Rep. Paul Broun, who serves on the House Science Committee, (irony), told a church-sponsored banquet in his home state of Georgia that the theories of evolution and the big bang are “lies straight from the pit of hell.” Broun has long been known as one of the most conservative members of Congress, and an outspoken conservative Christian. What's really disturbing about this guy is that this guy is a doctor, a medical doctor with a degree in chemistry.
Broun says “all that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang theory” was part of a ploy to hide how old the Earth really is, “to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.” I don't remember any of this in my college Geology, Chemistry or Biology classes. What I did learn was science and not theology, theology I learned in a theology class or church.
Let me also add that another member of our illustrious Science and Technology Committee is Todd Akin, the genius that believes that a woman's body can discern when it's raped legitimately, and then self terminate the pregnancy. He also believes that doctors perform abortions on women who aren't even pregnant.
Back to Broun...he lists his views that would bring his college professors to shame and is clear pandering to his audience by stating: "You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I've found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I don't believe that the earth's but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That's what the Bible says." So he just contradicted himself, there is no scientific data in the world that states the earth is 9,000 years old, the Bible and the long list of "begets" are the only data that would lead him to that conclusion. There is no carbon dating, no scientific hypotheses, no nothing to support a 9,000 year old dating declaration other than hallucinatory drugs or a wish and a dream. He never named this so called scientific data, so that it can be tested. If it can't be tested, then it has to be relied on by faith and that's not science. Evolution and Big Bang are empirically supported theories. In science, a theory is an explanatory framework that both accounts for the available data and that has predictive power. Empirically supported means they have been beaten up by scientists for generations trying to disprove them and yet they are still supported by the data.Sorry Doc, but you should know better.
He goes on to say, "And what I've come to learn is that it's the manufacturer's handbook, is what I call it. It teaches us how to run our lives individually, how to run our families, how to run our churches. But it teaches us how to run all of public policy and everything in society. And that's the reason as your congressman I hold the Holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and I'll continue to do that." The Bible dictates how you run public policy, society, and how you vote? Oh really? In what imaginary Utoptian world is this? Christanity openly endorses slavery, rape, misogny, and child genocide. If you still associate with this ugly side of human history in any form, then you should have to suffer as all of your victims have. You know, that eye for an eye thing. Wait, we disregard that part of the Bible, we only like the parts that makes us feel warm and fuzzy until it's time to try and empathize and help someone less fortunate, then its all about me again. If I stuck the word Quran in that paragraph, I would think this was one of those scary Muslim countries they want to attack all the time. What they are describing is an oppressive theocratic society with the dominant religion being Judeo Christianity. But, what about the knawing fact that there are literally thousands of civilizations that have been been around longer than 9,000 years, like 10,000, and a whopping 30,000 years ago. They had fully functioning societies, so...were they just out floating in the void with *gasp* proof these homo sapiens existed. How stupid can these people be? I mean seriously.
Of course this exhibition of ignorance was met with thunderous applause, and displays a deliberate undermining of science, education, and the reason why America is lacking in math, science, and technology. This is what happens when we let Republicans get MD's from a mail order medical school after getting a degree in alchemy. This man wants votes no doubt, but he believes this crap, he truly has to believe this bird poop to say any of this with a straight face. No educated person could stand up, stone cold sober, and utter these words without a deep seeded belief in this idiotic dogma. Morality has nothing to do with ignorance, but in 2012, people still believe that the Bible is science and is like believing in the tooth fairy or santa clause, only for adults.
It's often the case that creationists do more harm to Christianity than any logical argument an atheist could make. When you force a choice between faith and objective reality, reality tends to win.The only things that are truly infinite are the universe and human stupidity and I think Albert Einstein was talking about this guy specifically. The reason people don't believe in evolution is because they are too lazy to google "natural selection", and they choose to hold onto the myth that it's all about "man is descended from monkey's", which is inaccurate.
Darwin's general theory presumes the development of life from non-life and stresses a purely naturalistic (undirected) "descent with modification". That is, complex creatures evolve from more simplistic ancestors naturally over time. In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism's genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival -- a process known as "natural selection." These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different organism (not just a variation of the original, but an entirely different creature). Basically, the new stronger creature will adapt and the older will die out. Survival of the fittest. That happens in nature all the time, even in our human reproductive system. It eliminates inferior species over time, how many cro magnon or mastadon have you seen lately? It explains our genetic makeup where we are located geographically, mating, everything. It's not meant to explain our salvation.
Darwin's general theory presumes the development of life from non-life and stresses a purely naturalistic (undirected) "descent with modification". That is, complex creatures evolve from more simplistic ancestors naturally over time. In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism's genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival -- a process known as "natural selection." These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different organism (not just a variation of the original, but an entirely different creature). Basically, the new stronger creature will adapt and the older will die out. Survival of the fittest. That happens in nature all the time, even in our human reproductive system. It eliminates inferior species over time, how many cro magnon or mastadon have you seen lately? It explains our genetic makeup where we are located geographically, mating, everything. It's not meant to explain our salvation.
These people probably think the night sky is a giant canopy with Gods light shining through it, who knows. What I do know, is that his facts that the earth being 9,000 years old came straight from his ass.
