On 27 September 2012, and widely reported in the media around 6-7 October 2012, an American congressman, Paul Broun (R-Georgia), caused a bit of a stir when advocating that the Holy Bible was not only to be taken literally, but that it was the pinnacle authority on how he has and would vote in Congress. He said that he believed that God's creation took place in just six literal days and that the Earth was only literally 9000 years old. The controversy stemmed from the fact that he holds qualifications in chemistry and is a MD and that he holds a senior position on the Congressional H of R Science, Space and Technology Committee. He's also courted controversy previously by introducing a bill that would have made 2010 the "Year of the Bible" (in which case I suggest 2011 should then have been the year of "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins just to even the score and balance the 'books' as it were). Fortunately, not all of Broun's colleagues are as wacky-doodle or as ignorant a twit (both an appropriate synonym for Chris Rodda's phrase "Bible-believing-batshitterist") as he is, and the "Year of the Bible" bid failed to pass muster.
Here are his September 2012 remarks:
"God's word is true. I've come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. It's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior. There's a lot of scientific data that I found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I believe that the Earth is about 9,000 years old. I believe that it was created in six days as we know them. That's what the Bible says. 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 our 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."
But once you stick your neck in the literal Biblical noose, you have got to accept that a literal Bible, a literal word of God (as related in whatever particular Biblical version Congressman Broun has tucked away)...
* Means all of creation (life the universe and everything) took place in literally six (24 hour) days.
* Means that Heaven and Hell both must exist, though nobody has ever pinpointed the celestial coordinates where Heaven resides up there, neither has anyone stumbled across the geographical location of Hell somewhere down here.
* Means the Planet Earth is literally less than 10,000 years old, perhaps even a lot less like roughly 6000 years old if you accept that the Genesis Creation was fixed during the year 4004 BCE.
* Means that all fossils must be fakes, the work of the devil, scientific hoaxes and that palaeontology is a fraud. Sorry kids, no dinosaurs and therefore no possibility of there ever being a "Jurassic Park" reality.
* Means that Adam was literally created from dust.
* Means that Eve was created literally from a rib.
* Means that the two originally created humans, Adam and Eve, bore but three male children, Cain, Abel, and Seth, which would, if logic has any significance, suggest that the human race should not exist, and that means Congressman Broun and all fellow Creationists should not exist.. What do we want - women; when do we want them - now. But where did they come from? The Bible is mute on the issue, so something's screwy somewhere.
* Means that Satan (or the Devil) exists and is really evil, though you never get the chance to hear (or read) his side of the story.
* Means that God is in charge of a group of sex maniacs, the Sons of God, who lusted after and bred with the Daughters of Men.
* Means that a pair of flightless kiwi birds of New Zealand and a pair of kangaroos from Australia (among thousands of possible examples) somehow swam the oceans and made it all the way to Noah's Ark in time to avoid being drowned.
* Means that Methuselah really lived for well over 900 years, and had some stiff competition to boot in the longevity stakes from numerous others.
* Means that Sodom and Gomorrah were really destroyed, yet no trace whatever can be found of the ruins.
* Means that Lot's wife really turned into a pillar of salt. Neat trick that one! I bet Congressman Broun (the chemist) has this bit of alchemy all figured out and should be able to explain this with ease.
* Means that a bush really burned without being consumed. That's another really neat trick!
* Means that the Hebrew's (i.e. - the Chosen People) were really slaves in Ancient Egypt, though there seems to be no historical record of this 'fact' recorded in Egypt.
* Means that God murdered thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands and more of Egyptian firstborns, (another historical event unrecorded in Ancient Egyptian texts), but then again what else would you expect from an all-loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving, deity.
* Means that pharaoh's army really got done in via the parting and un-parting of the Red Sea even though there are no records to that effect in Ancient Egypt either.
* Means that the Chosen People headed towards the Promised Land to their northeast by heading south, but then maybe that was before the compass had been invented.
* Means that it took the Chosen People really took forty years of wandering around in the wilderness before stumbling onto the Promised Land - oops, I forgot, that's an era that's not only pre-compass, but pre-Boy Scouts. They weren't prepared.
* Means the walls of Jericho tumbled down long after Jericho was, according to archaeologists, already in ruins.
* Means that Planet Earth instantaneously stopped its axis rotation to allow the Moon and the Sun to stand still in the sky, and then just as instantaneously started rotating again, in total violation of known physics, the same physics that Creationists like Congressman Broun take as gospel whenever they board an aircraft, drive a car or play a round of golf.
* Means that a human being (Jonah) was able to survive inside a fish (or whale) for three days, none the worse for wear. Of course there are fishy tales and then there are fishy tall tales.
* Means those loaves and fishes multiplied, a housewife's dream and a supermarket's nightmare.
* Means that water turned into wine, though wowsers and Prohibitionists would have wanted that the other way around.
* Means Jesus really had the ability to walk on water, though that might be understandable if the water was really icy cold and he didn't want to get his privates wet.
* Means that all those medical anomalies like a virgin birth and resurrections from the dead and elderly women over-the-hill-and-off-the-pill were able to conceive and give birth, among a host of others, really came to pass. Again, no doubt Congressman Broun (the MD) can lay his hands on medical texts that explain all. I hope he does.
* Means that Armageddon, the Apocalypse, the Second Coming, the End of Days, whatever you wish to call it, as forecast in the Book of Revelation, should have happened by about 100 CE. Oops, someone forgot to set the alarm clock!
In other words, literal belief in the Bible means you have got to literally believe in way more than just six impossible things before breakfast, and I kid you not, the above list could be extended by dozens more impossible things all contained in the Congressman's Creationist Bible.
I do agree with Congressman Broun in that we, humanity, if it needs anything at all it needs a saviour because collectively the human race has within, if you believe the Bible, just a few thousand years, screwed up Planet Earth, from top to bottom, so badly as to endanger God's supreme creation, mankind's very existence. Of course I pin the blame for that on God as related in Genesis 1: 28. You should look it up and check it out.
Another basic philosophy here is that if whatever the Bible says is true, and is OK or sanction or performed by God, then you can vote for the following as public policy and for the good of society as a whole with a totally clear conscience.
* Slavery is OK.
* Beating children, even killing them is OK.
* Genocide is OK.
* Mass murder is OK.
* Invading other countries and making warfare is OK.
* Rape is OK.
* Women's rights are not OK.
* Animal welfare is not OK.
* Equal rights for same-sex couples are not OK.
* Any ethnic group not of the Chosen People variety are second class citizens.
Belief in a literal Bible, the literal absolute word of God, requires not just faith in a deity, but presumably you have to put your faith in the humans who penned the Bible to have gotten it right, and that's a whole lot of absolute faith to trust in the human species right there.
Belief in a literal Bible suggests that all those bits and pieces that were arbitrarily excluded from the Bible, then included, and then excluded again, the missing books, the Apocrypha, are irrelevant, which then invites the question, why do they exist at all.
That the Bible alone is the "manufacturer's handbook" is bound to spark some opposition from Muslims, Hindus, supporters of Buddha, and all others who have their own versions of, and beliefs in, a 'manufacturer's handbook'.
Belief in a literal Bible, the literal absolute word of God means that you believe that every other religion and religious text must be false, including presumably all but one version of the Bible (since there are many differing versions) and that one true version would not be in English as the Bible wasn't originally conceived and written in English.
In any event, there's not the slightest shred of hardcore evidence that God, or Allah or any deity for that matter exists outside of whatever religious text supports that existence, but then again anyone can write words and make a book. There's a book that supports the existence of Moby Dick, and numerous texts that verify the existence of Tarzan and Harry Potter. Shall we have faith therefore in the existence of and worship Moby Dick, Tarzan and Harry Potter too?
There's a more fundamental question here. What if every elected member of any congress or any parliament or any assembly or whatever elected body you might call it voted according to their religious beliefs? That's not why they were elected. They were elected to represent their constituents, to carry forth their political party's platform (which presumably they agree in general or in overall terms with) but not themselves. Repeat, they are not elected to represent their personal worldview, religious or otherwise.
Further, it is incomprehensible that anyone who proposes an anti-science, pro creationism, worldview, like Congressman Broun (but there are numerous others as well), could or should hold a position of responsibility on a Congressional committee that should advocate or promote a pro-science point-of-view for the advancement or betterment of the nation.
It would appear that the Dark Ages are encroaching back upon us. Congressman Broun joins the ranks of all things whacko when it comes to having unquestioned and blind belief in God and Company. It's bad enough that 1.5 billion whacko Islamic fanatics in the world are seeking the ultimate goal of a single global Fundamentalist Islamic state where the Koran is absolute law, without people like radical Christian creationists also muddying the waters, fanatics who no doubt would like to see a unified and fundamentalist Christian global state where the Bible is absolute law. Is history doomed to repeat itself - The Crusades Mark II but this time with 21st Century weaponry?
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