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Canadian Governor General Mocks Creationism

REUTERS/Chris Wattie

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Newly installed Canadian Governor General Julie Payette mockingly dismissed the idea that human life is the result of “divine intervention” in a speech Thursday night at Ottawa’s Canadian Science Policy Convention.

The former astronaut and appointee of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau focused on those who question the man-made causes of climate change, a dominant theme in the Trudeau government, which has a departmental minister dedicated to climate change.

“Can you believe that still today in learned society, in houses of government, unfortunately, we’re still debating and still questioning whether humans have a role in the Earth warming up or whether even the Earth is warming up, period?” Payette asked.

“And we are still debating and still questioning whether life was a divine intervention or whether it was coming out of a natural process — let alone, oh my goodness, a random process,” she said.

Payette presented herself as the ultimate rationalist as she joked about people who read horoscopes and urged the crowd to turn off “fake news” and reject any refutation of facts that she considers beyond question.

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