Republican Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia, a physician and member of the science committee of the House of Representatives, said recently that evolution, the Big Bang Theory and embryology are "lies straight from the pit of hell."
"It's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior," Broun said in a speech available on YouTube.
Nick Coltrain, reporting for the Athens Banner-Herald, wrote that the video was taken at the 2012 Sportsman's Banquet at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell, Ga., on Sept. 27, 2012.
Broun continued that the Bible — which he calls "the manufacturer's handbook"—teaches not only "how to run our famimiles ... (and) our churches, but it teaches us how to run all of public policy and everything in society. And that's the reason as your congressman, I hold the Holy Bible as being the major directions to me as how I vote in Washington, D.C."
In the video, Broun said that "as a scientist," he has found data that shows the Earth was created in six days, and no older than 9,000 years.
But well-known scientists, including science educator Bill Nye ("The Science Guy"), disagreed vehemently with Broun's views.
"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," Nye told The Huffington Post in an email. "For example, the Earth is simply not 9,000 years old ... He is, by any measure, unqualified to make decisions about science, space, and technology."
According to Huffington, Broun received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Georgia and a medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia.
Broun's spokeswoman, Meredith Griffanti, told the Athens Banner-Herald, "Dr. Broun was speaking off the record to a large church group about his personal beliefs on religious issues."
Here's the video:
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