“I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow”
GQ: How old do you think the Earth is?
Marco Rubio: 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 and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.
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Separation of church and state. I like it.
beatcanvas on November 19, 2012 at 10:57 AM
so….this is controversial?
Mord on November 19, 2012 at 10:57 AM
Good way to deal with a “gotcha” question. I’m impressed.
Doomberg on November 19, 2012 at 10:58 AM
And why is it that folks like BHO, Pelosi, and Reid are never asked a math question?
Because all evidence indicates they do not understand numbers at all.
And how scientific is that?
Difficultas_Est_Imperium on November 19, 2012 at 10:58 AM
This applies to evolution as well. Does any politicians opinion on evolution really matter when it comes to running our nation?
NotCoach on November 19, 2012 at 11:01 AM
I’d like to ask Mr. Rubio, how adding 12 million new democrat voters through the amnesty program he advocates, is going to help the GOP or America.
Rebar on November 19, 2012 at 11:02 AM
Not a huge fan of Rubio after he voted for the NDAA but I must say that this is a great answer to that question.
MoreLiberty on November 19, 2012 at 11:03 AM
Heh. Good answer. Or non-answer really. But the truth is no one knows, so why get bogged down with this kind of nonsense if you’re a politician?
Doughboy on November 19, 2012 at 11:04 AM
Good answer to a dipstick question.
dczombie on November 19, 2012 at 11:06 AM
This is how the question should be answered. But frankly if I were a Republican I would not agree to an interview in the future with this reporter. There is no basis for the question, it just comes out of the blue. It’s simply to asked in hopes of getting on film of one of those crazy Creationists.
Rocks on November 19, 2012 at 11:07 AM
Being agnostic about the age of the universe is a good way to answer?
How would he answer whether or not the earth is a sphere? That he’s not qualified, and that it’s a question for theology and science?
ebrawer on November 19, 2012 at 11:08 AM
Really? Is the Earth flat or round? Is that a matter of “faith” now, too?
And people do know. Write the answer “I don’t know” in junior high school Earth Science Class. Ask Exxon, ask BP. Ask every other country on Earth that is graduating scientists.
Get used to losing some more.
inklake on November 19, 2012 at 11:08 AM
Heh. When I saw the headline, I thought it was someone’s argument for cutting NASA’s research budget. Anyway, good answer by Rubio.
sadarj on November 19, 2012 at 11:09 AM
Next up for the GOP – the question of whether the Earth revolves around the Sun, is now a “gotcha” question.
inklake on November 19, 2012 at 11:09 AM
I’m pretty sure the question of a spherical or flat planet can be answered by observation.
lorien1973 on November 19, 2012 at 11:10 AM
It wasn’t.
There isn’t a ‘great mystery’ here. We know how old the Earth is, give or take. It is definitely NOT 6-10 thousand years. It is at least 4 billion years old. There is overwhelming evidence across many scientific disciplines to support this. Period.
Look for this question to come up again for any and all GOP candidates, whether you want it to or not.
Good Lt on November 19, 2012 at 11:11 AM
Meanwhile, the non-insane libs have all the answers, which include printing fiat money until the cows come home, right?
Libs are standing on no higher science, they just pander in different unsustainable ways.
Difficultas_Est_Imperium on November 19, 2012 at 11:12 AM
Yeah, it’s a little sad that the GOP cannot accept the basic science here. But, as far as religious types go, this isn’t a bad dodge.
Not what I’d like to see personally, but oh well.
lorien1973 on November 19, 2012 at 11:13 AM
The guy gives a good answer and some folks here still whine.
True believers…gotta’ luv em’.
cozmo on November 19, 2012 at 11:13 AM
How old is the universe?
In years it’s less than the dollars in 7 days worth of federal debt spending.
gwelf on November 19, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Why would you even answer that question ? That question is nothing more than an obvious attempt at a “gotcha” and should have been the trigger for the interview to be over.
These are EXACTLY the kind of media douchebags that need to be stopped in their tracks. You want to be an a-hole and ask questions like that, then your career interviewing anyone even remotely right of center is OVER.
Unreal.
deadrody on November 19, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Why does it matter what a politician thinks about the age of the Earth, the shape of the Earth, the make-up of the Earth, etc.? He answered a bullsh*t question from a bullsh*t interviewer and he did it the correct way. Would it have been better for him to have answered by saying it was “above his pay-grade?”
change is for suckers on November 19, 2012 at 11:16 AM
The (rough) age of the Earth can be answered by observation as well. It just depends on what you are observing.
Abby Adams on November 19, 2012 at 11:16 AM
NO.ITS.NOT.
The only answer to that question, which has no bearing whatsoever on anything relevant to any public policy anywhere is “THIS INTERVIEW IS OVER. And when you rediscover some semblance of an interest in actual public policy or objective journalism, you give me a call.”
That question is complete BS.
deadrody on November 19, 2012 at 11:17 AM
And it’s people like you who think that anyone who even dares question macro evolution is a moooooron that cause this question to come up every time. Just admit that someone can be highly intelligent and believe that there is a possibility of an intelligent designer.
DethMetalCookieMonst on November 19, 2012 at 11:17 AM
It does come out of the blue, but there is a basis. It’s a basic IQ test.
Yup.
–
If republicans consider this a gotcha question, we are in trouble. Is the boiling point of water a gotcha question?
An answer like this would have been perfectly fine:
It’s not a theological question. But yeah, the reporter wanted to know if the politician believed in magic.
ebrawer on November 19, 2012 at 11:17 AM
Paul krugman bring back the 91% tax rate
ChunkyLover on November 19, 2012 at 11:17 AM
Expect these 3 questions to be asked of any rising and prominent member of the GOP:
What do you think about rape?
What do you think about birth control?
What is the age of the universe/earth?
gwelf on November 19, 2012 at 11:18 AM
So, what exactly is your problem with his answer? Do you want him to say the universe is 6000 years old? He managed to give a great answer to a question which offends nobody (except liberals looking desperately for some excuse to be offended, like Inklake), and also emphasizes the issue is something which has squat to do with politics.
Doomberg on November 19, 2012 at 11:18 AM
Really. So you are GOD and you can create a universe so large that apparently we can only see 5% of it. You can do that and not make it appear that something you created 6,000 ago look like it is 20 billion years old. I have no clue which is actually factually true that is over my pay grade. But if you can do the one you can do the other.
BullShooterAsInElk on November 19, 2012 at 11:18 AM
He could have totally killed it by saying, “scientists have estimated, with all available evidence, that the Earth is somewhere around 4.5 billion years old, but not old enough apparently for you to come up with a more relevant question to the problems we are facing. Any other brain busters?”
The press corp would have been rendered speechless.
The little two-step to act like it’s “unknowable” is just wrong.
Good Lt on November 19, 2012 at 11:19 AM
Stupid, cop-out answer. There’s only one right answer to this question, and that is: We know beyond any doubt from overwhelming scientific evidence that the Earth is billions of years old. There’s no “mystery” here at all, accept to people whose minds are trapped in the Dark Ages.
Jon0815 on November 19, 2012 at 11:19 AM
Fair point. But in 2008 when that Pastor asked if abortion kills a human, Obama claimed that it was above his pay grade. But the science is abortion stops a beating heart. That’s the truth…and that is the science.
MoreLiberty on November 19, 2012 at 11:20 AM
Prove anything it says here is true, or that a god(s) created the universe or the Earth.
Good Lt on November 19, 2012 at 11:20 AM
Waiting for dems to be asked wether computer programming can be considered intelligent design.
DethMetalCookieMonst on November 19, 2012 at 11:21 AM
I know, I know. As I said it’s a little irritating. Rubio might be a 7 day creationist. Who knows. If he is, that’s the best answer he can really give.
lorien1973 on November 19, 2012 at 11:22 AM
Frankly, if a legislator’s belief in a flat earth doesn’t affect his performance, I don’t care.
Besides, the shape of the earth is directly observable. The age of the universe can only be inferred, relying on the assumption that the laws of physics are constant throughout space and time. It is likely a correct assumption, but there’s no way to prove it.
And if you really want to get into the weeds, the passage of time itself depends on your reference frame, so the age of the universe isn’t even a fixed value. For a fast enough (infinitesimally slower than light in this case) particle, there’s even a reference frame where the age of the universe is – gasp! – 6000 years.
sadarj on November 19, 2012 at 11:22 AM
I know. That’s depressing.
Good Lt on November 19, 2012 at 11:23 AM
Seriously, why does anyone not want to see this for what it is ?
I don’t care WHAT you believe about creationism, evolution, or intelligent design. That question does not seek to inform anyone on Planet Earth of anything useful or pertinent to the governing of this or any other country, state, city, county, or town. PERIOD.
When the douchebags like this in the media are allowed to set the agenda, as every single person in this thread who thinks “good answer” is doing, all you are doing is giving these people the power to set the narrative for the entire country, allowing idiotic ideas like binders, big bird, and Sandra Fluke to be effectively used in the media PR war against anyone on the right.
You want to know why Mourdock and Akin and abortion / rape were effectively used to make Romney into the unacceptably extremist right-winger that people couldn’t vote for, it starts right here with allowing BS questions like this to go unchecked. Ask Newt Gingrich how you answer that question. He seems to be the only one who gets it.
deadrody on November 19, 2012 at 11:23 AM
Still waiting for reporters to badger top Democrats about their atheism – and their support for sex selection abortion.
forest on November 19, 2012 at 11:24 AM
Yeah. It just sucks. Bible says 6 days, not 7. On the 7th God rested.
29Victor on November 19, 2012 at 11:24 AM
It was a good answer, but he went on a little too long trying to answer what is definitely nothing but a BS “gotcha” question.
UltimateBob on November 19, 2012 at 11:24 AM
A reasonably good job avoiding a gotcha question. It would have been even better if he’d stopped after the first three sentences.
DarkCurrent on November 19, 2012 at 11:24 AM
Again, NO, NO, NO. There is no right answer. Interview is over.
deadrody on November 19, 2012 at 11:24 AM
Strictly speaking – it does not matter what a politician thinks of the age of the Earth. It’s unlikely that – in particular – would influence any actual legislation or matter of state.
But the question is a proxy for effectively asking whether or not he takes the bible literally.
Taking the bible literally probably would, in certain cases, perhaps important ones we’ve yet to foresee, be relevant to the discharge of his duties.
The reporter is not asking a question about carbon dating. He is asking a question about metaphysics.
Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics, and art are the branches of philosophy. Is the politician Platonist, Aristotelian, Kantian, Hegelian? Asking a question about any of those to a politician is not out of line. Now, you could get lost into concrete minutia for the sake of it, and yes you could argue that it’s irrelevant. Nonstop questions about art would be clearly irrelevant.
But in one question, the reporter got a good feeling for the politician’s metaphysics and epistemology. Pretty good.
ebrawer on November 19, 2012 at 11:26 AM
So much for getting rid of the stupid out of the party.
Pablo Honey on November 19, 2012 at 11:26 AM
I think he did fine. He not only answered it but explained why it was a non sequitur and gave other conservatives several pretty good pat answers for when this question comes up again. Hopefully if enough conservatives can emulate him the MSM will quit with this silliness.
29Victor on November 19, 2012 at 11:27 AM
He could have gotten into theories of pre-Adamic history and really gotten some publicity.
TexasDan on November 19, 2012 at 11:27 AM
Awesome answer. As a creationist, I like it.
Logus on November 19, 2012 at 11:28 AM
And every….single…one….of those pieces of evidence contains words/phrases like “possibly”, “could be”, “maybe”, “there’s a chance”, and so forth. Try telling a jury that you know something is true because of all the evidence you collected and all of yoru evidence contains those words/phrases. See how that works out.
DethMetalCookieMonst on November 19, 2012 at 11:28 AM
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