Yesterday in New Hampshire a small boy and his mom asked Rick Perry how old he thinks the Earth is.
"You know what, I don't have any idea," Perry responded, bending down to the boy and crossing his arms across his chest. "I know it's pretty old so it goes back a long long way. I'm not sure anybody actually knows completely and absolutely how long, how old the Earth is."
As you can see in the below video, he goes on to say, "I think your mom is asking about evolution. It's a theory that's out there—and it's got some gaps in it. In Texas we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools, because I figure you're smart enough to figure out which one is right."
In reality, of course there are two groups of people who are quite sure how old the Earth is. Christians, who accept that God created the Earth about 5,000 years ago in six miraculous days, and scientists who deduced from something called radiometric age dating of meteorite material that the Earth is approximately 4.54 billion years old.
Perry's answer is guarded and political, meant to turn off neither his evangelical base nor more middle of the road Republicans who accept science. His GOP opponents have all taken stronger stances on their views.
"I support intelligent design," Michele Bachmann said at last year's Republican Leadership Conference. "What I support is putting all science on the table and then letting students decide. I don't think it's a good idea for government to come down on one side of a scientific issue or another, when there is reasonable doubt on both sides."
Last year in Des Moines Mitt Romney said, "I believe that God designed the universe and created the universe. And I believe evolution is most likely the process he used to create the human body. … In my opinion, the science class is where to teach evolution."
Romney addressed climate change at a town hall meeting in Manchester, NH last summer, saying, "I don't speak for the scientific community, of course, but I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that. I can't prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer."
Ron Paul has remained vague on the issue, claiming that there's science on both sides of the global warming debate and claimed in a question and answer forum with Reddit that "The politician doesn't need to be involved with this and impose his views."
The most clear view came last night when Jon Huntsman Tweeted, "To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy." He is now making headlines for being the only GOP candidate who garners conclusions from science.
All of these pronouncements besides Huntsman's recall February 2002, when in a speech addressing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stated, "[T]here are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know."
To most, the age of the Earth and the reality of evolution are known knowns. Most religious types consider their version of things to be ironclad fact just as those who put their faith in knowledge and science. Suggesting that the age of Earth is a known unknown, as Perry does here, or just refusing to take a side as Bachmann and Paul have done, may seem like effective politics, but in the end it's dangerous—if we're going elect someone to lead the nation we should know how they interpret reality.
[Via HuffPo]
Rick Perry to Boy: No One Knows How Old the Earth Is (Video) is a post by Death and Taxes -
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