Australian “young Earth” creationist pastor Ken Ham said on Facebook Tuesday that Bill Nye “The Science Guy” does not “understand science correctly” because Nye does not believe in a literal interpretation of the Biblical book Genesis.
“Bill Nye still doesn’t understand the difference between historical science and observational science–so he may be known as ‘Bill Nye the science guy’–but he doesn’t understand science correctly,” Ham wrote about a discussion between Nye and Bill Maher on Maher’s HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher” in which both men mocked creationists.
P.Z. Meyers wrote of Ken Ham and “historical science” that the philosophy possesses “that delightful combination of arrogant pretense in which the Bible-walloper gets to pretend he understands better than scientists, and simultaneously allows them to deny every scientific observation, ever.”
According to “historical science” creationists, no science is valid that you did not personally witness, so-called “observational science.” They say that in order for evolution to be real, someone had to witness one species physically transforming into another. It’s not enough for the fossil record to show that bacteria evolved into a different kind of bacteria or fish evolved into different types of fish. To a creationist, this is false because “the bacteria are still bacteria and the fish are still fish.” Therefore, only God can affect real change.
So to be clear, these individuals who believe in an invisible sky fairy, based on NO evidence whatsoever, feel it is perfectly reasonable to demand that science ONLY be done by observation.
Seriously is it possible to become physically ill from irony overload?
Perhaps it is unknown to these morons that Copernicus determined that the earth rotated around the sun, and not the other way around as suggested by the Bible, using mathematical equations NOT simply observation.
The same use of mathematics has been used to determine the existence of planetary bodies long before they were observed by more powerful telescopes, not to mention how it is used to determine the age of artifacts and human and animal fossils.
I assume, using Mr. Ham's logic, that the police could NEVER solve a murder without having the great fortune of locating an eyewitness. Just imagine how many cases would remain unsolved if that were the criteria.
And remember THESE are individuals who base their entire belief system on an ancient book with reams of contradictory stories, and whose authors and contributors they have never met, and indeed are, for most part, entirely unknown.
It would be a great joy to me if there ever came a time when religious people decided to apply the same strict guidelines to what they would or would not accept as true, as those that they seem to demand from science.
How long do we think that Christianity, or Islam, or even Judaism would survive after that?
Update: You know it suddenly dawned on me that this might be a great place to link to a set of graphics entitled Putting Time in Perspective.
It illustrates just how much time has passed since the universe was calculated to have started , and compares that to other increments of time. It is really quite fascinating and once you look at it, and study it, the argument made by young earth Creationists seems even more ridiculous.
If you can imagine such a thing.
>>And remember THESE are individuals who base their entire belief system on an ancient book, with reams of contradictory stories, and whose authors and contributors they have never met, and indeed are for most part entirely unknown.
ReplyDeleteAnd them I would say, without hesitation:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/947295_509614342439402_1138741857_n.jpg
Bad kitty. But he speaks the truth.
DeleteOK, Gryph...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 99% of the time, but "It's in his damn name!" is not a scientific fact. Just sayin', as you like to point out.
Otherwise, carry on. ;-)
That made me laugh really hard.
DeleteCome on Carli, I was kidding.
DeleteIt was a little joke to lighten the mood before I discussed a crazy ass story.
Still, if somebody is given the title you would more or less expect that they would have SOME expertise, would you not?
I presumed Carli was not being entirely serious. Made me laugh.
DeleteIt IS in his name. I saw him on the tellyvision the other day, and they called him that AND they wrote it up on the screen of the teevee that his name was The Science Guy. So that's a fact.
DeleteIf someone calls you The Quitter cuz you always quit everything that you dont just do half-ass, well, then you're a quitter. Fact.
Same thing if you are Tiny Dick Todd the Pimp and have a very tiny penis and pimp for extra income. See, that's why it's in your name. Fact also.
Don't talk about people you've never met because that's libel and immature. Grow up. Libel. And Obama lies. I stand with Sarah Palin. She is already our president. Fact
Gryphen @ 11:03am
Delete"Still, if somebody is given the title you would more or less expect that they would have SOME expertise, would you not?"
Such as "Sarah Palin The Quitter Queen"?
Pope Bluntly Faults Church’s Focus on Gays and Abortion
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/world/europe/pope-bluntly-faults-churchs-focus-on-gays-and-abortion.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&
Iran reaching out to US, Pope criticising Church for obsession on gays, etc., Cruz directing people to ACA website. Pigs flying yet?
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/09/19/keep-chattin-11/
I would suggest we not worry about tiny pinhead nonthinkers. There is no debate if you don't agree on the premise. Just don't let them teach our children.
ReplyDeleteHaving a laugh helps too.
DeleteThat Mitchell and Webb Look - Richard Dawkins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwQ-_g8KuHI
I would agree with you except these nutcases are getting on everything from local school boards to the Texas textbook commission. They are dangerous and need to be sent back to their churches. If they want to teach THEIR children that "Creationism" is science, they can. They just can't do it with MY tax dollars.
DeleteThat's what I meant. There is no point in trying to debate, just keep them away from our children. Scrutinize every voter pamphlet.
DeleteJimmy Carter Writing New Book - Says Atheist Countries Treat Women Better (Videos)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/19/1239894/-Jimmy-Carter-To-Pen-Book-On-Global-Abuse-Of-Women-And-Religion-s-Negative-Impact-Videos
Interesting, because I kind of blame Jimmy and his “born again” statements for dragging this nonsense out of the shadows.
DeleteI can understand why you feel this way, but what I've experienced here in SC is that these extreme right-wing Bible-thumper types have always ridiculed Jimmy Carter. (Reagan was their guy--who the hell knows why.) It's mainly the few religious (and other) liberals who give Carter the respect he's due.
DeleteWitnesses say the driver of the following car fired shots, and the first driver returned fire. Both drivers were shot and killed. Authorities say both men had licenses to carry concealed weapons.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wzzm13.com/news/article/268289/280/Enraged-drivers-shoot-kill-each-other
Patrick Henry College Speaker Excuses Rape, Blames Mass Incarceration on Feminists
ReplyDelete...Feminists, he argues, have used the sexual revolution to impose “state repression” and “transformed our government into a matriarchal leviathan” by criminalizing rape, domestic violence and child abuse. Baskerville cites the work of University of Pennsylvania professor Marie Gottschalk to claim that the criminalization of sexual violence has led to the United States’ historic levels of mass incarceration. Gottschalk argued that women’s groups’ working with law and order groups in the 1960s and ‘70s “contributed to a more punitive climate,” not that the criminalization of sexual violence led to mass incarceration. But no matter— in the prosecution of rape and domestic violence, Baskerville sees “our own homegrown version of Stalinism”.
In Baskerville's view, laws against rape, domestic violence and child abuse have turned government into a "matriarchal leviathan" manipulated by "the temptress, the seductress who lures men into a “honeytrap” by offers of pleasure before springing a trap that today can mean decades in prison."
I don't think I need to tell you how primitive and degrading this kind of thinking is. Two things in particular scare me. The first is what it must take to be a woman attending this school and having to sit through such mindless, chauvinist garbage. I know that fundie women are trained almost from the time they can crawl that they are to more or less bow and scrape before their men, but you would think that even they would have limits. The second is that dozens of kids in Christian schools and Christianist homeschooling curricula are having their minds poisoned with claims that laws that protect women from being degraded are a Bad Thing.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/patrick-henry-college-speaker-excuses-rape-blames-mass-incarceration-feminists#sthash.AKRVrvxE.dpuf
I'll bet this guy has things in his closet that would be of interest to CSI, Special Victims Unit. He's trying to justify something he's done that he can blame on someone else.
DeleteGryphen, I think you predicted something like this happening.
ReplyDeleteLimbaugh Comes Out Against Drinking Water
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/09/13/michelle_carries_water_for_big_soda
I would ask if Ken Ham accepts DNA. For some reason, DNA testing is a science these people usually accept, an exception, and I don’t know why, except that it compliments what they can observe?
ReplyDeleteEvidently, Mister Ham (doesn't *Mr Ham* just *sound* like the name of an expert?) never lived in the same apartment for at least four consecutive semesters while in college, because if he did, he'd know that when you are getting ready to finally move out and trying to salvage part of your security deposit, you find some stuff growing in the fridge that neither you or your roommates put in there. And it's alive, because it is growing and smells, and whatnot. Or maybe mister Ham never bothered to go to a real University where professors have PhD's and really know their shit, so it's a moot point.
ReplyDeleteWhatever, you can't argue with a "true believer", because they *don't want* to learn the truth, because that would destroy the basis for which each of them justifies being an asshole towards other human beings.
Very good link "Putting time in perspective" with fun and understandable comments. Thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteShameful Repubs.
ReplyDeleteIf the objective is to make us all slack-jawed yokels, must say they've made a good start to half-way there. The slack-jawed part, I mean. If
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm confused.
ReplyDeleteExactly WHO was the eyewitness who wrote Genesis???
And wasn't all of the Jeebus Book (Parts I and II) written by people many, many years after the supposed events took place?
Haven't these people ever played Telephone? If a story can't be told exactly the same way by ten people in the same room over a span of 15 minutes, HOW in the hell did these people get the details exactly right decades or centuries after the fact???
I'll take DNA evidence and the fossil record instead, thank you very much!
There's something not Kosher about this "Ham" guy and his silly beliefs and museums. I hope Mr Nye got a serious belly laugh reading this because you can't teach a pig to sing and you can't fix stupid.
ReplyDelete