Rand Paul Passes When Asked About The Age Of The Earth (VIDEO)

Is Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul a creationist?

Last week, Paul spoke at a conference for the Christian Home Educators of Kentucky at a Louisville church where he dodged a question about the age of the earth and expressed skepticism about faith-based programs.

The first question during the Q&A was from a man who asked a two-part question, including how old Paul believed the world was.

"I forgot to say I was only taking easy questions," Paul joked, adding: "I'm going to pass on the age of the Earth. I'm just going to have to pass."

Andrew Willis of Elizabethtown, who teaches his four children at home, said he hoped Paul's answer would jive with his own belief that the earth is about 6,000 years old.

"I'm not at all surprised that he didn't want to answer that question," Willis said shortly after posing it. "I know that is hugely controversial."

"I'm not running for minister," Paul said later. "I'm more than willing to stand up and say I'm a Christian, but I don't think I have to go into every detail of what my religious beliefs are. If I were going to be the minister of their church, they'd have a right to ask me that."

Later in the session, an attendee asked Paul about his view of the separation between Church and State.

"We stand up in a church and talk about influencing government policy, and that's fine," Paul replied. "I think of it in the historical term in the sense that -- in the beginning -- and I still don't want a national church."

The tea party favorite also voiced concern about faith-based initiatives that have been used to funnel federal and state funds into religious organizations.

"The faith-based initiative was getting government involved in churches basically, and that scares me a little bit, because there are things that you can say in the church that we think are sinful, and that should be something we can say," he said. "But the second this church starts taking government money, then they're going to say you can't say these things are sinful."

WATCH Rand Paul at the conference:

Comments

[devondx]

04:52 AM on 07/03/2010

The bible is filled with dinosaurs....jesus rode on one....

oh brontosaurus is me cried joseph when they threw him in the well.....

[spiegelp]

04:45 PM on 07/01/2010

Well, I'll only consider voting for him if he beleives that the earth is between 50 and 5999 years old. We all know that the earth is LESS than 6000 years old.... God told me.

[kaykaythere]

01:02 PM on 07/01/2010

Has anyone ever asked one of these creationist how the earth can only be 6000 years old if it takes millions of years to form the oil spewing in the gulf, or to form the very diamonds they ply their prostitites with?

[Carlos Manuel]

11:08 AM on 07/02/2010

Dude, don't you know that God can do anything he wants to? His/Her latest objective is to test our patience and common sense with the likes of Rand, Palin, Brewer et.al.; I bet that he/she is laughing his/her head off in heaven. He/She has reversed evolution by bringing back the rapacious dinosaurs

[NoSandwiches]

09:18 AM on 07/01/2010

So now he is uncomfortable with the us vs. them mentality when he isn't certain that he is one of us instead of one of them. When I was looking for a pediatrician for my son, one of the doctors had a poster in his office supporting creationism. I wanted to just back slowly out of the room--how can a doctor believe that the earth is 6000 years old? They don't trust science or the scientific method so how can you possibly trust them to provide you with up to date, well reasoned care and advice?

[Eugene Skidmore]

06:43 AM on 07/01/2010

perhaps if these people weren`t taught that ideas differant than there own were "godless" (especially if its a "competeing" religion), and weren`t living in the talk radio, fox news "conservative" cacoon, they might have an opportunity to relax thier hypicritical "beliefs, and recognize reality.

[lifeinopera]

05:28 AM on 07/01/2010

Rand Paul just doesn't want to say anything that may cost him his religious base.

It's ridiculous to believe the world is 6,000 years old when science has proven and continues to prove that the world is millions of years old...it's not that hard to come to terms with.

[Ken Ritz]

03:14 AM on 07/01/2010

There is no controversy as to the Earth's age. The 6000 year answer is flat wrong (and I do mean flat).

[Layman23]

12:24 AM on 07/01/2010

The age of earth? Its as old as Sarah Palin.

[Tim303]

12:25 AM on 07/01/2010

I can see the beginning of time from my house.

[Layman23]

12:31 AM on 07/01/2010

I bet thats when McCain made a call asking her to be the VP.

[Tim303]

12:21 AM on 07/01/2010

I thought libertarian anarchists were all about reason?

[Counter-insurgency]

01:14 AM on 07/01/2010

You thought incorrectly timmy. You cannot live in both liberty and anarchy at once. The two concepts are mutually exclusive. It is a balance best tipped in favor of the individual, But we do have common interests which require a degree of centralized power. These are called enumerated powers. Revisions are called ammendments. All else is the will to force and control remaining leverage explicitly delegated to the state and the people. Carbon dating may seem like reason for many. For others it is faith which gives reason. For others it's hope. For some it's change. I begrudge none. Do you know what happens when you assume timmy?

[ForAmericaAndRoosevelt]

07:25 AM on 07/01/2010

Months ago on Yahoo the "both parties stink" talking point was going around - which I could tell was a front for something - and they never say who else to vote for, but just once, somebody said "vote Libertarian Party or Constitution Party". "Constitution Party" sounds innocuous, but they're actually crypto-Reconstructionist Biblical law types, and Paul has been linked to them.

So, yes, the whole Libertarian thing has some kind of link with the ultra-fundies.

[Counter-insurgency]

12:16 AM on 07/01/2010

Oh yes! How important it is that Rand date the earth's lifespan before we cast our votes. I can't think of a more pressing issue at the current time. How very insightful ladies and gents! Given that these posts quite possibly represent the vanguard of modern progressive thought, I'm at once frightened and heartened.

[Tim303]

12:23 AM on 07/01/2010

Is reason a good idea in politics?

Are you a libertarian?

Why are you giving cover to irrational power mongers?

Are you American?

Answers on a postcard to: You Aint Got Nothin, PO Box 1, Government Regulated Thank God, USA.

[Cye]

02:27 AM on 07/01/2010

Don't be silly. Most progressives don't believe a person's views on the age of the Earth has any relevance whatsoever to anything. The issue that concerns "progressives" is that many in politics, the media and the electorate do. These days, the separation of church and state is so damaged and abused that many feel they have to profess "the correct" religious beliefs as a prerequisite for political success. Paul understands this, which is obviously why he prevaricated.

[StellaFox]

10:48 AM on 07/01/2010

I believe, as a progressive, that if you think the Earth is 6,000 years old, or read a religious text as a literal piece of history, then you have NO mental capacity to function in society, and be held responsible for making decisions about our nation.

[Cye]

12:04 AM on 07/01/2010

The current Prime Minister of Autralia, Julia Gillard, is not just unwed (and "living in sin" with her long term partner) but also not religious. When quizzed on it recently, she said she was raised a baptist but went her own way as an adult. She said everybody is entitled to their religious beliefs (including her), and she did not want to pretend to have faith for political reasons (ie so as not to offend religious people).

I am in 100% agreement with her. People should be allowed to persue their religious beliefs without fear or favour by the government. Separation of state and church, and this freedom to pursue you own interests lies at the heart liberal-democracy.

In the US, this is fast becoming little more than a fiction. The Conservatives spend so much time screaming about how Obama is taking away their liberties and turning the US into a communist state. But the real danger comes from people who want to impose their religious views on their political leaders and government.

[Counter-insurgency]

12:45 AM on 07/01/2010

Cye,I agree! "People should be allowed to persue their religious beliefs without fear or favour by the government,and when that dangerous radical Nancy Pelosi says,"I would hope that there’s one thing that we can do working together as we go forward that speaks to what the Bible tells us about the dignity and worth of every person — and that is on the subject of immigration,” Pelosi said in her remarks.“Because I think the Church is going to have to play a very major role in how we, in how people are treated.”“The cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops that come to me and say, ‘We want you to pass immigration reform,’” disclosed Pelosi. “And I say, ‘But I want you to speak about it from the pulpit.’“I want you to instruct your, whatever the communication is — the people, some of them, oppose immigration reform are sitting in those pews and you have to tell them that this is a ‘manifestation of our living the gospels,’” said Pelosi.“Our patron saint of San Francisco, St. Francis of Assisi, he said, ‘preach the gospel –sometimes use words.’We need the words to be said because it isn’t being picked up automatically",she dictatorially breaches that "Separation of church and state found many times of course in the Declaration and Constitution, with her far right, tea party rhetoric. Good thing we have the lefty, secular, statists to protect us against such impositions. you speak of. OH WAIT.......LOL! Obama!

[ladcrp]

01:58 AM on 07/01/2010

Drop De)ad Counter.

[Cye]

02:06 AM on 07/01/2010

I don't condone the use of religion for political gain by either party. Those on the left are traditionally considered godless atheists, but this tends not to be the case in the US where the blurring of politics and religion now seems to demand that Democrats play the religious game too. I frankly don't believe many of them when the declare their belief in God and give speeches about how he "saved" them. A lot of the time, it seems forced and dishonest.

Gillard is on the left of her party and I support her public stance and her intention to allow people their beliefs while refusing to pander to the religious sensibilities of the electorate. However, her attitude would undoubtedly lead to political suicide were she a politician in the US.

[Cye]

11:56 PM on 06/30/2010

He really needs to answer that questions. If he has the courage of his convictions. Whatsmore, the voting public is also entitled to know what he thinks before they cast their vote. This is only fair. He can't go on forever dodging the question, hoping to be elected without upsetting potential supporters.

[Tim303]

12:24 AM on 07/01/2010

Yes. Time mag. asked Howard Dean if he "accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior."

[RageAgainstTheNeoCons]

10:47 PM on 06/30/2010

Rand Paul dodges reality.

[Counter-insurgency]

10:25 PM on 06/30/2010

Yes,definitely do not vote 4 Rand Paul.He's actually Rand "I want to facilitate the coating of the earth with crude oil" Paul. Rand Paul isn't Satans spawn, he's Satans puppet master.Some even say Rand is a ...."Libertarian".That's code for "individual rights".Protection of individual rights is just code for "I would like to exploit you now". We need more government.More politicians who are better and above the puny, ignorant individual. And more regulation. The government would never exploit us like this! I want them to dictate to us our rights! We don't need a bill of negative rights! We have Obama! Obama! Obama! LoL!

[IrisMozenter]

07:27 AM on 07/01/2010

Since you don't believe that government is in any way necessary, head down to the Gulf and clean up the mess there, please.

[Lucy0808]

09:22 AM on 07/01/2010

When you talk like this, you continue a negative stereotype and that certainly isn't helpful to your position. It is bad enough already.

[henrypapillon]

10:05 PM on 06/30/2010

Speaking of creation, who created that haircut?

[Layman23]

12:33 AM on 07/01/2010

"Get your haircut and get your country back". They charge 5 bucks and no tips.(5 dollar bill only. Cant count)

Any tip given is seen as socialist agenda.