How Old is the Earth? 2016 GOP Candidates Refuse to Say

Image from source, Wonkette

Pandering, thy name is Republican. Well, either pandering or ignorance, I suppose some of it could be ignorance. Or blind faith (which is--I'm sorry--not a virtue). If you've got another reason why a candidate for the highest elected office in the country (and leader of the free world) would refuse to say how old the earth is, I'm open to it. I've known the answer was 4.5 billion years since freshman earth science. But these candidates have to pander to their "base," which believes strongly that the earth is 6,000-ish years old. Which is preposterous on its face.

The recipe for beer is older than that. How these people explain thing like fossil fuels, or--you know--granite forming in such a short time would be interesting. Or mind-numbing.

[Excerpt]

How Old Is The Earth? Golly Gee, Republicans Running For President *Just Don’t Know*!

. . .To understand any of these issues requires some basic familiarity with the established science behind them. Only raging morons would put someone unfamiliar with the most rudimentary tenets of an issue in charge of making decisions about that issue. (What? Really? The guy with the snowball is chair of the Environment Committee?) Only the majority party in both houses of congress would put someone unfamiliar with the most rudimentary tenets of an issue in charge of making decisions about that issue. But I repeat myself. . .

Read more at: Wonkette

Even Pat Robertson Calls Young Earth Creationism "Nonsense"

Methuselah Pat Robertson, image from source, Raw Story

As an atheist, it is unlikely I'm ever going to reach complete understanding with the devoutly religious. But it is interesting that there are levels of devoutness. See, I would have pegged Pat Robertson as a "Young Earth Creationist." But he isn't, and that's kind of interesting.

Young Earth Creationists believe in the literal creation story told in the Bible, complete with all of Genesis and all of the begets. Counting each day of creation as a literal day, believing that man was created in the first literal week of existence, and adding up all of the generations listed, YECs have calculated that the Earth (and also the universe) is only 6,000-or-so years old. This--to most rational people--is preposterous. There are things on earth (beer, trees) that are older than that. There are stars whose light couldn't possibly have reached us in that short a time. There are geological formations that couldn't possibly have formed so quickly. And on and on, and that's not even picking apart the very pick-apartable Genesis.

Well, ol' Pat surely does believe in talking snakes, the firmament and Noah's Ark. But he's having none of this young Earth nonsense. Even a nutcase like Robertson gets one right once in a while!

[Excerpt]
 
Pat Robertson implores creationist Ken Ham to shut up: ‘Let’s not make a joke of ourselves’

Pat Robertson responded to the recent debate between Young Earth creationist Ken Ham and Bill Nye, a.k.a. “The Science Guy,” by reiterating his disagreement with Ham’s form of creationism.

“Let’s face it,” Robertson said, “there was a Bishop [Ussher] who added up the dates listed in Genesis and he came up with the world had been around for 6,000 years. . .”

Read more at: Raw Story