Mitt Romney on Evolution
One popular website running around on Favebook is Isidewith.com. It’s a website which asks you a few questions, then tells you how the candidates answered the same questions. One question is whether you believe in evolution. After you take the survey, you get to see how you align with the candidates. Just to make R. Gary’s head explode, here is Mitt’s response.
Question #1- What does that even mean?
Question #2- Should I be offended that it tells me I should vote Green Party?
Question #1- What does that even mean?
Isn’t he just expressing the very common idea that evolution is compatible with belief in God as the Creator?
Comment by Jacob J — August 31, 2012 @ 11:42 pm
It’s commonly referred to as pandering.
Comment by Ray — September 1, 2012 @ 3:37 am
I agree with Jacob J. It’s a bit clumsy, but he’s saying that evolution is the tool God used to create.
Comment by Eric — September 1, 2012 @ 6:01 am
I guess that’s better than Creationism being part of evolution, no?
Comment by mondo cool — September 1, 2012 @ 7:07 am
It means God created the earth and all animals but species evolve as time goes on.
Comment by Flip Flop Mama — September 1, 2012 @ 7:55 am
If he actually said “Creationism” I’m guessing that he either misspoke or he isn’t aware of the distintion between “creation” and “creationism.”
Comment by Mark B. — September 1, 2012 @ 8:14 am
He must not have gotten the memo that only scientists and academics (nobody else!) get to decide what those words mean.
Comment by Jeff G — September 1, 2012 @ 11:57 am
During the 2008 campaign he explained his views in more detail:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/romney-elaborates-on-evolution/
Comment by Mephibosheth — September 1, 2012 @ 12:06 pm
Jeff G.- Ha! You totally busted me!
Mephibosheth- thanks for that. Good info.
Comment by Matt W. — September 1, 2012 @ 12:27 pm
It means I now have a hankering for waffles.
Comment by Bradley — September 1, 2012 @ 12:50 pm
Chance he Gardener lives in the body of Mitt Romney. A secret brain transplant conducted by Manchurian surgeons (outsourcing at its best) at a secret Koch Bros. estate in Kenya was where it happened.
Comment by Stan Beale — September 1, 2012 @ 5:52 pm
It just seems awkward!
Comment by Believe All Things — September 4, 2012 @ 7:15 pm
My personal interpretation of Mitt’s answer:
What I really believe in is creationism, but I have to admit to evolution because otherwise I may look too dumb.
Comment by Manuel — September 7, 2012 @ 8:09 am
My personal interpretation. Mitt knows evolution is correct but he knows if he doesn’t mention creationism the Evangelical base won’t help him.
Honestly though the real problem is that the media’s framed the question in terms of evolution vs. creationism with absolutely no nuance. This makes people say that they don’t accept evolution when they do or say they accept creationism when they don’t. For instance I’ve no idea how to label what I believe since I accept fully selection with random variation and the relations in the fossil record but I also believe God created the world. There’s unfortunately no good term to describe that.
So while I think Mitt is unfortunately at best duplicitous about many things and a massive flip flopper this isn’t one of the places I think I could criticize him.
Comment by Clark — September 8, 2012 @ 8:18 pm