Photo-Illustration: Konstantin Sergeyev/Daily Intelligencer. Photo: Pete Marovich/Getty Images (Pruitt); David Gifford/Science Photo Library

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt refuses to accept the theory of anthropogenic global warming, so it probably does not come as an enormous shock that Pruitt also refuses to accept the theory of evolution by natural selection. “There aren’t sufficient scientific facts to establish the theory of evolution,” Pruitt told a radio host in 2005, in tapes obtained by Politico.

Pruitt also expressed a number of other orthodox theocratic right-wing views, many of which he framed as part of his religious worldview. An EPA spokesman, asked about whether Pruitt’s skepticism of scientific conclusions conflicts with his mandate to follow science at the EPA, tells Politico, “If you’re insinuating that a Christian should not serve in capacity as EPA administrator, that is offensive and a question that does not warrant any further attention.”

That’s not what anybody was insinuating. Anyway, it’s 2018, and the administrator of the agency charged with assessing environmental threats and protecting against them is a kook who rejects out of hand any scientific theory that implies any revision of any right-wing belief whatsoever, including the right of companies to dump endless amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere for free.

And the official position of the agency is that its head can disbelieve any scientific theory that offends his religion, and has no obligation to clarify his own beliefs, and if you have any questions about this, you’re a bigot.