I’m slowly getting through this debate thingy. I’d be further along, but Saturday afternoon’s plans turned into Saturday evening and then up all night watching Doctor Who and smashing religious and corporate bullshit to bits, so…. here we are. I’m blogging it on G+ as I go: that’s the rough-and-ready, get-their-words-down version with the bare minimum of research. I’ll then go back through, pull out the stuff that needs some loving attention from the Smack-o-Matic, and give it what it deserves.
So far, I’ve determined that Bill Nye doesn’t tell tie jokes all that well, but at least doesn’t sound like a sleazy used-car salesman, and Ken Ham is either the most ignorant fucker on earth, or a huge-ass con man, or both. He sure as shit doesn’t know how actual science works. Do try to contain your shock.
However, one thing about idiots like this: you can learn a lot of great and entertaining science by refuting them. That’s one of the reasons I’m actually going to enjoy this. After I take an icepick to both ears to get the drone of Ken Ham’s voice out of them, that is…
I could have a bit of respect for Ham if he said that he specifically rejected reality in favor of a 2500 year old myth some Hebrew priests stole from the Babylonians. But instead he tries to make reality match that myth, tossing out those parts which directly contradict the myth and distorting the few remnants to sorta-kinda fit the myth. What’s particularly infuriating is how he lies about what actual scientists say.
I can’t bring myself to watch the debate, but last week I went to a lecture by a geneticist whose work Ham cited. Ham put a figure from one of this guy’s papers on a slide, but upside down and backwards. Which is fitting, in a way.