Bizarre, Religion, Science, Society

Rubio: Age of Earth Remains “One of the Great Mysteries”

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has already started the process for running for president in 2016 with an appearance in Iowa. He has begun in classic form. In 2008, many people were shocked when most of the GOP candidates said that they did not believe in evolution. Rubio has now added his voice as denying scientific reality to court evangelical votes. Rubio insisted in an interview with GQ that the age of the Earth remains “one of the great mysteries.” Of course, the age of the Earth is about as much of a “mystery” as whether the Sun revolves around the Earth or the Earth revolves around the Sun. The age is roughly 4.5 billions years — an inconvenient fact to be sure, but a fact.

Rubio insists “I’m not a scientist, man. 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 . . . [w]hether the Earth was created in seven days, or seven actual eras. I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.”

Rubio wants to court people who believe that the Earth is between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago despite fossils and radiometric dating going back millions of years. The question is whether we should even consider someone for the presidency who denies such a clear and established fact. At what point is the denial of reality a threat to the nation in a commander and chief. Of course, some of these candidates may secretly accept reality, but that may be ever worse if you are willing to deny established facts (like the rising and setting of the Sun) in order to secure power.

Of course, forty-six percent of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years. However, a president is required to lead one of the most developed nation on Earth into a future that will be shaped by science and technology.

What is striking is that the suggestion that there is still some debate on the age of the Earth is taken that clear proof that he intends to run for President as a touchstone for GOP candidates. That is truly a sad commentary on the state of our political system.

Source: CNN

97 thoughts on “Rubio: Age of Earth Remains “One of the Great Mysteries””

  1. I have to agree strongly with JT’s notion that being a leader of a technological society requires an acceptance of scientific principles to be effective. Someone who’s head is buried in the sand shouldn’t qualify and that’s not just a religious issue.

    Someone who claims an elephant and a geriatric rhesus monkey created the universe a billion years ago would be laughed out of office, but someone saying the earth was created 7,000 years ago is given millions in campaign contributions/bribes. Both are just as ignorant.

  2. Neil

    Like others have stated, radioisotopic dating using materials with known half-lifes of 100s of millions of years are used for geologic dating. These materials get their t=0 (t is time in a half-life decay equation) when the Earth was molten. As the Earth solidified the clock began to tick.

    This is not to be confused with carbon-14 dating which is used exclusively to determine the age of once living creatures, because all life forms on Earth are carbon based and during life continually consume fresh supplies of carbon. Once death occurs no more carbon enters the now dead creature and the carbon that is present begins to breakdown at a known rate.

    Its easy to confuse the methods but important to recognize the difference.

    ===================
    OS

    A new even more red-shifted ultra deep space galaxy has recently been reported and is awaiting confirmation. Its currently estimated to show a redshift that represents closer to 13.3 billion years of light travel. This galaxy would have formed apx 400 million years after expansion(big bang) occurred. Phil Plait can tell more about it and there is a Hubble pic too.

    http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/11/16/most_distant_galaxy_ever_seen_possibly_observed_using_hubble_space_telescope.html

  3. Yep, the Republican Party’s changing…just like they’re being more conciliatory on the “fiscal cliff” negotiations; by offering up Romney’s loophole closing proposals and appointing Paul Ryan to head the negotiations!

  5. Okay, okay. So I can’t get everybody to agree with my contention that voters ought to have a semblance of civic knowledge before going into the booth.

    Can we at least agree that the CANDIDATES demonstrate a modicum of logical thought?

    You know, like, tying their shoes, spooning cereal without lip-drip . . . .

  6. Neil,
    If you Google “age of earth” you will get the following:

    4.54 billion years

    This is about as accurate as radioisotope dating will take us and is accurate to the second decimal place.

    Galaxy MACS 1149-JD the oldest, most remote ever found by astronomers is 13.2 billion light years away, which means the light traveling to us started out that many years ago.

  9. Dear “For The Record”, having spent 12 years as a consumer of Catholic education I know a bit about the Church’s view on science. While I am well aware that the Church is on a PR tear to prove it has always supported science and often been at the center of scientific discovery, the conduct of the Church does not support this rosey picture. Redefining imprisonment or suggesting that the punishment really wasn’t that bad doesn’t change the facts. While it has some times been that the leaders of the Church did not dispute scientific discovery, they often at the same time persecuted scientists for making ther findings public–some times in very violent ways or insisted that the truth should not be shared with the common folk because it would destroy their faith. I will let the Church’s real record on science speak for itself.

  11. Neil:

    The age of the earth is estimated using radiometric dating not just radiocarbon dating. It is based on the decay rates of radioactive isotopes like potassium-argon, uranium-thorium and rubidium-strontium. It’s accuracy is deduced from known decay rates. No serious scientist challenges its accuracy for the range of tolerances used in geological dating.

  12. Does Neil realize that carbon dating is not the only method? And that the oldest rocks on Earth dated to this point, a form of rock known as faux-amphibolites, were dated using the decay of the radioactive element neodymium-142 contained within them. This technique can only be used to date rocks roughly 4.1 billion years old or older. These rocks, found in Quebec along Hudson Bay, were dated at 4.28 billion years old.

  13. Does Turley realize that even the most advanced carbon dating equipment can only accurately measure the age of a specimen up to about 100,000 years old? If so, why does he cite carbon dating with results going back millions of years, and use that data to claim that the age of the earth is not a mystery? Turley insinuates it’s a fact that the earth is millions of years old. But he is getting his so-called “facts” from data that even scientists will claim is unreliable. If Rubio had claimed that the earth might only be 10,000 years old, then Turley would have better reason to bash Rubio. As far as Rubio’s actual quoted statement is concerned, I think most reputable scientists would agree with him.

    1. Neil,

      Forget carbon dating, just use math. Light travels at a 186,000 miles a second which is proven by experiment.Scientists can calculate how long the light from very distant objects in space would get to Earth and that is in the billions of years. You might believe of course that the creator just threw up these illusions to make it difficult for us to follow the path of righteousness. If that is the case you’re too far gone to discuss this with and a blasphemer to boot. Why blasphemer? You demean the creator as a sadistic puppeteer.

  14. “What is striking is that the suggestion that there is still some debate on the age of the Earth is taken that clear proof that he intends to run for President as a touchstone for GOP candidates. That is truly a sad commentary on the state of our political system.”

    The 4.54 billion year old Earth is a youngster when you consider that the Big Bang happened 13.75 billion years ago according to Cosmology theories.

    The early microbes came along a billion years after the Earth, so biological life is recent, about 3.54 billion years old. Homo Sapiens a mere ~200 thousand years ago.

    These numbers are not difficult to remember.

    Some religions understand the ancient age of the Earth, yet some think it is less than 10,000 years old.

    There is a national problem in our educational systems which eventually impacts political systems.

  15. It’s all a matter of faith and which type of faith one has been indoctrinated in and if one continues to follow that as such. I think most of us would LIKE to believe in a blissful afterlife with a loving supreme being. At the same time we are skeptical. Has nothing to do with one’s ability to lead the Executive Branch. What did George Washington think? Many of this blog’s followers think they are currently experiencing afterlife bliss with BHO as the Supreme Being. One of his commandments is that higher taxes will reap economic boom. Really? Aghh, you won’t listen to me. It’s your faith in that tenet that is difficult to break.

    1. I guess Geeba forgets that under Eisenhower the tax rate for the top levels was at 93%. This was during the post war boom too.

  17. Justice Holmes, the Catholic Church teaches that God created the earth through astrophysical and geological forces, and life through the process of evolution. The Church’s position is that science cannot discover anything but what God put there, and therefore scientific findings cannot be at odds with the will of God. (The moral and metaphysical implications, of course, are properly the domain of the more humanistic disciplines, including, according to the Church, theology.)

    If anything, it would be interesting to call this “Catholic” candidate out on his refusal to accept this well-documented principle of the Roman Catholic Church.

    The Church is doing a lot of wrong things in the political arena, but please don’t list this as one. The inaccuracy weakens the rest of your (our) argument.

  18. Zarathustra,

    I’m no scientist, man, but I don’t see any evidence for your claim Rubio has brains.

  19. Rubio, what a disappointment you are…. Turn around, back up to a mirror, and if you look quickly, you might see your head sticking out of your Butt! Oozing brains…….

  20. The real mystery here Rube-io is how someone without a brain, you, got elected to such a high office…..

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