Rick Perry Knocks Evolution Again: 'God Is How We Got Here'

Rick Perry continued to voice skepticism about evolution during a campaign stop in South Carolina Friday, telling a supporter "God is how we got here."

On Thursday, in New Hampshire, Perry told a woman and her son that he regarded evolution as "a theory that's out there" and one that's "got some gaps in it.”

When a woman in South Carolina congratulated him for his remarks Friday, Perry replied “Well, God is how we got here. God may have done it in the blink of the eye or he may have done it over this long period of time, I don't know. But I know how it got started."

WATCH Perry's comments in New Hampshire:

Comments

[RedDogBear]

10:16 PM on 09/06/2011

There has been an enormous amount of nonsense posted in these comments about evolution, for example by people such as Mad Dog. I don't have the patience to refute each one point by point but for anyone who wants an introduction to the actual science behind evolution here is a great link I just found from a project at UC Berkeley: Understanding Evolution: 17 Misconceptions and Their Responses.

http://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2011/09/04/understanding-evolution-17-misconceptions-and-their-responses/

[Mad Dog]

09:13 PM on 09/07/2011

So the reason you can't make your case is because you are out of time? Considering you haven't made a point yet, you must be a busy boy indeed. I don't even know what you disagree with, let alone an argument to support it. I say we evolved from microbe to man. If you disagree, say so. I say random accident can't cause functional order, let alone intelligence. Disagree? Support your case.

If you don't have time to make a statement that says anything I certainly don't have time to chase after your links. Anyone can find a like-minded website that will misrepresent their opponent's stance and then get the last word.

Grow a pair. Say what you believe and why, in your own words. Make what you think is your best point and take the heat.

[RedDogBear]

09:40 AM on 09/08/2011

I apologize, I guess I wasn’t clear. Yes my time is limited but the main thing is that I don’t see any point in wasting it arguing with people who clearly have no idea what they are talking about.

[Mad Dog]

09:28 PM on 09/02/2011

As an evolutionist, I really don't have any objections to what Rick Perry was quoted as saying in this article. He said he doesn't know if life appeared in a blink (Creationism) or over a long period of time (Evolution). So? He's a politician, not a Biologist. As a typical politician, he encompassed the whole spectrum outside of atheism.

A safe bet since I doubt he had the atheist vote anyway. Do we ask biologists their political views?

[RedDogBear]

03:26 PM on 09/06/2011

When Perry says evolution is "a theory that is out there" or when he says he doesn't know how old the earth is, he displays an amazing level of ignorance of basic science. So, no we don't ask biologists about their religious views but we should expect the people who run the country to have a basic understanding of human knowledge up to this point.

[RedDogBear]

03:33 PM on 09/06/2011

BTW, from your comments below you are clearly not someone who understands evolution.

[Mad Dog]

06:54 PM on 09/06/2011

Or maybe you don't understand it.

That;s ok, Darwin didn't understand it either, as modern day experimentation proves every day. He mistakenly believed he had discovered a perpetual improvement machine with random chance and what he called selection. Mathematicians repeatedly have debunked his fallacy for decades.

Selection is merely the passive act of not dying. It isn't even involved with evolution because it takes place only after the evolving happens. A subtractive filter can only kill, not create and it can't select what doesn't already exist.

So Darwinism relies 100% on random luck to create all life forms we see today. Unfortunately for Darwin and the Darwinists, random chaos destroys order, not creates it. Random accident in all the universe since the Big Bang mathematically could never have produced anything as complex as a hand crank canopener.

Darwin is proven wrong every day in bacterial experiments where we see e-coli which have been in stasis for literally billions of years evolve in minutes as we change its environmental needs.

We do evolve, but Darwin was completely wrong about how it happens.

[ThomasTrom]

05:48 AM on 08/28/2011

For those who would like to combine Intelligent Design with the theory of evolution, don't. It would be an insult to Intelligent Design. Leave the pseudo-science out.

[Alien Tubeworm]

07:14 AM on 08/30/2011

ThomasTrom

Death supports life.

This is not an intelligent design.

[Mad Dog]

09:18 PM on 09/02/2011

Thomas, as a proponent of intelligent evolution, I'm not sure why they shouldn't be combined. Evolution is supported by the evidence and intelligent agency is even more supported by the scientific method.

If by "theory of evolution" you mean Darwinism, then I agree with you, but we did evolve from lower life forms.

[ThomasTrom]

11:49 AM on 09/04/2011

If you wish to make your ancestors in to ape-like morons, be my guest. As far as I'm concerned, the theory of evolution lacks evidence in every field. Recent discoveries, just a few days ago, of Herbig-Haro objects have changed our perspective of stellar evolution for example. If the theory of evolution coincides with other fields, and data in those fields are changing, where does that put the theory of evolution. Some people claim that the theory of evolution is racist (or Darwinism), but I don't see it that way. Since according to the the theory, darker skinned people evolved darker skin to withstand solar radiation. And that according to the history to which I have read, essentially dark skin saved the planet. I don't believe in the theory of evolution because I do not believe we have a good grasp on science yet, at this point in time. I concretely and absolutely believe in creation.

But if you have evidence that proves your belief that we evolved from lower-life forms, do share.

[skyleg]

03:49 PM on 08/27/2011

Which god? I am confused. There are so many gods. I am serious, which god is her referring to when he says God is how we got here, Is it the God with a capital letter, or one of the many gods that fill our historical mythology. I seriously do not know who people are referring to when they speak of God, and that is because the Gods are all invisible and are creations of mankind.

[Tykster]

02:34 PM on 09/06/2011

God with a capital "G" is just another god, Yhwh... they like to use the capital "G" so that they think they're special. Well, they are, but not how they think they are...

[Hippo Critic Al]

05:27 PM on 08/26/2011

I'm sure, sometime in the future, we'll hear that he is having gay sex while shooting methamphetamine. If not, well then, PRAISE JESUS & PASS THE AMMUNITION.

[Hippo Critic Al]

05:36 PM on 08/26/2011

I'm not sure why there can't be an 'Intelligent Design' theory coupled with the 'Theory of Evolution'. I certainly believe that we, and other creatures, were intelligently designed to evolve. Unfortunately, when it comes to humans, some of us evolve more than others.

[gregory57]

06:04 PM on 08/26/2011

You're absolutely right. Evolution could certainly be a tool in God's shed.

[marksvox]

10:51 AM on 08/29/2011

this is just silliness. I can accept that some intelligence created the laws of the universe including evolution which led to ever more complex DNA, but suggesting that "a" god created DNA doesn't make any sense.

If you mean god created ACTG and the laws that govern how they can be joined together then you are just left back at square one where either the actual variations of those letters (that correspond to different living things) evolve or suddently pop into exisitnce via gods hand...so we have achived nothing in that argument.

If you mean that god created all the variations themselves rather than the genetic rules, then we are left with a choice that no new living things will ever come into existence becuase they are all divine historical creations, or we have to accept that new living things are suddenly popping into existence right now? where do they pop up? in super market isles? If I look at a white moth on a dark tree for long enough will I see it suddenyl turn dark brown?

Maybe they should re-brand this philosophically interesting debate to be "intelligent laws" meaning that gravity, evolution & other laws that govern the physical world were set in place and then left to themselves to see what would "evolve" becuase of them. I can accept that idea and it makes an intersting valid philosophiocal discussion but it has nothign to do with science

[gregory57]

12:08 PM on 08/29/2011

You say it's silly and then you concede that "some intelligence created the laws of the universe". If an intelligence created the universe doesn't that make that intelligence God?

What, exactly, is silly?

[Lesperado]

10:08 AM on 08/25/2011

Sign on a church in Texas:

"I NEVER TOLD RICK PERRY TO RUN FOR ANYTHING
I DID SUGGEST THAT HE STOP HARASSING GAY, MEXICANS AND MUSLIMS HOWEVER"
Signed, God

[zelduh]

06:17 PM on 08/25/2011

"[A] short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion [speaking of Jesus Christ], before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State; that the purest system of morals ever before preached to man, has been adulterated and sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves; that rational men not being able to swallow their impious heresies, in order to force them down their throats, they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ."
--
--Thomas Jefferson, to Samuel Kercheval, 1810

[Craig 212]

10:34 AM on 09/03/2011

Thomas Jefferson is the man.

[Lesperado]

09:54 AM on 08/25/2011

And God put Barack Obama in the White House too!!

[zelduh]

06:17 PM on 08/25/2011

...And God will keep him there in 2012.

[Lesperado]

07:46 PM on 08/25/2011

OBAMA 2012!

[shatner99]

08:27 AM on 08/25/2011

what a deep thinker he is--makes Bachmann look like Hitchens.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

12:12 AM on 08/25/2011

I apologize for being from a state that has inflected this... creature... on you. The last few years, Perry has been a nonentity in Texas, that no one pays attention to unless he's about to veto a bill (the Texas governor's power is very limited apart from that). But since he has put himself forward as a candidate for president, he's become an absolute caricature. Every day brings a new outrageous statement. I really makes me long for George W Bush, and I never, ever thought I would say that. Never. At least Bush was a likeable guy... I'd share a beer with him (if he still drank). I bet if I did, he'd be cracking jokes and stuff and everyone at the table would like him. Even Molly Ivins used to write about how he charmed everyone, regardless of their political position. Perry is an absolute cold fish. Absolutely no one likes him. And he regularly alienates everyone but the extremists in his party.

I've never really thought of emigrating from Texas before, but if Perry gets elected, I might move to Portland in shame (and give up political commentary--the craft beer scene there in Portland would give me compensation to write about).

[Haolekane]

08:17 PM on 08/24/2011

It is so sad. This man has risen to power. He is a believer of nothing. But what is so sad is that enough folk voted to give him a voice. Where are our thinking skills?
-k

[LeFlaneur]

05:29 PM on 08/24/2011

Like W I feel this man has no actual beliefs or convictions of his own. He's just an empty vessel ready to receive the beliefs of whatever group will put him into power.

[OutAtFirst]

03:28 PM on 08/24/2011

A broken condom is how Perry got here.

[Simone Santos]

11:05 AM on 08/25/2011

Certainly!

[marksvox]

10:54 AM on 08/29/2011

his parents were allowed to use condoms?...shocking !

[iknowscottyknows]

01:50 PM on 08/24/2011

Science does not explain how the universe or life began, how evolution works, why there is no evidence for one species evolving into another, why species would need to evolve, or how evolution sustains itself--other than the off-heard scientific explanation: It just does that.

Other than those small discrepancies, I agree with all PuffPosters.

[TBJ]

02:34 PM on 08/24/2011

Except for the how the universe began, science does explain all the things you described to more than satisfactory levels. And, to be fair, religion doesn't explain how the universe began either; an always-existing God is not an answer.

Evolution is a fact. The theory, the part that describes and explains the how, is incomplete, but the evidence that shows evolution having happened (and happening) is there, and in incredibly large amounts.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

11:40 PM on 08/24/2011

How the universe began? I really like: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2138#comic

I really love Darwin. But I also love the assorted creation myths. They show how past people, with the ability to reason, worked out how we got here today. It's a great intellectual exercise to take the "common knowledge" of the past, and try to extrapolate a reason why we exist. Creationism makes more sense in that context. Though, I don't see why people can't just utterly disregard it when better evidence comes along. But it's still very interesting, provided you don't spend too much time in the company of people who just believe it's true, without reasons to back it up.

[VNeilsing]

04:10 PM on 08/24/2011

So if you found out that science did all those things you listed, you would admit religion is BS?

Hint: Science does those things you listed.

[Quai DOrsay]

10:33 AM on 08/24/2011

Later on he will claim that g-od is making him do this... How can an ignorant be considered to run for office...ONLY IN AMERICA ...