in regards to Carson, so I hope my comment wouldn't be taken to mean that everything the guy thinks is now automatically incoherent. That's quite obviously a slippery slope, and I don't advocate hand waving entirely on the basis of one issue.
As far as understanding his basis for his comments, he is an open proponent of young Earth literal biblical fundamentalism, which isn't "my" defintion by the way. He has been on record many times to support that belief. I'm personally not all that interested in where his beliefs developed, whether he was raised a 7th day Adventist or became one later in life. That really doesn't make his claims any less or more valid. I just tackle the claim head on. When someone says "evolution was encouraged by the adversary", there really isn't that much to sift through. He believes the universe is 6,000 years old.
In my defense, I wasn't trying to go out of the way to undercut the man, I was merely giving some context to where some of the stupid/crazy labels come from that you made mention of because you said you hadn't followed him too much. If you notice, I didn't call him that. The guy is clearly super intelligent. I used the term compartmentalized intelligence, because I think that accurately describes him. He can apply his brilliance to medicine, but denies universal scientific truths in favor of his personal religious beliefs.
I get what you're saying as far as taking Carson (or anyone) issue by issue, but his comments in the past are a non starter for me, so I haven't taken time to find out his opinion on other thigns. I did notice the other day he said a Muslim should never be president, so that's one thing. Honestly I don't think he's put out much in the way of policy proposals. Could be wrong on that though.