Miss USA 2011 is an intelligent person

I'm not a fan of beauty pageants, mostly because they seem boring, fake and most of their answers sound shallow. Yet I couldn't help but notice that the new Miss USA, Alyssa Campanella, is not just a "huge geek" but also has no problems accepting that evolution is a fact.

Good news! The new Miss USA contest winner has beauty AND brains!



Asked if evolution should be taught in public schools, Miss Campanella replied, "I was taught evolution in high school. I do believe in it. I'm a huge science geek...I like to believe in the big bang theory and, you know, the evolution of humans throughout time."

After the initial celebration, a couple of friends pointed a couple of things that lowered my happiness levels. This shouldn't be much of a celebration, but of shame and indignation, because only 1 of the 51 contestants gave an actually scientifically accurate answer.

What about the other 50? Many of them have no idea what evolution is, or how evolution works. To them, being "beautiful" seems enough. No wonder that many tend to think of girls who participate in beauty pageants as shallow and dumb.

Yet, there is hope. I don't consider myself as a 100% optimist, but if at least one contestant is brave enough to say something that might be deemed controversial or offending by the largely ignorant public avid of beauty contests, then a better future might be possible. A future beauty goes hand in hand with intelligence. That's something I can believe in, since it depends on us.

Around 50% of Americans are creationists. This means, they believe that God created humans and everything that exists as it is right now, which is utter ignorance, not to say pure stupidity and a shame to a country that is (or at least, used to be) first in many aspects. But the numbers among the girls in the contest are worse, since only two of them said something scientifically coherent. I know they are not scientists, but a question like this is similar to "is the Earth flat?"

This is one of the effects religion has on people who has a deep and twisted sense of "freedom"; they think they are entitled to their own "truth", as if facts depended on whether someone wants to accept them or not.

Finally, 98.5% of US scientists accept evolution as a fact. That's certainly a more reliable group than the pastors who insist the Earth is no older than 7000 years and the people who believe them. I have to admit it's hard not to look down on those people.

Finally, because Alyssa Campanella is the new Miss USA, some pictures of her:






You know what? I do think she's pretty, but not "remarkably" pretty. Actually, I think last year's Miss USA, Rima Fakih, was more beautiful. But that's just like, my opinion.