A US POLITICIAN has told an audience that evolution and the Big Bang theory are “lies straight from the pit of hell”.

Republican congressman Paul Broun, who is a doctor, made the comments during a speech at a dinner in Georgia which was videotaped. Broun is running unopposed for reelection in November.

In the video, the  congressman said he has come across scientific data that proves the Earth is less than 9,000 years old and was created in six days.

“God’s word is true,” he told the audience at a banquet held in a church last month. “And I’ve come to understand that”.

All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, the Big Bang theory: all of that is lies straight from the pit of hell.

He added:

It’s lies to try and keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a saviour.

Bround said that “as a scientist” he had found a lot of scientific data that proved that the Earth is much younger than many people believe.

“I don’t believe that the earth is but about 9,000 years old,” he said. “I believe that it was made in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible tells us”.

Broun has a degree in chemistry from the University of Georgia as well as a medical degree. In the House of Representatives he sits on the government committee with responsibility for science.

A spokeswoman for Broun told Georgia newspaper the Athens Banner-Herald that Broun was speaking off the record to a church group about his personal religious beliefs.

Around one hundred people have left comments on Broun’s Facebook page criticising his comments, with some calling on him to resign. He has also been heavily criticised by Twitter users.

Broun is not the first member of the House Science Committee to attract public attention for his comments in recent months: another Republican member, Todd Akin, came under fire in August when he claimed that victims of “legitimate rape” have biological defences which prevent pregnancy.

(Video: BridgeProject21/YouTube)

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