where they can go to get free medical examinations when 1 in 4 of them gets a sexually transmitted infection?

In many low income neighborhoods a child’s best education comes from the television. Do we really think telling these kids to abstain is effective? 

I really didn’t even need to write this section if could have just typed two words: Bristol Palin.

Climate change statistics have been embraced by all of the major national academies of science. There is a broad consensus by the most intelligent men and women on the planet that recent warming trends are very likely caused by human activity. Yeah, it might be difficult and expensive, but doing something about it shouldn't be a partisan issue.

Imagine a world where you didn’t have to be friends with a man in a poncho to buy good weed or have someone masterfully rolling your spliffs. That world is not so far away. As the older generations slowly become the ones that were the flower children of the 60s and 70s, the restrictions on marijuana are waning.

Slowly but surly its happening. The penalties for possession are decreasing. People are legally growing and prescribing marijuana. It has enhanced the lives millions of chronically ill people. In fact, there are many people who attest that it has saved them from suicide or depression. Even our president (and many of our previous presidents) admit to smoking the good stuff back in the day.  Marijuana use is pretty common and the time has come for it to be likened to such legal drugs like cigarettes or alcohol.

The idea that addictive cigarettes are sold everywhere while marijuana is frowned upon seems a little bit silly. 440,000 people die in the US each year from cigarette smoking. Guess how many die from marijuana use? Zero. The legalization of marijuana movement is not advocating that people smoke pot, merely for the right to do so without being prosecuted as if they were smoking crack.

This prohibition of marijuana does not hinder many; it just makes them learn how to evade the law. We all know that sooner or later, marijuana will be legalized and why not now when we could use the revenue?  

Most of the opposition to Barack Obama comes from blatant lies. There is no greater example of this than the allegations that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Everyone likes a bit of gossip and a good conspiracy theory now and again, but the “birther movement” is really just a last ditch attempt to keep Obama out of the Oval Office. Obama is president, guys, it is time to move on.

Obama even poked fun at this issue at the 2010 White House Correspondents Dinner when he said, “…there are few things in life that are harder to find and more important to keep than love -- well, love and a birth certificate.”

Obama’s childhood is well-documented. His autobiographies from long before his presidential campaign show pictures and share stories of his childhood in Hawaii. His birth certificate is online for everyone to see. Truly it is time for the birthers to stop being sore losers and move on to their next battle.

Let’s settle this once and for all: Barack Obama is not Muslim, and even if he were, who cares? Anti-Obama crazies have been gossiping about his religious beliefs since the presidential campaign. 

What makes the issue even more nonsensical is that people will claim Obama is of the Muslim faith and still damn him for the Reverend Wright incident. You can’t have it both ways people! Either wildly speculate that Obama is a Muslim or be angry that his Christian leader is making inappropriate comments.

This debate is more fit for the Weekend Update segment on SNL called “Really?! With Seth and Amy” than it is for actual politics.

Since when was it okay for the world media to censor one group of people in order to appease another? People have been debating for years now whether cartoons of the prophet Muhammad should be printed because it is offensive to the Muslim faith. The controversy bubbled to the surface in 2005 when the prophet Muhammad was caricatured  in a Danish journal and the situation escalated to many other countries resulting in violent protests. The media in large part has been quick to defend this ridiculous censorship under the thinly veiled guise of cultural sensitivity, when this kind of Muslim extremism is the kind of culture that we should not be sensitive to.  Had the cartoons offended another religion like Judaism or Buddhism, these media outlets would have had the spine to defend their freedom of speech.

Wouldn’t it be great if Muslims for once could just take it in stride and say, “Good one! Now I’m going to draw a cartoon of Jesus performing unspeakable sexual acts,” and then Christians would reply, “You got us Muslims!” and then we can all just move on? 

This whole cartoon issue was really just the straw that broke the camel’s back. The pent up aggression was already there and these cartoons have just focused that aggression on a new target. We should never succumb to the demands of any religion especially when in doing so we deny a person’s freedom to self-expression.  I understand the need for cultural sensitivity but extreme levels of political correctness turn swiftly into absurdity. The fact that a doodle has incited such rage just shows the preposterousness of religious extremism.

The flu is a destroyer of holidays, promoter of sick days, and a salesman of facemasks, but the one thing the flu is not is a government conspiracy. I mean, cmon, the government couldn't keep a blowjob secret.

While a healthy amount of skepticism may be beneficial, conspiracy theorists need to get a new hobby. Their brains have been warped into believing that we are being injected with a dormant virus that an evil politician who possesses the only antidote will trigger in order to lead a totalitarian regime. Perhaps these people have watched too many episodes of Pinky and the Brain as children? 

The idea that the atrocity that was the Holocaust was actually a Jewish conspiracy is not only anti-Semitic, it is unfathomably stupid. With all of the memorials, photographs, and first hand accounts how could anyone think that the Holocaust was a hoax without having some deep emotional issues? Those who deny the Holocaust call themselves "historical revisionists" but really the only thing they are “revisioning” is their grip on reality. Their version of history is no more likely to happen than a Lord of the Rings fanatic finding Middle Earth. 

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We can build skyscrapers, go into outer space, uncover million year old fossils and still there are people who are so astonishingly ignorant that they hold us back from the progress we could achieve. I implore anyone with half a brain to educate themselves on a topic before endorsing one side or another.