Army secretary–designate is a creationist
According to CNN, Mark Green, Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Army, is a self-described creationist . The article makes it look more like he is an intelligent-design creationist, the kind who misapply the second law of thermodynamics and think that, if your lawnmower rusts out, then there is no hope for the theory of evolution. Specifically, CNN quotes Dr. Green as saying,
If you put a lawn mower out in your yard and a hundred years come back, it’s rusted and falling apart. You can’t put parts out there and a hundred years later it’s gonna come back together. That is a violation of a law of thermodynamics. A physical law that exists in the universe.
Sort of a backward “tornado in a junkyard” argument, I guess. CNN quotes him further:
Irreducible complexity is important in the argument for the creationist because of this: Evolution assumes a series of minuscule changes over time, and each change has to give a survival advantage to the organism. If it doesn’t, and it causes a disadvantage the organism dies and evolution ends[.]
And finally,
The question is, did all of this happen by chance operating inside the laws of chemistry and physics? Or is this unbelievable engineering, and is the scientific mind going to look at it and make the conclusion, observation, and conclusion that it was created and not that it evolved. Again, remember time is not the hero of the plot. Time is the villain, because over time things break down, they don’t assemble themselves together.
Really? Over time things break down; they do not assemble themselves together? I hardly know where to begin; perhaps with snowflakes or crystalline quartz.
I am not entirely concerned that Dr. Green, a medical doctor, is a creationist; it is possible to compartmentalize and do your job in spite of holding an irrational belief. What concerns me is what happens if he cannot compartmentalize when he has to make decisions regarding the separation of church and state. We once profiled the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and reported that right-wing fundamentalists have been allowed to proselytize in the United States military. The nomination of Dr. Green will doubtless make them prick up their ears.