Richard Dawkins: ‘Terrible Indictment’ of Ben Carson That He’s ‘Ignorant’ on Evolution

Richard Dawkins thinks it’s “ignorant” for all of the Republican candidates to deny evolution, but is especially bothered by someone with Ben Carson‘s medical background harboring that belief.

Dawkins appeared on CNN this morning with Fareed Zakaria to talk about science and evolution. Zakaria brought up how almost all of the Republicans running for president don’t accept evolution as a fact.

Dawkins said it fills him with “despair” because evolution is a fact, not a belief, and “you can’t not believe in it unless you’re ignorant.” He suspected some of the GOP candidates do accept evolution but are lying to appeal to their base.

But it particularly pained him that Carson, an acclaimed neurosurgeon, would reject evolution.

“For… a very eminent, distinguished doctor, as he is, to say that,” Dawkins told Zakaria, “it’s even worse, because, of course, evolution is the bedrock of biology, and biology is the bedrock of medicine.”

He concluded that if Carson “doesn’t understand the fundamental theorem of his own subject,” “that is a terrible indictment.”

Watch both clips above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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