Paul Broun: Evolution, Big Bang theory ‘lies straight from pit of hell’

To the rest of the country, this may come as a bit of a surprise. To those of us in Georgia, not so much.

From the AP:

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia Rep. Paul Broun said in videotaped remarks that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory are “lies straight from the pit of hell” meant to convince people that they do not need a savior.

The Republican lawmaker made those comments during a speech Sept. 27 at a sportsman’s banquet at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell. Broun, a medical doctor, is running for re-election in November unopposed by Democrats.

“God’s word is true,” Broun said, according to a video posted on the church’s website. “I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior.”

The quote comes at 34:50 in the video above, in which Broun first recounts his exploits as a big-game trophy hunter. Later, he witnesses for Christ and tells his own personal story of finding salvation at a moment of crisis. Personally, I think a more telling moment comes a little earlier, when he tells the audience that pastors of other, more mainstream Christian denominations “are going to send their people to hell” because in his opinion, they do not stress a personal relationship with their savior.

Broun, who is a physician by training, sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. I think it’s important to stress that the setting for his remarks is religious in character rather than political.

– Jay Bookman

913 comments Add your comment

Oscar

October 6th, 2012
11:50 pm

Towncrier

___________

According to Romney and Ryan, candidates don’t have platforms. They say platforms are things that parties pass at the conventions that don’t really have anything to do with the candidates.

Midori

October 6th, 2012
11:54 pm

Oh please,

don’t let it rub off…..

Fred ™

October 6th, 2012
11:54 pm

Damn. Talk about a stellar pick weekend. Near as I can figure I missed 8 or 9 out of 15 games……

Fred ™

October 6th, 2012
11:55 pm

What are we rubbing Midori?

getalife

October 6th, 2012
11:55 pm

Jm,

Where should I put my money jm?

Fred,

Like I said, Mett sux but our defense played well.

Oscar

October 6th, 2012
11:56 pm

Fred ™

_____

I think I had a week or two like that last year. I’m not picking this year.

G Mare

October 6th, 2012
11:56 pm

Fred, surely not EVERYONE at Penn State knew what was going on. And if they did, then all should be punished. Please be assured that I in no way condone what happened there. In my opinion, everyone involved or knew & did not report should be castrated & confined to solitary FOR LIFE. My point was that those who did not know should not be so harshly punished. On the other hand, why didn’t they know; they should have known. Yeah, I am truly conflicted here.

Jm - HNS

October 6th, 2012
11:56 pm

Bro

The American pronghorn is fascinating

If you don’t already know the story, the thing is way way faster than anything on the continent that could possibly eat it. Unless you go back in time a few years……

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/24/science/pronghorn-s-speed-may-be-legacy-of-past-predators.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Fred ™

October 6th, 2012
11:57 pm

GMare: MY point is that they aren’t victims. They are perpetrators at worst, enablers at least. They need to be ignored at best not glorified like they are being now.

Oscar

October 6th, 2012
11:58 pm

I did thing Florida would beat LSU and Tech would lose to Clemson. So I’m 2 for 2 this week. Those were my only two picks.

TGT

October 6th, 2012
11:58 pm

Finches and moth’s? Please. The genetic information for their (very slight) changes was already present in some of the species. This is natural selection, not one kind of creature changing into another. In other words, moths are still moths and finches are still finches. Same thing with the pronghorn.

When it comes to the human eye, according to Jonathan Sarfati (PhD), “The retina can detect a single photon of light, and it’s impossible to improve on this sensitivity! More than that, it has a dynamic range of 10 billion (1010) to one; that is, it will still work well in an intensity of 10 billion photons. Modern photographic film has a dynamic range of only 1,000 to one.” Also, according to ophthalmologist Dr George Marshall, “The idea that the eye is wired backward comes from a lack of knowledge of eye function and anatomy.”

Jm - HNS

October 6th, 2012
11:59 pm

Getalife

I don’t give investment advice generally

My investment ideas can be scary, and require tons of patience. Sometimes even trying my patience.

Cash. Fiscal cliff could suck. Or TIPS may be. Assuming you’re very risk averse and retired.

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:00 am

Anytime an institution or group is punished a lot of innocent people suffer. Even when an individual is convicted of a crime, his family suffers, maybe a spouse and children.
That’s part of the process.

Towncrier

October 7th, 2012
12:00 am

“If you dig deeper, the King James Version is basically what King James wanted the Bible to state.”

That is completely false. Did the Church of England have some undue influence on the translation? Yes. Overall, though, most knowledgeable scholars consider it to be a pretty good translation.

“Unless you are using the ancient untranslated Hebrew texts, I don’t think you’re reading the Bible in it’s true form anyway.”

I believe God only holds us accountable for what we actually know of the truth. The Bible is not complex and it is pretty clear what right and wrong are in ANY translation (not paraphrase). Most good translations today get about 99% or more of it right. I have not seen any serious scholarly dispute about whether or not the Bible says homosexuality is a sin.

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:01 am

Jm – Don’t like TIPS. Don’t think they keep up with real inflation.

Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes

October 7th, 2012
12:01 am

Hiya, Midori! :wink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CYfl3xK4Qw

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paul Broun?

A judgmental asshat.

Georgia would be a better State without him in it.

Fred ™

October 7th, 2012
12:01 am

Jm - HNS

October 7th, 2012
12:02 am

TGT, natural selection = evolution

You are aware that the image projected on the retina is wired to the human brain upside down, correct?

Jm - HNS

October 7th, 2012
12:03 am

Oscar 12:01 hear ya. Kind of a least worst option

You can always short treasuries… :)

But fighting the Fed is tricky game.

Towncrier

October 7th, 2012
12:03 am

“According to Romney and Ryan, candidates don’t have platforms. They say platforms are things that parties pass at the conventions that don’t really have anything to do with the candidates.”

I guess the same can’t be said for Obama who acted to amend the DNC platform just before it was voted upon.

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:04 am

Homosexuality is not a sin. Why would it be? Not in the bible.

leroy

October 7th, 2012
12:04 am

religion is the opiate of the masses. dude was right. no one has understood that better than the ultra right which used it to wipe out all the moderate conservatives first. this is just the new incarnation of the spanish inquisition, funded by billionaires. well except what the chinese are pitching in. how can you go wrong with secret money.

Fred ™

October 7th, 2012
12:04 am

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:04 am

Homosexuality is not a sin. Why would it be? Not in the bible.
+++++++++++++++++++++

Re-read your bible.

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:05 am

Kind of a least worst option

________

That’s what Churchill said about democratic forms of government. Just the least worst.

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:06 am

Re-read your bible
_____

You think it might have changed since the last time I read it. Don’t think so.

Jm - HNS

October 7th, 2012
12:06 am

Oscar, yawp

Love Churchill even if he was a little crazy

getalife

October 7th, 2012
12:07 am

Jm,

Did you see the collapse coming?

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:07 am

But fighting the Fed is tricky game.

________

But what an adrenaline rush.

The Dude Abides

October 7th, 2012
12:07 am

” dude was right.”

Always. Or mostly.

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:09 am

Love Churchill even if he was a little crazy

________

Interesting how people ignore what a nut job he was. He was lucky that Hitler was more crazy.

Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes

October 7th, 2012
12:09 am

Jm - HNS

October 7th, 2012
12:09 am

Getalife

I was short all the home builders for a long time, and otherwise cash at the time

I’d say mostly yes

Wish I’d been short subprime by the millions at the time though

That was the huge home run

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:11 am

Always. Or mostly.

________

Right about what? Missed most of everything. Not even right about religion.

G Mare

October 7th, 2012
12:11 am

Fred, the churches ARE TAX EXEMPT! If that does not equate to government support, I truly do not know what does.

Towncrier

October 7th, 2012
12:12 am

“Homosexuality is not a sin. Why would it be? Not in the bible.”

The Greek word translated as “sin”, hamartia, means to “miss the mark”. Essentially, any human behavior that subverts or strays from the way things are designed to work (like pouring water into a gas tank) is sin. People are designed to love and trust each other (hence, murder and stealing and lying and the like subvert the way things are supposed to work). Likewise, men and women were designed to complement each other, to make together one whole, in every conceivable way (including sexually). Homosexuality is a subversion of that design.

Jm - HNS

October 7th, 2012
12:12 am

Oscar

Yes. But I don’t know that a lesser person (or less crazy person than Churchill) could’ve gotten the UK through the Battle of Britain

Most would’ve given up somewhere along the way

Sometimes it’s good to be crazy

Fred ™

October 7th, 2012
12:12 am

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:06 am

Re-read your bible
_____

You think it might have changed since the last time I read it. Don’t think so.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Then you didn’t read it. There is no room for argument. Why was SODOM Destroyed by God then Mr. Reader? What is the definition of SODOMY?

I’m not judging anything other than your lack of honesty about what the bible says about homosexuality. The rest I’ll leave to God. Your lies though I’ll address.

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:13 am

Jm – HNS

________

My wife said she knew it was coming. But didn’t tell me till after it happened. Then was mad because I didn’t sell all my stock.

Tom Middleton

October 7th, 2012
12:13 am

Brocephus, you still around? Check this out sometime as food for thought:

The sin is in not to love – God first and then one other. Is there a reason why so few Christian fundamentalists like following the Golden Rule, or even believing that it’s relevant?

And if only God is eternal, since only God has always been, then how is being one thing or another make you where you think you should be. I mean, Jesus said the Kingdom of God is neither here nor there, and if that’s true, then why are we wasting our time trying to be a this or that.

I would no more try to become straight as a gay person, than I would trying to become gay as a straight. What would be the point when the real Kingdom is neither one.

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,” Jesus said, and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.” So is there anyone here who has found the ears to hear? Like he said, “And the greatest of these is love.” “Ðo unto others what you would have others do unto you.”

Jm - HNS

October 7th, 2012
12:14 am

Oscar

Andy Grove: only the paranoid survive.

That’s evolution for ya. :)

Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes

October 7th, 2012
12:14 am

Shorting markets to wring out excess is Darwinian.

Shorting markets to pop a bubble that you help inflate is Douchebaggian.

Fred ™

October 7th, 2012
12:14 am

G Mare

October 7th, 2012
12:11 am

Fred, the churches ARE TAX EXEMPT! If that does not equate to government support, I truly do not know what does.
++++++++++++++++++++++

That is just plain stupid. You are old enough to know better. Tax exempt does not in any definition equate Government support. I see no reason to try to continue this discussion. One of us is not dealing with any facts or reason.

getalife

October 7th, 2012
12:14 am

“That was the huge home run”

Yes, they made billions yet we bailed them out.

In the end, government will seize assets and turn to socialism.

Tom Middleton

October 7th, 2012
12:15 am

Brochephus, part 2

Sexuality is like everything else: IF you don’t have it inside of yourself, you won’t see it in anyone else. And if you can’t overcome it inside if yourself, you can’t help anyone else, either.

I hate to say this but real life is a mirrored room. It’s impossible to see anything but who you are inside, and it’s impossible to overcome (transcend) who you are without the kind of love taught by Jesus.

Love liberates and hate binds, why so many fundamentalists become the things they hate the most. It’s all spiritual, all consciousness, up to and including the very Kingdom of God himself!

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:15 am

Jm – HNS
__

You are probably right. But starting the Battle of Britain is what cost Hitler the war. Battle that he could not win.

Midori

October 7th, 2012
12:16 am

Hi Fred,

the board’s bad boy!!

:)

Tom Middleton

October 7th, 2012
12:16 am

Just sayin’… :)

Look before I leap...

October 7th, 2012
12:17 am

“I believe God only holds us accountable for what we actually know of the truth. ”

So the Maori and the other 6 billion people on the earth who have never read the bible get a free pass?

Fred ™

October 7th, 2012
12:18 am

Midori

October 7th, 2012
12:16 am

Hi Fred,

the board’s bad boy!!

:)
+++++++++++++++++++++++

It’s the only thing I’m good at. :mrgreen:

Z

October 7th, 2012
12:18 am

Separation of Church and State FOREVER! Any politician who can’t keep his religion to himself does not belong in Washington. There was a reason our founding Fathers created this passage. For those of you who have forgotten, Paul Broun was the creator of bill HR 212. This is a bill that would give a fertilized egg “all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.” There are no exceptions for eggs fertilized by rapists or by your own father. Paul Ryan VP candidate , Kingston of Ga., Gingrey of Ga. Westmoreland of Ga. and fruitcake Akin of Mo. are just a few of the 64 co-sponsors of this bill. This bill means that Paul Broun has sponsored a bill that has the plain intent of “effecting” a policy that allows states to ban abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest or even the life of the Mother. This bill could have had the possibility of even eliminating birth control.

It is unbelievable that Broun has no one running against him. He’s a religious Zealot and does not deserves a seat in Congress nor do the rest of the 64 cosponsors of this bill.

When politicians are elected to public office they are elected to that office to do the peoples business not their own. All Paul Broun and the rest of our Ga. Representatives do, is try to shove their own personal beliefs onto the rest of the population by passing bills that would be disastrous for this country and the American people. Extremist Politicians like these are destroying our great Country. Vote like your life depends on it because it most assuredly does!

Midori

October 7th, 2012
12:19 am

Hi Kammy,

great video.

Just the thing to watch while eating breakfast. :)

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:19 am

All behaviors win – or lose – in certain situations. That’s why our diverse behaviors have survired. Some work in times of plenty and so in times of scacity.
Just like being diverse in the market. Sometimes bears gain and sometimes bulls.

Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes

October 7th, 2012
12:22 am

Towncrier

October 7th, 2012
12:25 am

“So the Maori and the other 6 billion people on the earth who have never read the bible get a free pass?”

There is no “free pass”. Jesus said that no one comes to the Father except through Him. But he also verbally forgave the sins of a few people in the gospels, including the thief on the cross next to Him. The explanation He gave at one point was that He had authority on earth to forgive sins. I suspect He also has the same ability in heaven. God looks at our hearts. And Jesus equated love for God with learning and obeying His commands. I think anyone who constantly rejects His commands (doesn’t really try to practice them) cannot expect to go to heaven. Yet there may be plenty of people who have lived in the past thousands of years who never heard of the Biblical God but who nonetheless believed in Him and tried to do as best they could to put a smile on His face. I suspect they will receive mercy on that great day.

Towncrier

October 7th, 2012
12:26 am

Geez..it is after midnight, guys. I need to go. Goodnight all. Have a pleasant Sunday.

dgb

October 7th, 2012
12:27 am

As a republican, I really hope this DumbA** gets beat by anyone
…Democrat,Libertarian, atheists, Jew,Hindu, or even a fourth grade drop out…….I really don’t want someone this screwed up in any office of government! !!! Please help normal sane educated citzens defeat this crazy!!! Maybe a new party called Rational Educated Thoughtful Citizens Party needs to be started

Fred ™

October 7th, 2012
12:29 am

dgb

October 7th, 2012
12:27 am

As a republican, I really hope this DumbA** gets beat by anyone
…Democrat,Libertarian, atheists, Jew,Hindu, or even a fourth grade drop out…….I really don’t want someone this screwed up in any office of government! !!! Please help normal sane educated citzens defeat this crazy!!! Maybe a new party called Rational Educated Thoughtful Citizens Party needs to be started
++++++++++++++++++++

Are you a drive by troll or a regular troll using an Alt?

TGT

October 7th, 2012
12:31 am

“natural selection = evolution” HAHAHAHA!!!

Absolute nonsense. Natural selection IS NOT one kind of creature changing into another. It is simply like creatures passing on their genetic info.

Again, on the human eye: According to Dr. Peter W.V. Gurney (qualified in medicine at the University of Bristol, England in 1960. He spent nearly six years as a medical missionary working amongst Muslims in Pakistan, Aden, Ethiopia and Eritrea before returning to the UK to specialize in ophthalmology and completed his training at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. He is a fellow of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons and of Ophthalmologists, and has practised as a consultant ophthalmologist in the West Midlands since 1980.)

“Light at various wavelengths is capable of very damaging effects on biological machinery. The retina, besides being an extremely sophisticated transducer and image processor, is clearly designed to withstand the toxic and heating effects of light. The eye is well equipped to protect the retina against radiation we normally encounter in everyday life. Besides the almost complete exclusion of ultraviolet radiation by the cornea and the lens together, the retina itself is endowed with a number of additional mechanisms to protect against such damage:

The retinal pigment epithelium produces substances which combat the damaging chemical by-products of light radiation.

The retinal pigment epithelium plays an essential part sustaining the photoreceptors. This includes recycling and metabolising their products, thereby renewing them in the face of continual wear from light bombardment.

The central retina is permeated with xanthophyll pigment which filters and absorbs short-wavelength visible light.

The photoreceptors thus need to be in intimate contact with the retinal pigment epithelium, which is opaque. The retinal pigment epithelium, in turn, needs to be in intimate contact with the choroid (also opaque) both to satisfy its nutritional requirements and to prevent (by means of the heat sink effect of its massive blood flow) overheating of the retina from focused light.

If the human retina were ‘wired’ the other way around (the verted configuration), as evolutionists such as Dawkins propose,2 these two opaque layers would have to be interposed in the path of light to the photoreceptors which would leave them in darkness!”

Oscar

October 7th, 2012
12:31 am

Good weekend to all.

Fred ™

October 7th, 2012
12:31 am

Night Midori, (glad to see you), night Kam, (glad I can’t see you lol), night Oscar and Gmare. Even if you are nmad at me I’m right.

Night Johnboy and Sue Ellen………… Goodbye all……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XrL_F6tnT4

Look before I leap...

October 7th, 2012
12:32 am

@Fred
Jay Michealson had some interesting views on what exactly went on in Sodom.
The original rabbincal texts were more concerned with the idea of the Sodomites being inhospitable rather than the nature of such inhospitality.

I can’t recall the exact quote, but it had something to do with the story of Sodom being about homosexuality about as much as an axe-murderer has to do do with being an axe.

Jm - HNS

October 7th, 2012
12:35 am

Out. Good night.

TGT we can continue n some future date….

Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes

October 7th, 2012
12:35 am

Goodnight Fred.

A profitable meeting, today.

Fred ™

October 7th, 2012
12:38 am

I don’t really give a fat rat’s ass what Jay Michealson had to say with his preconceived notions and opinions while trying to exuse his behavior in the bible. Herod had some arguments as well.

Like I said, I’m nobody’s judge and I don’t care who anyone sleeps with but to try to use the bible as a home guide for homosexuality isn’t going to fly. Try to peddle that sht to someone who hasn’t read the book. Oh and don’t give me that “original rabbincal text” BS either. All of a sudden 6000 years AFTER the fact, this asshat has God reveal something new and 180 degrees different to him? Please. Who does this asshat think he is? Josef Smith? Mohammed?

emz

October 7th, 2012
12:39 am

I don’t know if this is what he truly believes or what he says to be elected but it’s very disgusting. He’s a prime example of why there should be separation of church and state. I, unfortunately, am in his district.

Fred ™

October 7th, 2012
12:52 am

Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes

October 7th, 2012
12:35 am

Goodnight Fred.

A profitable meeting, today.
++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sameto you Kam. Sorry it took so long to respond.I was dealing with some visene………..

Look before I leap...

October 7th, 2012
12:57 am

@TGT

Irreducible complexity and Dawkins.
If you are hanging your opposition to the idea of evolution (and by the way, you really cannot subscribe to natural selection and eschew the idea of evolution), then Dawkins si leading you astray.

Here is a pretty interesting article for you to consider:

http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/selection/selection.html

G Mare

October 7th, 2012
1:00 am

Ah, Fred, I am not mad at you. I know you have your beliefs, and I have mine – which seem to be totally at odds. I also know that nothing either of us can say will sway the other. But that is okay. I surmise Jesus loves us both & doesn’t take sides.

Brosephus™

October 7th, 2012
1:01 am

Look before: I said I envy your eloquence.
I don’t know you personally.

My eloquence is part of who I am. I am no different in person than what I am here on this blog. ;)

I’m not next door to you though. I don’t do the loud music thing anymore.

————–

Please point me to a politician who has made support for lying, cheating, murder or adultery part of his or her platform.

You support Romney, right??? There’s your politician.

Lying: His plan on cutting taxes 20% that’s now not really a tax cut.

Cheating: Although legal, how can one accumulate more than $1 million in an IRA? He’s used legal, but suspect, laws to shelter money for him and his kids. He claims to want to lead us to fiscal soundness, yet he’s purposefully hiding money that could have already been used towards that.

Murder: On May 27, 2012, Romney released the following statement about Syria…

After nearly a year and a half of slaughter, it is far past time for the United States to begin to lead and put an end to the Assad regime. President Obama can no longer ignore calls from congressional leaders in both parties to take more assertive steps. The Annan ‘peace’ plan—which President Obama still supports—has merely granted the Assad regime more time to execute its military onslaught. The United States should work with partners to organize and arm Syrian opposition groups so they can defend themselves.

I don’t think he wants to arm them simply for show and tell purposes or decorations, right?

I’ll give you a pass on the adultery, as he appears completely faithful to his wife. I’m willing to wager that you’ve voted for someone in the past who’s committed adultery though. Look at how many resigned after Clinton’s impeachment.

Brosephus™

October 7th, 2012
1:03 am

Did the Church of England have some undue influence on the translation? Yes. Overall, though, most knowledgeable scholars consider it to be a pretty good translation.

And did they translate and put every single book of the Bible into their version?

G Mare

October 7th, 2012
1:03 am

Wow, it is 1:00 am. You still here, Oscar? If not, I am checking out.

liberalefty

October 7th, 2012
1:10 am

all religions believe in the invisible sky god

liberalefty

October 7th, 2012
1:11 am

all religions teaches hate…that way folks feel justified in butchering people who are different from them in the name of the invisible silent god

Look before I leap...

October 7th, 2012
1:17 am

@Fred
Take a chill pill before you blow a gasket.
My point is that, through the last 2 thousand years, the bibilical text that is used to support so many of the tenant of today’s Christian faith has been been translated from Hebrew and Aramaic, Assyrian and ancient Peloponnesian texts, heavily edited and censored by the Catholic church, published in Greek and Latin and then translated into English.
Yet the “faithful” accept it without question.
The mind boggles…

G Mare

October 7th, 2012
1:24 am

Liberalefty@1:11, true that!

Look before I leap...

October 7th, 2012
1:52 am

@Brosepehus
:)
Did not really think you were the moron with the new Bose system next door.
Just an illustration that with the anonymity of cyberspace, those we debate here online could be a neighbor, the guy next to us in Starbucks or the asshat blocking the aisle in Kroger who is examining peas.

I’ve always thought it would be a fun exercise for Jay to host a party with the 100 most prolific posters here. Serve some wine and hors d’oeuvres then throw a shark meat topic up on a board.

Then after 15 minutes of debate, the trick would then be to write out a name tag as to who you thought the person was using their online alias and then see how many get it right.

liberalefty

October 7th, 2012
1:59 am

both the christian god and the muslim god act like jealous petulant school bullies…ANYBODY WHO DONT WORSHIP ME SHALL DIE AT THE HANDS OF MY LOYAL FAITHFUL FLOCK…

captguitarman

October 7th, 2012
3:27 am

I was taught from a young age that God created the universe and everyhing in it. I was taught (not by my parents, who expeted me to come to my own conclusions) that the Bible’s account of creation was literally true and that it was apostasy to deny that fact. I learned after years of education, reading, study,and a college biology professor who was a man of faith, that it was really not likely that God took a glob a clay and created man and woman. He did someting much greater than that. His Creation was so much more magnificent and incomprehensible than a magic trick that I could not, and would no longer believe that my relationship to God depended upon a literal interpretation of the Bible, and the good news for everyone is that it is not a condition, regardless of what Bourn and others like him preach.

It saddens me that many believers do not see that the God who created the universe, the planets, and began the evolution of mankind and of all species, is so much greater than the one who said, poof, there it is. They need to look at the photos taken by the Hubble telescope and try to begin to comprehend the intellect of the being that created us and the universe. It was not a guy rolling up long pieces of clay to create snakes.

To those who have no faith in a Creator of the universe and everything in it: Firs, compute the odds of such a great “accident” ever happening, and ask yourself, why is there anything at all? Why is there not just a great nothingness? Think about that. I would also ask them, as I ask the dyed in the wool instantaneous, magic trick creationists, like Bourn: Do you ever wonder why the authors of the Bible, who lived thousands of years ago, got the exact order of creation right in the Book of Genesis, with no scientific knowledge whatsoever? It would have been so easy for them to center everything around man and earth, and how that was all first. Creation of man with a magic trick with the universe and with animal and plant life already here on earth? Science just does not support that, and there is truth in science. But, science supports the order of creation found in ancienct Scriptures. “Days” to the God eternal could have been millenia.

Faith is far more important than literal interpretation of the Scriptures. I hate to think of how many people who have been misled and lost their faith because of the strict, totally literal, Biblical constructionists who demand that their views be accepted as a critical act of faith. Jesus himself never brought the subject of literal interpretation up – not even once – but we have guys like Bourn preaching about it all the time. It is impossible to believe, but believe it anyway to show you are a true believer. Sorry, pal. That has nothing to do with who is a true believer or not. Woe unto you lawyers, who give men grievous burdens to bear, but touch them not with even one of your fingers.

Geoff Offermann

October 7th, 2012
5:34 am

This should be headline news. Broun needs to be run out of the House. For Pete’s sake, he’s on the House Committee for Science, Space and Technology.

Geoff Offermann

October 7th, 2012
5:37 am

“Firs, compute the odds of such a great “accident” ever happening, and ask yourself, why is there anything at all? Why is there not just a great nothingness?”

This assumes there needs to be a reason. This is theistic thinking.

USinUK - not very ladylike (and former Girl Scout)

October 7th, 2012
5:38 am

“Interesting how people ignore what a nut job he (Churchill) was”

adding my £0.02, but depression doesn’t make one a “nut job”

just saying.

Attack Dog

October 7th, 2012
5:53 am

1. According to the Broun, the earth was in the universe, created by the Big Bang, as a blob of water before the sun was created. Hey Broun, when Adam and Eve’s boys got married, did they marry their sisters? If not, who where their wives partents? If so, we now understand your Dixiecratic logic for inbreeding.

Bob

October 7th, 2012
5:59 am

marko

October 7th, 2012
6:11 am

This easily ranks up there with Hank Johnson’s concerns that Guam might tip over as a consequence of over population. The main difference seems to be that Hank’s brilliant observations aren’t religious in nature. If you take fifteen pounds of stupid, place it in a pretty box, wrap it in prayers and crucifixes, it becomes sacred. Somehow stupid magically becomes beyond reproach because it’s now entered the kingdom of God. Those lucky few that believe the correct nonsense get to go to heaven. The vast majority, who chose to believe the wrong nonsense, go to hell.

I don’t know what scares me more, the fact that the man doesn’t believe in evolution, or the fact that he believes in hell. Dear God save us from your followers.

marko

October 7th, 2012
6:14 am

Why should children be exposed to nonsense like evolution and the big bang theory when we already have Deuteronomy and Leviticus?

Deuteronomy 21:10-14
New International Version (NIV)

Marrying a Captive Woman
10 When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, 11 if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails 13 and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. 14 If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

weetamoe

October 7th, 2012
6:50 am

Paul Broun and Hank Johnson could work together on that problem of Guam flipping over and then join Obama and the Pimp with a Limp to work on how to turn choom into gold.

Cornelia Collier

October 7th, 2012
6:52 am

If only this was the 13th Century, Broun, Adkins, Calhoun, Bachmann, Paul and the like would have the type of world they so crave. Bachmann on the other hand wouldn’t have a voice, but the religious opinion of a select few rules the lives of the many.

USinUK - not very ladylike (and former Girl Scout)

October 7th, 2012
7:04 am

“Why should children be exposed to nonsense like evolution and the big bang theory when we already have Deuteronomy and Leviticus?”

don’t you know the rules?? Deuteronomy and Leviticus (and the rest of the books in the OT) always count … unless they apply to pulled pork barbecue, shrimp in a low-country boil, cotton-poly pants, football, yard work on the weekend and planting tomatoes and peppers side-by-side …

USinUK - not very ladylike (and former Girl Scout)

October 7th, 2012
7:05 am

oh, and I forgot … cheese burgers

independent thinker

October 7th, 2012
7:19 am

Lord help us all if Mr. Magic Underwear gets elected president and the Repubs control Congress. These wingnuts will espouse and pass laws to appease every crazy bible thumper in the country. Mix that with a failing economy, a little racism and xenophobia and ultra nationalism (exceptionalism) and military sabre rattling and we will have a repeat of Germany in the 1930s.

Ken

October 7th, 2012
7:21 am

Is the big bang theory an absolute ?

AU Liberal in ATL

October 7th, 2012
7:31 am

F Sink, you have to know that it’s not easy to hate Christians. They’re hard to find. I don’t even know where to start looking. I may have to limit my disdain to Paul Broun, assuming he’s one of the Christians you speak of.

Jack

October 7th, 2012
7:34 am

My 5th grade grandchild has a better grasp of realty than does Broun.

USinUK - not very ladylike (and former Girl Scout)

October 7th, 2012
7:35 am

ken – Broun isn’t saying “hey, it’s a theory, lighten up” – he’s saying it’s evil.

Uneducated, uninformed, vote against my best interest, Howdy Doody

October 7th, 2012
7:36 am

I am very hapy to vote for Pawl Brown. He and Mitch Romley are fine christain famly men hoo desevre are votes. We nede to take back are Christain nacion from comonists and moslums in Warshinton. Pawl Brown and Mitch Romley 2012! And Pawl Rine!

jconservative

October 7th, 2012
7:44 am

Good morning. I trust all had a good night.

There is more about evolution in a physics textbook than in any biology text yet no one wants to change the physics books? Wonder why? People get hyper when the discussion is about “biological evolution” but never even mention the evolution of the universe. Broun is one of those that has.

Would it be fair to say that Broun’s view of God is that God is a smallish entity that does not have the intellectual ability to do anything that the human mind cannot readily understand?

Definitions:
Science – man’s attempt to explain nature.
Theory (in science) – a statement that explains all available date.
Hypothesis: a tentative or working assumption which scientific study has yet to validate.

Ken at 7:21 “Is the big bang theory an absolute ?” I do not believe it is.. More data is now available
that “big bang” does not explain. But that is the way science works, forever changing as the ability to collect data improves. You science types might want to check me on that.

godless heathen

October 7th, 2012
7:45 am

Many physicians and engineers suffer from the same delusions as Paul Broun. I have never been able to understand how such highly educated people could have so successfully avoided logical thought. But, I also know a geologist that is a creationist. Some day I’d like to discuss it with him and see how he resolves the whole 6000 vs 7.5 billion year age of the earth thing.

marko

October 7th, 2012
7:50 am

Cornelia Collier, One of the great things about being a conservative Christian is the magical ability to determine when god’s truly serious. As we all know the big guy loves bacon, but hates homosexuals.

A camel can pass through the eye of a needle easier than a rich man can enter the kingdom of god. That was Jesus. What A cutup.

lynnister1971

October 7th, 2012
7:58 am

Broun is not condeming anyone to Hell…that is something he has no power over. He is merely stating how the Bible lays it out. If you’re throwing stones at him for speaking the truth, it’s really not him you’re throwing stones at, but God Himself.

Martilee

October 7th, 2012
7:59 am

Finally someone on the hill is telling the truth, GOD BLESS YOU!!!