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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

It's (almost) unbelievable


Marco Rubio – A Republican Senator from Florida – is tipped to be a candidate for the Republican nomination at the next Presidential election.  He was recently asked this question by GQ magazine

GQ: How old do you think the Earth is?
Marco Rubio: "I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries."
Senator Rubio is on the Senate Committee of Commerce, Science and transportation - and I am sure he makes a valuable contribution.

This response did not surprise me at all. I imagine that the last four Republican Presidents were Creationists – I think it is probably obligatory.

What did flabbergast me was a Gallup Poll in June this year that showed that 46% of Americans believe that:

“God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the past 10,000 years.” 
I find this statistic astonishing. I am guessing that the corresponding figure in places like Australia and Europe would be less than 1%.
Other than those who attend fundamentalist religious schools – I cannot imagine any student leaving school in Australia without having some idea of evolution.
When you break the figures down further they are not so surprising.
67% of those who attend church weekly are creationists
58% of Republicans are creationists.
It is not comforting to know that when I go to the USA two out of every three people I see believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old.

4 comments:

  1. The vast majority of people I know taught their children Santa Claus as real as weLL. Then they shatter the myth. I chose to teach my children about Santa Claus realisticaLLy from the beginning, that he is a myth that other parents and society for some strange reason incorporate into a holiday. I also told them not to reveal this to their friends. I realize that if I traveled to the Orient that I would be surrounded by people who believe in reincarnation but I just ignore this. I pretty much stopped trying to change people in the area of religious belief about three decades ago, but living in a deeply Red zone of the US, people constantly don't afford the same luxury to me, but I just ignore aLL attempts at having any conversations about it. I just try to enjoy the humans (and dogs) aLL around me in aLL their limited and incomplete yet complex and confounding ways of under-understanding the universe. [Ha, I reaLLy like my new double 'under' word!]

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  2. I guess we'll find out the truth when we get to heaven or hell....

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  3. esb: I know i can't change it - but I am still amazed by it.

    Sandy: Unless you are catholic - they abolished hell a few years ago.

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  4. Do they sell frozen beer in hell? And warm one to Australians?

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