President Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of the Army, former army doctor Mark Green, is a self-identified “creationist” who delivered a lecture arguing against the theory of evolution.
Green’s views and past statements are facing scrutiny ahead of his confirmation hearing, which has yet to be scheduled. If confirmed, Green wouldn’t be the only prominent doctor and member of the Trump administration to reject evolution. HUD Secretary Ben Carson has also made similar arguments and once said the theory of evolution was encouraged by Satan.
Green, a Tennessee state senator, has faced opposition from Democrats and LGBT groups over his past anti-LGBT comments. In one comment, from September, Green said, “If you poll the psychiatrists, they’re going to tell you that transgender is a disease.”
The National Academy of Sciences says that the theory of evolution “is supported by so many observations and confirming experiments that scientists are confident that the basic components of the theory will not be overturned by new evidence.”
The group adds, “Because the evidence supporting it is so strong, scientists no longer question whether biological evolution has occurred and is continuing to occur. Instead, they investigate the mechanisms of evolution, how rapidly evolution can take place, and related questions.”
Green rejects the conclusions of scientists in his lecture. In his 2015 speech to a church to Cincinnati titled ‘Isn’t Evolution A Solution?, Green dedicated nearly an hour to explaining why his work as a medical doctor taught him to reject the theory.
Green claims that the theory of evolution violates physical law, using the example of a lawn mower left out in a backyard.
“The evolutionists have their bad argument, too,” Green said. They say, ‘Well, I can’t explain how it went from this to incredibly complex, so it must have been billions of years.’ That’s kind of where they put their faith. The truth of the matter is is the second law of thermo fluid dynamics says that the world progresses from order to disorder not disorder to order.
“If you put a lawn mower out in your yard and a hundred years come back, it’s rusted and falling apart. You can’t put parts out there and a hundred years later it’s gonna come back together. That is a violation of a law of thermodynamics. A physical law that exists in the universe.”
Green also argues that processes allowing human life, such as blood-clotting, are ‘irreducibly complex’ and says that is evidence of a creator.
“Irreducible complexity is important in the argument for the creationist because of this: Evolution assumes a series of minuscule changes over time, and each change has to give a survival advantage to the organism. If it doesn’t, and it causes a disadvantage the organism dies and evolution ends,” Green said.
Later in the speech, Green adds, “The question is, did all of this happen by chance operating inside the laws of chemistry and physics? Or is this unbelievable engineering, and is the scientific mind going to look at it and make the conclusion, observation, and conclusion that it was created and not that it evolved. Again, remember time is not the hero of the plot. Time is the villain, because over time things break down, they don’t assemble themselves together.”
Green did not respond to a request for comment. A White House spokesperson told CNN’s KFile that a spokesperson handling Green’s nomination would contact them, but Green’s spokesperson did not.
In a statement announcing his nomination in early April, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis put his full support behind Green.
“He had my full support during the selection process, and he will have my full support during the Senate confirmation process. I am confident of Mark’s ability to effectively lead the Army,” Mattis said.