The Big Bang Theory a Fairy Tale? So says presidential candidate Ben Carson....

[Derek Potter]

Well, I was specifically talking about running for the president (or the prime minister) depending on the country, one cannot take different stands on evolution on different geographical areas( that will be funny) depending on the electorate there.

Like New Yorkers evolved from reptiles but Texans popped up out of the ground one day? Sounds like a good film.

 

[russ_watters]

Well, I was specifically talking about running for president (or prime minister) depending on the country, one cannot take different stands on evolution on different geographical areas( that will be funny) depending on the electorate there.

Why not? Sounds like a good idea to me. Note that while that can be difficult to pull off, it happens. Politicians' positions follow a version of Relativity: their positions are not constant vs position (geography) or time (specifically, the day after the primary election).

 

[Bernie G]

"Carson can be seen on video saying that it is not a parable, it is the literal truth. Six 24-hour days. Period. He does hedge his bets on the age of the Earth and does not insist on 6,000 years but the creation was done in six of our normal days. He says the Earth might have been around, devoid of life, for millions of years before God decided to create everything on it in six days and he implies that that happened about 6,000 years ago."

Sounds like baloney. That makes only a little more sense than Hawkins saying this all came from something smaller than the point of a needle. If Carson backed up his beliefs with some phony math he would have a lot more credibility, at least in California.

 

[gleem]

He says the Earth might have been around, devoid of life, for millions of years before God decided to create everything on it in six days and he implies that that happened about 6,000 years ago."

Maybe Dr. Carson has inadvertently mixed up the account of creation in Genesis with the genesis project from the Star Trek movie "Wrath of Khan"

 

[HossamCFD]

Sounds like baloney. That makes only a little more sense than Hawkins saying this all came from something smaller than the point of a needle

Do you mean $\Lambda CDM$? This has a lot more support than just that of Hawking. In fact it's normally referred to as the standard model of cosmology.

if Carson backed up his beliefs with some phony math he would have a lot more credibility

The support of $\Lambda CDM$ is more than phony math. It explains important observations (e.g, structure and anisotropies of the CMB, abundance of light elements).

 

[phinds]

Like New Yorkers evolved from reptiles but Texans popped up out of the ground one day?

So THAT'S where @Drakkith came from

 

[Drakkith]

So THAT'S where @Drakkith came from

We don't like to talk about it...

 

[gleem]

Looking more into attitudes toward science particularly in Congress I discovered Georgia Representative in the US Congress, a former physician, Paul Broun sat on the House subcommittee on Energy and Environment. He was definitely anti-science.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Broun

On September 27, 2012, in a speech at the Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman's Banquet,[68] Broun stated that the sciences of embryology, evolution, and the Big Bang are "lies straight from the Pit of Hell ... lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior.

Science educator Bill Nye questioned Broun's ability to serve on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, stating, '"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"' and that '"He is, by any measure, unqualified to make decisions about science, space, and technology."'[73]

In response to Broun's statements, in the 2012 general election, over 5,000 voters in the 10th District voted for Charles Darwin as a write-in candidate.[74][75]

On the bright side in his quest for a Senate seat in 2014 he lost and could not seek reelection to the House and Charles Darwin got votes.

But beside Ben Carson, How many more Paul Brouns are there but not as outspoken?

 

[Hornbein]

"Carson can be seen on video saying that it is not a parable, it is the literal truth. Six 24-hour days. Period. He does hedge his bets on the age of the Earth and does not insist on 6,000 years but the creation was done in six of our normal days. He says the Earth might have been around, devoid of life, for millions of years before God decided to create everything on it in six days and he implies that that happened about 6,000 years ago."

The Bible says that the Earth was created before the stars. Does Carson go for that?

 

[phinds]

The Bible says that the Earth was created before the stars. Does Carson go for that?

Does it matter? Since he believes in a literal 6 24-hour day creation, why worry about what other nonsense he believes?

 

[hagar]

Does it matter? Since he believes in a literal 6 24-hour day creation, why worry about what other nonsense he believes?

Maybe he believes the days were longer due to time dilation. :-)

 

[Monsterboy]

And here I thought that this thread was actually going to do something constructive, such as examine the ideas presented in this article (below), and *not* engage in a bunch of time-wasting commentary on people :

http://m.phys.org/news/2015-02-big-quantum-equation-universe.html

Anyone for a game of The Sims?

Actually this thread is in the current affairs section so the discussion here is about politicians and their anti-science rants. Anyway do you really think Ben Carson studied physics and then expressed his anti-big bang sentiments ?

 

[Doc Al]

This thread has veered away from the initial topic and has run its course. Closed.