It’s no news that Georgian congressman Paul Broun is a strange bird (he’s the clown who wanted to ban Playboy from the PX), well, here he is again (TPM reports):
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) tore into scientists as tools of the devil in a speech at the Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman’s Banquet last month.
“All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell,” Broun said. “And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.”
According to Broun, the scientific plot was primarily concerned with hiding the true age of the Earth. Broun serves on the House Science Committee, which came under scrutiny recently after another one of its Republican members, Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), suggested that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses against pregnancy.
“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,” he said. “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.”
Okey dokey.
On the other hand, the décor of the venue where he was speaking clearly was worth seeing.
He’s a medical doctor. Doesn’t that make him sort of an auxiliary tool of the devil?
WOW! What a complete idiot. This person is a walking talking public health risk of the highest order.
So what do we do? On the one hand we have fiscally conservative, but scientifically ignorant creationist nut cakes, rendering judgements on issues of science. On the other hand you have Liberal fruitcakes who may believe in evolution, by they also believe we never have to balance the budget, can print or tax our way back to a healthy economy, and that muslims will start to like us if we are just really really tolerant and patient. What is Ironic is that Liberals have the proof right here at home that there is no reasoning with religious zealots. I’m not sure which irrationality is the more frightening.
So what do we do? On the one hand we have fiscally conservative, but scientifically ignorant creationist nut cakes, rendering judgements on issues of science. On the other hand you have Liberal fruitcakes who may believe in evolution, by they also believe we never have to balance the budget, can print or tax our way back to a healthy economy, and that muslims will start to like us if we are just really really tolerant and patient. What is Ironic is that Liberals have the proof right here at home that there is no reasoning with religious zealots. I’m not sure which irrationality is the more frightening.
As a clergyman myself, I took advantage of Pulpit Freedom Sunday to endorse whomever is running against this ignoramus. The worst part is that he’s on the Science and Technology committee, making policy relating to biotechnology, space exploration, etc.
Maybe someone should tell Rep. Broun that the principal architect of the Big Bang Theory (I’m talking cosmology, not television) was the Rev. Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian Roman Catholic priest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre
For that matter, what we usually call “Darwinism” should probably be called “Darwinism-Mendelism”, since it needs Mendelenian genetics to work. And Gregor Mendel was, of course, a monk. (I read somewhere that Mendel wanted to try out his theory on mammals by breeding mice, but his abbot forbade this- not on doctrinal grounds but because he feared the monastery being overrun by mice.)
People mix the ‘What Is’ with the ‘What Should Be’. When did knowing the age of the earth started meaning anything than just the age of the earth,and this goes for any fact about the universe. You see, people who are secular are secular not because they don’t believe in god, but because existence or non existence of god doesn’t mean they should go to a church or a synagogue or mosque or eat kosher food or something. There is no logical connection between the existence of certain things and what you should do (I know that most secular people give other explanations ).The same goes for the people who claim that their lives are guided by science. Science is just a method of relating to the physical world and it can help to learn facts about it. It can’t ,however, tell you what to do. So technically this person can be a medical doctor and a religious fundamentalist at the same time or a monk can use the scientific method to discover Mendelian genetics.
Now That I’ve finished Ranting I beg pardon if I offended someone.
One need this moments of catharsis 🙂