(Photo: AP Images / Alex Brandon)Republican presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee campaigns in Mason, N.H., Monday, Jan. 7, 2008.
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Electing a president who does not believe in evolution theory is a way to lead a nation to ruin, according to one scientist.
“The logic that convinces us that evolution is a fact is the same logic we use to say smoking is hazardous to your health or we have serious energy policy issues because of global warming,” said Dr. Gilbert Omenn, professor of Internal Medicine, Human Genetics, and Public Health at the University of Michigan, during a science media day on Friday – one day after presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses.
“I would worry that a president who didn’t believe in the evolution arguments wouldn’t believe in those other arguments either. This is a way of leading our country to ruin,” said Omenn, who was present for the release the pro-evolution book ”Science, Evolution and Creationism,” published by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
In May, three GOP candidates had raised their hand during a debate when asked if they don't believe in evolution – the development of organisms and species from a primitive state. Among them was former Arkansas governor Huckabee, who last week rode a wave of support from evangelical Christians to win the opening round among Republicans in the 2008 campaign for the White House
"If you want to believe that you and your family came from apes, I'll accept that....I believe there was a creative process," said Huckabee a day after the May 3 debate, according to the Associated Press.
The one time Baptist minister said he has no problem with teaching evolution as a theory in the public schools and he doesn't expect schools to teach creationism.
He is, however, against restricting students to learning only one idea when others exist.
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"We shouldn't indoctrinate kids in school," he said. "I wouldn't want them teaching creationism as if it's the only thing that they should teach."
Francisco Ayala, a professor of biological sciences at the University of California, Irvine, however, says creationism should not be taught in schools at all.
“We don’t teach astrology as an alternative to astronomy, or witchcraft as an alternative to medicine. We must not teach creationism as an alternative to evolution,” he said.
Ayala said creationism is not scientific and worried that the teaching of creationism in school will continue if a creationist president is elected.
A poll conducted last year showed that two-thirds of Americans believe in creationism, while only 53 percent said they believe in evolution.
Among those who believe in evolution, however, most people still believe that God was behind the process.
Christian Post correspondent Ruby Hwang in San Francisco contributed to this report.
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