If the need for a new approach to the American electorate wasn’t clear enough to Republicans on November 6th, it certainly has been since Mitt Romney delivered his graceless coup de grace a few days later—when he essentially accused President Obama of buying the election by offering students affordable loans and nearly everyone else acceptable health care. Party leaders couldn’t disown Romney and his misanthropic distaste for Americans fast enough. Suddenly, all we could hear about were the next generation of leaders. And nobody has been talked about with more excitement than Florida Senator Marco Rubio. After all, Rubio is a young, inspiring Hispanic legislator in a party that desperately needs inspiration, youth, and, perhaps more than anything else, a better handle on the Hispanic vote.

In the December issue of GQ, which was published online today, Rubio tells Michael Hainey that he loves the music of Afrika Bambaataa. And Tupac. He feels empowered by Eminem. Rubio is cool—a guy for tomorrow. So it was with genuine amazement that I read his response when Hainey asked him about the age of the earth. I think, in fairness to Rubio, it’s best to reprint the entire exchange (italics are mine):

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.

Actually, there are two basic theories about how the universe was created. There is a scientific explanation: that the universe began to expand about 13.7 billion years ago and continues today to do so. And there’s an explanation offered by people who believe that angels are real.

There is a great deal of evidence to support the first theory—galaxies appear to be moving away from us at speeds proportional to their distance, for example. This is called Hubble’s Law, and the observation supports the view that the universe was once tightly clustered. There has also been data, known for nearly half a century, that microwave radiation pervades the universe—which means that the universe was once very hot—which the Big Bang theory suggests. There is, however, no evidence for the angel theory.

Physics, astronomy, and molecular genetics have all made it possible to trace our genetic, viral, and biological heritage back millions of years. The earth, give or take a few hundred thousand years, is 4.54 billion years old. That is considerably more than seven days. I guess it could be divided into Rubio’s “seven actual eras,” each of which would have lasted roughly 650 million years.

People who suggest that we teach children competing theories are using a sophisticated code to further the forces of creationism. It’s an attempt to teach “intelligent design,” by doing what clever creationists call “teaching the controversy.” (Intelligent design is a school of thought that suggests that life is too complex to be ascribed to evolution and therefore that animals must have been created by a supernatural “designer.” There is no evidence and no theory that could be interpreted as scientific proof.) George W. Bush addressed intelligent design just once in public, saying that he believed “both sides ought to be properly taught.” Rubio seems to agree. In a society desperate for scientific literacy among its leaders, that is a terrible shame.

Many mysteries remain about the origins of the universe; how rapidly it has expanded, and how all the atomic parts fit together. There is a lot left to learn. But not about whether or not the universe was created in seven days. It wasn’t. Rubio is wrong—it is not a dispute for theologians. It is not a dispute at all.

There are not two sides to every issue. Some have thirteen sides and others have one. The only thing that Rubio got right in his conversation with Hainey (besides the moral power of Eminem’s lyrics) is that he is “not qualified to answer a question like that.”

Photograph by Lauren Lancaster.