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October 10th, 2012
12:01 PM ET
Congressman draws fire for calling evolution, Big Bang ‘lies from the pit of hell’By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor Washington (CNN) – A U.S. congressman is attracting attention and criticism for an online video that shows him blasting evolution and the Big Bang theory as “lies from the pit of hell” in a recent speech at a church event in his home state of Georgia. “All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, the Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell,” U.S Rep. Paul Broun said in an address last month at a banquet organized by Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell, Georgia. “And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.” Broun, a medical doctor by training, serves on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Speaking at Liberty Baptist Church’s Sportsman’s Banquet on September 27, he said that “a lot of scientific data that I’ve found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth.” Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter “I don’t believe that the Earth’s but about 9,000 years old,” Broun said in the speech, which Liberty Baptist Church posted on its website via YouTube. “I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says." Scientists say that the Earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old and that the universe dates back 13.7 billion years. In his speech to the church group, Broun called the Bible the “the manufacturer’s handbook. … It teaches us how to run all of public policy and everything in our society.” “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,” he said. A spokeswoman for the congressman, Meredith Griffanti, said that Broun was not available for comment on Wednesday and that the video showed him “speaking off the record to a large church group about his personal beliefs regarding religious issues.” The congressman’s remarks about science have drawn attention online, with critics taking aim at his role on the science committee. Bill Nye, the popular science personality, told the Huffington Post in an e-mail that "Since the economic future of the United States depends on our tradition of technological innovation, Representative Broun's views are not in the national interest." "For example, the Earth is simply not 9,000 years old," said Nye, a mechanical engineer and television personality best known for his program "Bill Nye the Science Guy." Broun "is, by any measure, unqualified to make decisions about science, space, and technology." Talking Points Memo reported on the church video over the weekend after being tipped off by the Bridge Project, a progressive group that tracks conservative activity. Most creationists believe in the account of the origins of the world as told in the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories In the creation account, God creates Adam and Eve, the world and everything in it in six days. For Christians who read the Genesis account literally, or authoritatively as they would say, the six days in the account are literal 24-hour periods and leave no room for evolution. Young Earth creationists use this construct and biblical genealogies to determine the age of the Earth and typically come up with 6,000 to 10,000 years. The Gallup Poll has been tracking Americans' views on creation and evolution for 30 years. In June, it released its latest findings, which showed that 46% of Americans believed in creationism, 32% believed in evolution guided by God, and 15% believed in atheistic evolution. – CNN's Eric Marrapodi contributed to this report. soundoff (5,881 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 Next »Post a comment |
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This guy and Todd Akin serve on the House Committee on Science....?
Downright scary that this guy got elected to office. No wonder he's not a practicing physician.
What are you scared of? I am a physician and believe in God as creator. Do you think that makes me just suddenly lacerate the aorta in the operating room? Are you aware of Isaac Newton's religious beliefs? Did they make his science second-rate? What silly planet do you come from? Who cares what was here a billion years ago or not - it makes little difference here and now.
Well said. This is a scarey man to have in government!
adh, do you think Broun is playing with a full deck when he says that evolution and the Big Bang are "from the pit of hell"? Is that what you believe?
I wonder if any of you realize that Presidents Washington and Lincoln were religious. Did that make them crazy?
Why don't you answer my question, adh?
@adh: In case you never noticed, Sir Isaac Newton lived at a time when he did not have the freedom to state his private thoughts about the Universe's origin. He lived at a time of ZERO tolerance for thinking outside of the box. So he just did his research and did NOT prance about making a target out of himself. So please don't use him as an example of your religious underpinnings.
adh, Lincoln was not a particularly religious man, and we are talking here about a sitting member of the House of Representatives in the year 2012, not 1861,
"The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession." President Abraham Lincoln, who by the way NEVER officially joined any church in his life.
As others have suggested, the gentlemen named above, and any contemporaries anyone else wants to attempt to use as further examples, lived when one could be put to death for telling the truth (there is no proof for any god) or they were simply going along with the custom of the day. There is no excuse to continue the charade of religion in the 21st century.
To Tom the Piper's Son: I believe in the New Testament and believe that Jesus was a special person who came from God. He said nothing about the Big Bang, for or against. Science has supported the Big Bang; so I am fine with it. The Bible talks about God putting a woman and a man in a garden and creating many species of life, and implies it occurrred about 7,000 years ago. Science can't disprove that God made an Adam or an Eve anymore than it can disprove that Abe Lincoln said "Fourscore and seven years ago" at Gettysburg. The problem comes when people extrapolate things out of the Bible. The Bible never says life didn't exist a billion years ago on the earth; it says nothing of dinosaurs; etc. etc.
It must be recognized that evolution has problems also. It is not a fact, because it was never witnessed. Explain to me why so many fossils and fossil fuels contain detectable carbon-14 (if millions of years old, they should contain none). Explain to me why some primitive cultures 1000 years ago have pictures of dinosaurs. Explain to me how the first female evolved oxytocin fast enough to deliver the first baby, or if the first male evolved biological Viagra fast enough to get an erection, so the race wouldn't go extinct. I think any fair person should admit that there are some things which are controversial and which science can't determine with certainty. I could go on forever in this vein but you hopefully get the gist.
You've stated your beliefs, but you haven't answered the other question: do you think Broun is a reasoning, rational human and capable of making good decisions about science when he makes statements like that?
It's fine with me if one believes in a god; it's not fine when one goes off the deep end and claims that evolution and the Big Bang are lies from the pit of hell. Someone with such extreme and unfounded views is dangerous to a secular government.
Look where he is from. I live in the heart of the south and a lot of people think that way.
There is systemic inadequacy to appreciate critical thinking by some in this world which leads to this kind of knee-jerk emotionalism. Although many religious people may claim to be educated — the basic premise of education is the ability to question, critically analyze, and tolerate views with which we may not agree.
Another idiot. How many of these nuts do the people need to see before they wake up an realize that they need to be replaced with thinking people. Science isn't based on polls, but on actual facts.
Its staggering that this guy is in office. They couldnt have elected a more clueless, delusional egomaniac if they tried. He is praying on very stupid people and he knows exactly what they want to hear all in an attempt to try an keep himself in office. All religions are a pack of lies straight from hell and the resultant death toll are some VERY REAL numbers. I'm really embarrased for my country.
'preying'...not 'praying'. What is that saying about stones and glass houses?
Good grief. What an embarrassment.
What a nut. I mean to be a grown educated man and believe such brainwashing nonsense. Broun, fortunately, does not represent all Christians.
Not only does he represent all Christians, he represents all Americans – and on the House Committee for Science, Space, and Technology, at that.
Just another Southern Christian Fundamentalist who has purposefuly rejected hard science for the nonsense of religion. The South is FULL of these guys, the problem I have is that this one serves in the US House and on the Science committee.
What one says in private and "off the cuff" is very often what one truly believes in his heart. This man is a challenge to the all that we stand for in this country, and should NOT be allowed to serve, VOTE HIM OUT, people of Georgia!
Here's where to make your complaint:
http://science.house.gov/contact-us/email-us
Thank you Rufus, I did make my complaint just now. Thanks again.
And this idiot is a doctor? Like most born-agains, he is living in a dream world.
Take this idiot out to the Grand Canyon and have him explain how that big ditch came to be in the last 9000 years.. Or the islands of Hawaii.. Or the Great Lakes, which are leftovers from the last ice age.. Take him in to the Science Center in Chicago and have him explain the skeltal remains of a T-Rex.. How can people just keep putting their heads in the sand?
@Captain Ron,
simples! "God did it"
There's really no talking with these people.
$10 says he answers with "Noah's flood did it!!"
Imagine if the Bible claimed the world was flat!
It did.
It still does.
Bruce...prove it. The verses usually relied upon by atheists stem from clearly biased interpretations (i.e. the Bible's reference to four corners is clearly a references to E S N & W, yet atheists choose to say that that proves the Bible says flat earth–that's just a childish and nonsensical interpretation).
At some point Jesus and Satan climbed a mountain and the bible says they saw all of the Earth. This could only be possible if the person who wrote that part thought the Earth was flat.
bla bla bla...
it's the only horse running, so we have to support it
The science has moved on past evolution, we know
but we haven't found another story to explain the obvious away yet, so we're keeping this one for now
Intellectual Bullying – telling unlearned children this outdated theory, when we know better
Nonsense
Here's the definition of a scientific theory from Wikipedia:
"A scientific theory is "a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment."
Also, the theory of evolution is the backbone of the science known as Biology.
When we were stationed in Illinois, we went to a First United Church of Christ, a rather conservative congregation. The Pastor made the point that much of the stories in the Bible were parables, that reasonable Christians understood that the world wasn't really made in just seven days, but over a period of time (that probably included the concept of evolution), with each day representing the initial implementation of a stage in evolution of earth...whew. The idea that so many on the Christian Right have as much intolerance, desire to force the US into a right-wing theocracy and the attempts to censor any opposition makes you think of both the intolerance of extreme Islam and 1930's Germany.
So true.
"Forgive them, for they know what they do". He's an idiot, and has no idea he's an idiot. So impeach the clown, and forget about him.
Not only did this man get elected but he's also on the science committee? I've now officially lost faith in democracy.
Don't give up on democracy – give up on believers and their myths, regardless which party they belong to.
He deserves to be the head of science. He speaks only the Truth. just because it doesn't sound right doesn't mean it's wrong! There's your sign. ROMNEY/RYAN 2012
@just sayin, you are just saying something that is fundamentally a lie. This man has a right to his own opinion, not his own facts.
I wonder what Captain "Asshole" America would just say about this...
@TAK,
proper science education is what can save democracy.
This is why the fundies fight education as hard as they do. It is what keeps them from implementing the theocracy that the American Taliban prays so hard for.
The sooner this current generation of religious idiots die off – the better it is – for the whole world.
And people lament that new generations of Americans are increasingly less educated than those from other nations.
Unfortunately its true.
http://science.house.gov/contact-us
http://paulbroun.com/contact-us
706-369-9039
Paul@paulbroun.com
They don't want to hear what you have to say. All the more reason to tell them. Be loud, email or call these guys. They need to be put in their place. Don't just post here.
Sounds more like a witch doctor.