Tucker Carlson’s Friday appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast quickly went viral after the former Fox News host shared his theories on UFOs and evolution.
The 3-hour conversation, which racked up 5 million views on Rogan’s Youtube channel in just 3 days, left many online baffled after Carlson claimed, among other things, that scientists had “given up on the idea of evolution.”
“It’s visible,” Rogan replied. “Like, you can measure it in certain animals.”
In response, Carlson alleged that adaptation could be measured but that the theory of evolution as articulated by scientist Charles Darwin was “not true.”
“I have a lot of dogs, I see adaptation in dogs through… litter to litter. But no, there’s no evidence at all, none, zero, that people evolved seamlessly from a single cell amoeba,” Carlson said. “No, there’s not. There’s no chain in the fossil record of that at all.”
While the transition from unicellular to multicellular lifeforms is still a murky field of inquiry, some experiments and findings have affirmed the theory. In 2010, a study published in Nature by the biochemist Douglas Thomas found that the theory that all life comes from a shared genetic heritage with single-celled microorganisms, called the theory of universal common ancestry (UCA), is “millions of times more probable than any theory of multiple independent ancestries.”
Carlson went on to state that he had his own theories, which boiled down to the belief that “God created people, distinctly, and animals.”
“I think that’s like what every person on Earth thought until the mid-19 century, actually,” Carlson said before breaking into a deranged laugh.
“Right, but they didn’t have computers, they didn’t have a general understanding that we have today of the process,” Rogan said.
“Do you think we understand more now?” Carlson asked.
“Yes,” Rogan answered.
The back-and-forth garnered widespread attention online, where many users appeared to side with Rogan.
“Carlson doesn’t seem like he expected to be challenged by Rogan on anything he says, but still is surprisingly unprepared to defend his statement,” posted @bec215 in response to the clip. “ I don’t see any daylight between his definition of ‘adaptation’ and evolution.”
“[E]xactly. when he says adaptation, he’s talking about microevolution just without using the word,” replied @TravisAllen02.
“Standard religion playbook,” added @smithy81787056. “I’ve heard hundreds over the years espouse the same nonsense.”
But that wasn’t the only remark from Carlson that raised eyebrows. Carlson also told Rogan that he believed U.S. service members had died after being in contact with aliens, which he described as a “spiritual phenomena.”
“We know that because there are a lot of suits working their way through the VA [Veterans Administration] system where families can’t get compensated for the deaths or injuries of loved ones,” Carlson said.
“Because it’s all under wraps, top secret?” Rogan asked skeptically.
“Well, that’s just a fact,” Carlson said.
Carlson also said that there’s “a real effort that’s been underway to keep the public from knowing about it.”
“That’s all known, that’s established,” Carlson explained. “I don’t think that any rational person would deny that – the question is like, what is it?”
According to Carlson, “there’s no evidence they’re from another planet,” he said, explaining that the atmosphere is well monitored by the military and that there’s never been any evidence showing that they came from outer space.
Carlson pointed to verses from the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible to back his claim. In that book, the prophet Ezekiel has a vision of God by the River Chebar in Babylon.
After he described seeing bizarre living creatures, the combination of men, lions, oxes, and an eagle, Ezekiel said that the creatures were standing on “a wheel in the middle of a wheel” which lifted the creatures into the sky. That verse has often been cited as evidence of a UFO sighting in the Bible by writers like Erich von Daniken, who is known for pushing distorted readings of ancient texts to support his theory that humans had frequent contact with extraterrestrials as our civilizations developed.
“It is crazy, if you read it, it’s like ‘oh wow,’” Carlson told Rogan, referring to the Book of Ezekiel. “And not just the Hebrew scriptures, it’s all over every… so, these are spiritual phenomena. There’s no evidence they’re from another planet. I mean, I think that’s the op, that’s the lie, that they’re from Mars.”
The general response to Carlson’s comments can be summed up by one post on X, in which user @esjesjesj said: “Tucker Carlson said shit so dumb that even Joe Rogan couldn’t go along with it.”
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