It's Not True Until A Republican Accepts It
by tristero
Marco Rubio, the currently touted Next Best Hope for Republicans, has condescended, very grudgingly, to dip a sliver of a toenail into the reality-based community:
After dabbling in creationism earlier this month, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., clarified that he does believe that scientists know the Earth is “at least 4.5 billion years old.”
“There is no scientific debate on the age of the earth. I mean, it’s established pretty definitively, it’s at least 4.5 billion years old,” Rubio told Mike Allen of Politico. ”I was referring to a theological debate, which is a pretty healthy debate.
“The theological debate is, how do you reconcile with what science has definitively established with what you may think your faith teaches,” Rubio continued. “Now for me, actually, when it comes to the age of the earth, there is no conflict.”
Did you catch all the hedging? The "pretty healthy""theological debate?" (There isn't one, of course, any more than there is a scientific one, just yawping from some rightwing religious loons, ) And check out that "for me," as if the age of the earth is Marco's very own personal opinion - and views can legitimately differ.
It is a measure of how bizarre the Republican worldview has become that, in order to not to offend the base, Marco Rubio feels he has to qualify his acceptance of one of the most established scientific facts of our time.