Zach Dasher, the cousin of the Duck Dynasty family who is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Vance McAllister in Louisiana's 5th Congressional district, once blamed atheism for the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Before running for Congress, Dasher was the proprietor of the website Willingtothink.org, which bills itself as a website and podcast "a website and podcast dedicated to encouraging folks to be willing to think about the deeper questions in life."

"These children that were killed in Connecticut were made for purpose and to be honest with you even the killer himself was made for a purpose," Dasher said on one podcast titled "Why did this happen," which discussed the Sandy Hook shootings.

Dasher says the Adam Lanza, the shooter, was "made in the image of God" but started to believe "what the atheist says."

"He was made in the image of God," he said. "But somewhere along the way he believed what the atheist says. He reduced humanity to nothing more than a collection of atoms, to be discarded like an old banana peel. I guarantee you, now this is my hypothesis, that even saw himself as nothing more than chemicals."