BY DON H ENDERSHOT
A braver, newer world
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October 10-16, 2012 Smoky Mountain News
Or at least a younger one anyway — one of the ranking members of the House’s Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Rep. Paul Broun, R-Georgia, told a gathering at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell, Ga., on Sept. 27 that the world was about 9,000 years old. Here’s what he said, “God’s word is true. I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior. You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I’ve found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I don’t believe that the earth’s but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says.” I am indebted to this scientist (he has a B.S. in chemistry and an M.D.), because as a fellow scientist (I have a B.S. in wildlife conservation) I had fallen for all those big lies from those big liars like Copernicus, Galileo, Euclid, Pythagoras, Newton, Darwin, Salk, Pasteur, Sagan, Gould, Hawkins, etc., all those charlatans who told us that science was a living growing endeavor that blossomed from rigorous application of scientific method, peer review and the open-ended quest for truth. Who’d ever thunk — it was all there in one book? And you know this House Committee on Science, Space and Technology has members that are not only versed in the physical science of evolution but also have insights into the biology of the human body that have, obviously, been overlooked by scientists, biologists and doctors taken in by those aforementioned “lies.” Todd Akin, R-Missouri, who also serves
on the committee enlightened us with the knowledge that women who are raped don’t have to worry about getting pregnant. That is, if it’s a “legitimate” rape. Akins noted in an interview, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” This forward thinking group is chaired by Ralph Hall, R-Texas, who equates global warming with global freezing and thinks neither can be impacted by human actions because, “I don’t think we can control what God controls.” And this brings us back to another issue that I think truly portrays the quantum leap we have made, in America, with regards to discriminatory intelligence. Broun also stated, in a September address to the Liberty Baptist Church regarding the Bible, “And what I’ve come to learn is that it’s the manufacturer’s handbook, is what I call it. It teaches us how to run our lives individually, how to run our families, how to run 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 of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and I’ll continue to do that.” If a public official from the U.S. or any other country or government had stood up and noted that the “Koran or any other religious treatise teaches us “… how to run our lives individually, how to run our families, how to run our churches …. how to run all of public policy and everything in society,” they would have been immediately called on the carpet as Jihaddists and/or extremists. But not here, in the land of the free, “Ain’t that America.” (Don Hendershot is a writer and naturalist. He can be reached a ddihen1@bellsouth.net.)
JOHN HAMEL M.D.
outdoors
The Naturalist’s Corner
CompleteLaserClinic.com
Leaf lookers take heed The U.S. Forest Service has launched a web site for “Leaf Viewing in Western North Carolina.” The site features scenic drives and areas in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests for enjoying fall foliage. The site describes the types of mountain plants that visitors will see during peak season at high, middle and low elevations — including what weeks are best for the different elevations. www.fs.usda.gov/nfsnc.
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