In an article released by GQ Magazine yesterday, Florida Senator Marco Rubio outlined that he is unsure whether or not the Biblical account of creation is literal.
Rubio, who is a practicing Roman Catholic, recently told the publication when asked about the age of the earth that although he understands what the Bible says about the matter, no one may ever know the truth.
“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,” he said. “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,” Rubio continued. “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.”
Rubio was one of the noted speakers at the 2012 Republican National Convention, where he blended references to spirituality with political matters.
“Almighty God is the source of all we have,” he said during his speech, just before he introduced Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to the audience. “Faith in our Creator is the most important American value of them all.”
Rubio’s views mixing creationism with evolution are not new to Roman Catholics, however. During a 1996 speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican, Pope John Paul II noted two reasons for his support of evolutionary theory.
“In his Encyclical Humani Generis, my predecessor Pius XII had already stated that there was no opposition between evolution and the doctrine of the faith about man and his vocation, on condition that one did not lose sight of several indisputable points,” he said, advising that he was not the first pope to express his openness to Darwinianism.
“It is necessary to determine the proper sense of Scripture, while avoiding any unwarranted interpretations that make it say what it does not intend to say,” Pope John Paul II said. “In order to delineate the field of their own study, the exegete and the theologian must keep informed about the results achieved by the natural sciences.”
Professing evangelicals have also made similar statements as well. Texas governor Rick Perry responded to reporters last year in similar fashion to Rubio, stating that no one really knows how old the earth is.
“I know it’s pretty old,” he said. “So it goes back a long, long way. I’m not sure anybody actually knows completely and absolutely how old the earth is.”
However, Dr. Jason Lisle, Director of Research for the Institute for Creation Research, said that science unequivocally proves the Biblical account of a young earth, and that there is no evidence to suggest otherwise.
“Science is predicated on a Christian worldview, which is why a lot of great minds in the past were scientists who were often consistent Christians. But even those who are not Christians are still relying on Christian principles when they [study] science,” he said. “When we study certain processes in nature, such as the decay of earth’s magnetic field or the recession of earth’s moon, these things are not consistent with millions and billions of years.”
Lisle asserted that creationism and evolution are not compatible and are an affront to Biblical Christianity.
“Evolution guided by God is really the worst of all possibilities, because it [portrays] a very weak God that can’t get it right to begin with,” he said. “And so, it takes millions and billions of years of slow tinkering. … It’s a merciless process of killing and disease and suffering.”
“That’s not the God of the Bible,” Lisle said.
Photo: Gage Skidmore
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