Who Needs Facts When You Have Faith?

 Sen. Marco Rubio Doesn't Know How Old the Earth Is, But He, "Knows What the Bible Says"

by Tyrone L. Heppard

   I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably have to say it a billion more times before I die: We need to keep our religious views out of domestic policy-making. I’m not saying this because I think that religious folks can't make decisions. I’m saying it because when you have someone who is in the position of representing a constituency and they’re trying to run for public office, we can’t afford to have people passing legislation based on their favorite parable or Bible story. When this takes place, strange things happen.

   Case and point: Sen. Marco Rubio. The republican from Florida was being interviewed by GQ Magazine’s Michael Hainey when the question of the Earth's age came up. I read the full interview and in Rubio’s defense, the question did seem to come out of nowhere. But it's still a simple question, “How old do you think the Earth is?”

   The Earth is more than 4.5 billion years old; everyone generally knows that to be true. The earth is round, it revolves around the sun, it’s the third planet in our Solar System and it’s 4.5 billion years old. These are facts.

   What did Sen. Rubio say? Well, he could have said, “4.5 billion years old. Next question.” He could have said, “Hmm. I don’t know exactly – I know it’s old though; probably a couple billion years old.” But he didn’t. Instead, he said this:

Sen. Rubio, how old is the Earth? It's okay. We'll wait...

   “I'm not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that's a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I'm not a scientist. I don't think I'm qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries.”

   There are plenty of issues with this statement; issues that should concern people who like to think of themselves as rational and educated. I’ll begin with the first part that stood out to me. It was the bit where Rubio said, “I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that.”

   Really, Marco? That’s like someone coming up to me and saying, “Hey, Tyrone! What do you think two plus two is?” In which case I turn around, smile smugly and respond, “I’m not an accountant, man. I’m not a mathematician. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that.” The age of the Earth isn’t unknown or up for debate. It’s a solid, concrete answer that is widely accepted as fact. If someone asked me to add two and two and I came up with 47, they would promptly direct me towards the nearest calculator.

   But Rubio doubles down on this “lack of qualification” response to a well-known fact by saying, “I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.” No it’s not, Marco. You might not know and that’s fine, but everybody else does. Hell, I even saw Pat Robertson’s crazy Christian self on Fox News saying this:

"F**k you, Rubio! You're making us all look stupid!"

   “You go back in time, you’ve got radiocarbon dating. You got all these things, and you’ve got the carcasses of dinosaurs frozen in time out in the Dakotas. They’re out there. So, there was a time when these giant reptiles were on the Earth, and it was before the time of the Bible. So, don’t try and cover it up and make like everything was 6,000 years. That’s not the Bible.”

   Look him up if you don’t know who he is, but my point is that if this guy says you should know better, Sen. Rubio, you should know better. It seems that you no longer have to vehemently deny science to gain the support of the Christian right anymore; even these guys get it now. I mean, we still need to have a very long, public discussion about how the Earth got here, but we all agree that it got here about 4.5 billion years ago.

   The final thing that bugged me about Sen. Rubio’s ridiculous answer to the equivalent of a 4^th grade science test question was when he said, “I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow.” Eh... sure; maybe literally speaking. I don’t think anyone’s expecting an economic bailout from the cosmos.

   But keep in mind there are people currently holding office in this country who have the same views as Sen. Rubio. What happens when they start throwing money towards far-right Christian groups who want to take evolution out of schools or drastically cut spending in the areas of science and technology because whatever the Bible says or doesn’t say about these things is good enough?

  Which leads me back to my original statement: we need to keep our religious views out of our domestic policy-making. We saw what happened when Rubio failed to do that when asked a simple question from a reporter. What happens when a similar but more important question is asked by the American people to a Congress or a president that has the same lack of discipline as Rubio? 

Nothing good. And I can assure you of that just like I can assure you the Earth is 4.5 billion years old.