Take Five (Looking Down on Creation edition)

[DemocratsForProgress]

Jeff Rosenzweig: Take Five (Looking Down on Creation edition)

ONE: Big Bung Theory

Creation Museum founder Ken Ham brought tidings of great joy to creationists and non-creationists alike when he announced that on February 4 at the “museum,” he and Bill Nye will debate the question: “Is creation a viable model of origins?” Ham thinks the event will be a chance to “show Mr. Nye and our debate audience that observational science confirms the scientific accuracy of the Genesis account of origins, not evolution.” Personally, I think it will be a chance for Ham to make a fool of himself, though that would hardly be novel.

Ham – who, ironically, kind of resembles the Neanderthal from the Geico commercials, not that there’s anything wrong with that – describes the event as “an important debate to have.” Well, for the Creation Museum, that’s no doubt true; it will put desperately needed asses in the 900 seats of “Legacy Hall” at 25 bucks a pop. Tickets purportedly sold out within minutes, which sounds impressive until you consider that a recent Pew poll finds only 43% of Republicans currently believe in evolution, down from 54% in 2013.

On the brighter side, if $29 million in municipal bonds aren’t purchased by February 6, the Creation Museum’s long-delayed sister project, the Ark Encounter, might run aground. Which is in itself a more convincing suggestion of the existence of God than any of the Ark Encounter’s proposed exhibits could ever be.

TWO: Diet Hard

For all their efforts to stake a claim to the bottom of the political barrel, Republicans invariably find that the territory has already been surveyed and subdivided, by folks like Trestin Meacham. The former political candidate for something called the Constitution Party recently staged a hunger strike to protest Utah’s same-sex marriage prohibition being found unconstitutional...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2014/01/21/take-five-looking-down-on-creation-edition/

[TlalocW]

1. It's too bad Nye is doing this on their turf

I suspect hardly anyone in the audience will be on his side, but more importantly, this gives the museum money and delays their eventual bankruptcy.

TlalocW

[caraher]

2. Debates are generically bad for "resolving" these issues

Debates are almost always won by the best debater, not the side with the most merit. This is why anti-science people love debate challenges - they've got a shot if they bring the better debater to the table. I see no reason to think Bill Nye is a better debater than Ken Ham.

It's better not to dignify these kinds of challenges to debate with a response...