Dr. Ben Carson says the Bible is clear: God created the world in six literal, 24-hour days.
He also denies that evolution involved a change from one species to another over millions of years, saying the spread of Darwinism was fueled by the devil.
"I'm not a hard and fast person who says the Earth is only 6,000 years old, but I do believe in the six-day creation," he said during a speech before the 2011 Celebration of Creation conference at Australia's Avondale College. "It doesn't say when He created them except for, 'In the beginning.' The earth could have been here for a long time before he started creating things on it."
But he said the Bible uses the term "the evening and the morning ... because He knew that people would come along and try to say, 'Oh, it was millions and millions of years.'"
Dr. Carson says in the video that the Bible states that each species "brought forth after its own kind, because He knew people would come along and say, 'You know, this changed into that and this changed into that, and this into that' - so at the very beginning of the Bible, He puts that to rest."
The theory of evolution, spread by Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species, had an unsavory origin, he said. "I personally believe that this theory Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary," he said.
That worries critics like left-wing writer David Corn. "If Ben Carson ... actually believes that Satan actively encourages evolution and other misguided notions, then does he consider his adversaries in political or scientific debates to be the useful idiots of the devil?" he wrote in Mother Jones magazine. "If so, can he accept the idea of compromise or collaboration with those being encouraged and exploited by the Prince of Darkness? His belief in six-day creationism is not merely a curiosity. It is tied to a deeper belief that may profoundly skew how he sees his opponents and the workings of the political world."
On the other hand, those who believe in evolution often deride creationism as "poisonous and medieval." Can such secularists govern or compromise with their more devout colleagues, or represent their constituents?
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