'Bill Nye the Science Guy' to debate evolution with the founder of Kentucky's Creation Museum

[moonbladem]

Will Bill Nye deliver the ultimate science smackdown to creationists

Comments

[anolinde]

I don't see this ending well.

[shipperx]

Nope. Mainly because faith requires no 'evidence' and thus can handle a shit-load of cognitive dissonance without budging.

[romp]

yeah, I go so far as to say cognitive dissonance is often celebrated as a sign of faith

[magicpebble]

I can't decide if this is going to be the best thing ever or a complete clusterfuck.

[clevermanka]

Seriously. I thought his appearance on Dancing With the Stars was uncomfortable-making. The idea of this just makes me cringe.

[namey]

[nesmith]

About the only thing it will accomplish is maybe helping to sway people who aren't sure. Religious people who deny evolution by and large have their minds made up and they usually don't pay much attention to fact.

[thelilyqueen]

Yup. I'm sure we don't fully understand evolution, and probably never will given the timescale and such, but it's the best-supported explanation we have for the origins and direction of life.

One thing you learn if you really keep going in biological science is how messy a lot of things presented as fundamental 'rules' at lower levels really turn out to be. Like even just defining a species.

[tigerdreams]

These things never end well because professional creationists don't know how to have a reasoned, intellectual debate on the factual merits of the subject under discussion -- and wouldn't be interested in doing it if they did know. They spend the entire time tilting at strawmen and asking "gotcha" questions that they don't wait to hear the answers to. Debates like these might be useful for swaying a few people who are on the fence or never had the opportunity to learn what evolution really is, but I suspect that in most cases, it's just best not to feed the trolls.

"Never argue with an idiot; he'll drag you down to his level and beat you with experience."

[liliaeth]

I just don't understand people who deny evolution

[lied_ohne_worte]

It's really absurd to see these creationists if you belong to a branch of Christianity that doesn't take the Bible literally. A while ago, the reverend at our church encountered a teacher of all things who thought the Bible creation myths had to be believed literally (claiming that the Bible literally true is a fringe view in my country among Christians). My reverend was so bothered about it that we had two weeks were every service/speech at group meetings he could possibly fit it into involved an elaboration about how the Bible stories on these things aren't intended to be read as literal scientific explanations.

[romp]

I grew up amid fundamentalists and was an adult before I learned that some Christians believe stories from the bible are metaphors (specifically the gospels being midrash texts). It still strikes me as the height of sophistication. :)

[sihaya09]

Kick his ass, Bill. Intellectually, I mean. Not that that should be hard.