Politics and Evolution

Dr. Ben Carson has a loyal and enthusiastic following for the Republication presidential nomination.  I kinda get his appeal for many people.

That said, he seems, well, incurious and naive when it comes to science, despite being a neurosurgeon.  Of all his missteps and verbal blunders, to me this one stands out as the most egregious.  This came out in late September (I saw it on the blog Talking Points Memo):

Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said in a 2011 speech speech that he thought scientist Charles Darwin was "encouraged by the adversary," using another word for Satan, when he came up with the theory of evolution.

Carson spoke on "creation vs. evolution" and the "flaws in the evolutionary theory," according to the description on the YouTube video uploaded by user Three Angels Messages, which has uploaded a variety of news and political videos. 

The video was flagged on Tuesday by the website BuzzFeed News. "According to the creation model, in which we have an adversary, it’s very easy to explain why people act that way. It’s because they have choice and because there is an adversary out there," Carson told the crowd.

So basically Charles Darwin was encouraged by Satan to come up with the theory of evolution.