Ignorance Illustrated: U.S. Rep. Paul Broun (R, GA)
Medical doctor, former airplane mechanic and member of the U.S. House Paul Broun from the great state of Georgia has announced the theories of evolution and the big bang are “lies straight from the pit of Hell.” WC can’t make this stuff up.
This idiot is the chair of the House Science Committee’s panel on investigations and oversight. Is it any wonder that U.S. students are slipping in knowledge of science? Is it any surprise that U.S. fourth graders from Georgia are in the bottom quartile in the nation? Would you let this clown practice medicine on your body? How can this nut job be running unopposed?
What is happening to our country that voters will elect someone who relies for his scientific knowledge on a badly translated, mutually inconsistent series of stories written, in the best case, by guys who thought the sun rotated around the earth, that the earth was flat and that all the animal species on the planet would fit on a small boat. Faith is not knowledge. Faith is a poor substitute for knowledge when it comes to understanding geology, biology, astronomy and physics.
We scorn Sunni Muslims because by their interpretation of their sacred texts, women cannot be permitted to drive automobiles. Yet a substantial minority – WC hopes it is still a minority – think the Christian Bible is literally true.
If this doesn’t make you worry about the future of our country, WC respectfully suggests you are not paying attention.
Update: The Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald reports Meredith Griffanti, a spokeswoman for Rep. Broun, referred to the video in this brief, emailed statement: “Dr. Broun was speaking off the record to a large church group about his personal beliefs regarding religious issues.” WC thinks this apologia/retraction/spin speaks for itself.
It is very disturbing when people like this get into positions of power. That he is chair of the House Science Committee’s panel on investigations and oversight is mind boggling. Does he always perform in front of a wall festooned with dead animals?
CEight
October 7, 2012 at 9:36 am
CEight
The link that WC provided to the news article helps to explain dead animals in the life of this guy, an avid hunter, it seems. (but it doesn’t say that he dispatched the specimens on offer there) It mentions an incident on a hunt where, according to Dr. Broun’s belief, god altered a bullet’s flight path so that it dispatched a marauding feline that was leaping into his vehicle. And thus Dr. Broun’s life was spared and the lives of his hunting party as well by the amazing redirection of the bullet, else they would have been din-din.
CEight: now, surely you believe, don’t you? How can you not, my friend?
[oh, don't tell me you're persuaded only by instances of death by lightning bolt; maybe there were none to spare that day, thereby forcing the redirection of the bullet. One must make do with what is at hand, so why not put a little last-split-second english on that bullet?]
Paul Eaglin
Fairbanks
paul2eaglin
October 7, 2012 at 12:55 pm
My jaw nearly hit my desktop when I read the stuff this guy said. A Doctor and a chair of the House Science Committee and says this crap outloud? He needs to be removed as chair from that committee.
Mia McPherson
October 7, 2012 at 9:42 am
What an idiot. Everyone knows that the Earth is at least nine-thousand FIVE HUNDRED years old. Rep. Broun is at least five centuries off.
sleddogstudio
October 7, 2012 at 7:09 pm
There’s been more attention to this guy and the incident.
Sadly, he is not alone among his colleagues of the GOP membership of that committee.
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/08/least_scientific_members_of_the_house_science_committee/
Paul Eaglin
Fairbanks
paul2eaglin
October 9, 2012 at 8:02 pm