Former Congressman Mike Pence, now the GOP vice presidential candidate. (AP)

In July 2002, then-Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana -- now the Republican vice presidential candidate -- stated on the floor of the House of Representatives that evolution is a theory and argued that intelligent design is also a theory, which, like evolution, should be taught in U.S. schools.

“[Evolution] always was a theory, Mr. Speaker,” said Pence. “And now that we have recognized evolution as a theory, I would simply and humbly ask, can we teach it as such and can we also consider teaching other theories of the origin of species?”

“I believe that God created the known universe, the Earth and everything in it, including man,” said Pence. “And I also believe that someday scientists will come to see that only the theory of intelligent design provides even a remotely rational explanation for the known universe.”

“I would just humbly ask as new theories of evolution find their ways into the newspapers and into the textbooks, let us demand that educators around America teach evolution not as fact, but as theory, and an interesting theory to boot,” he said.

“But let us also bring into the minds of all of our children all of the theories about the unknowable,” said Pence, “that some bright day in the future, through science and perhaps through faith, we will find the truth from whence we come.”

Earlier in his remarks, Pence also said, “Every signer of the Declaration of Independence believed that men and women were created and were endowed by that same Creator with certain unalienable rights. The Bible tells us that God created man in his own image; ‘Male and female He created them.’ And I believe that, Mr. Speaker.”

Pence represented Indiana’s Sixth Congressional district in the House of Representatives from 2000 to 2012 before being elected governor of Indiana. He is now the Republican vice presidential candidate.