Reader Trey called my attention to the announcement, by Answers in Genesis, that the upcoming debate on evolution between Bill “The Science Guy” Nye and Ken “The Lyin’ Guy” Ham will be livestreamed, so you can all see it for free here. It is, of course, at the Creation Museum in Kentucky.
Date and time: Tuesday, February 4 at 7 pm EST (US). Mark your calendars, as I expect that many of us will watch it (I will), and we can discuss our reactions.
In the meantime, Glenn Beck, in this very short excerpt from his television show (source: Right Wing Watch), compares Bill Nye and his sympathizers, who want to keep creationism out of schools, to the Catholic Church when it tried to censor Galileo. What the hell is he on about? Galileo was right and creationism is wrong.
The slur on Nye starts at 48 seconds in:
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Anyone who would expect a rational argument from Beck would probably also try to pet a rabid dog.
Like Bill O’Liely.
I really hope Bill Nye doesn’t drop the ball. I watched an older clip on YouTube where he was brought on to Larry King’s show to represent skeptics in a discussion about UFOs and he wasn’t great unfortunately.
Religion silencing science is like science silencing religion?
My mother used to silence me and my siblings when we were screaming at each other in the back seat of the car, too (and once she kicked us out and made us walk home).
I’m in way too pleasant a frame of mind today to watch a Beck assault on the evolution of human civilization.
A number of well known guests appeared on last night’s program
(www.thethinkingatheist.com/podcast) to offer their opinions on the Nye vs Ham debate.
http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/podcast/bill-nye-and-the-creationist-guy
This is the link to the podcast.
I listened last night live to the Thinking Atheist podcast and I thought each guest brought very thoughtful analyses to the appearance. I still think that is is ultimately a mistake but someone (I think it was Matt Dillahunty said the good thing it would be out there for people to see in the future. Of course, this assumes Bill Nye will win the debate. I’ve heard he is being coached though.
Riiiight. The RCC forbade Galileo from publishing (further), while the scientific community would welcome some solid research published from IDers. Bring it. We dare you. We double dog dare you.
The problem of course is that they want to teach their claptrap before doing the research to support it, while the RCC was trying to silence Galileo because of the research he did to support his position.
There you ago applying reason to the issue. Don’t forget what old Martin Luther said about reason.
What is he on about? Propaganda. Making money. As Karl Rove rediscovered and formally made a standard tactic for the political right in the US in service to his grand strategy to once and for all achieve overwhelming victory for the Republican party, a sizable percentage of the population will accept the most ridiculous and obviously counterfactual lies if delivered with a straight face and repeated often.
Glenn Beck is merely one of many disgusting people that are in the business of applying that tactic. One of the more putrid in my opinion, but that’s just me. Though I try to moderate it and give the benefit of the doubt, that maybe they are decent but really ignorant, I have a tendency to automatically categorize anyone who likes Glenn Beck as an unethical asshole worthy of nothing but scorn.
Sadly, there are many ethical folks who are not assholes who think that Beck is a brilliant thinker who speaks what they believe. They think that O’Reilly is a real ‘we report you decide’ kind of guy and that Hannity is a truth-speaking genius. Even more sadly, some of these folks are my relatives, and many are not stupid [note I did not say all :-] I believe that they trust liars like Beck because of fear that I have heard them express – there are blacks [and a Muslim] in the White House, the Mexicans are moving in and taking the jobs, the Jews in business and Hollywood control the culture, the welfare queens are having more babies, and Christians are being persecuted by the secularists because the latter point out that the US is not a Christian nation founded on Christian values. Their fear blinkers their thinking.
Racism runs deep in the USA. The GOP (aka Fox News) is based largely on exploiting that fact.
So very true gb. During a recent visit to northern Indiana, I went to breakfast with my dad’s cronies and about spit out my coffee when one of the fellows referred to “the n…..s in the White House.” Even though the fellow weighed about 300 and likely had a shotgun in his pickup, I should have challenged his racism, but I knew that the other 7 guys felt the same way about Obama. They often refer to him as ‘our last President’; something they probably heard from Beck.
Propaganda – that’s it in a nutshell, and as you’ve indicated, it is every bit as ham-handed as the gruel that was once dispensed by Pravda.
I’ve just watched Ken Ham’s video clip on http://debatelive.org/: I’ve learned that science “actually supports the Bible and confirms the Bible’s history”. Checkmate, atheists (*LOL*)!
No wonder Ham’s organization doesn’t see any need to censor “science” (“Uncensored science — Bill Nye debates Ken Ham”) when “science” supports the Bible.
(Here in Switzerland I’d have to stay up late to see the live stream, so I’ll have to pay for the download, I’m afraid.)
I think you should wait & see if it gets multi-copied to Youtube ~ there should be a window of time to watch it for free until the DMCA notices start flying ~ saves money from going into the pockets of those shysters. Though I suppose the creationists may not mind in this case because I suspect the opening & closing titles will include info on how best to donate to the Ark…
I’m a$$uming that’s the intent behind the free live $treaming
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but for the first time I can recall Glenn Beck actually has a point. The similarities here are incredible: Galileo was an astronomer (check) and popular figure (check) who argued for an evidence-based scientific theory (check) that conflicted with the Church’s creation story from Genesis (check) but turned out to be right (check). So he brought down the wrath of religious fundies (check) who abused their government authority to forcibly shut him up (they’re trying) even after he tried his best to reason with their theology (check) but not on the physical evidence (check).
It is a bit hyperbolic, of course. Nye didn’t discover the smoking-gun evidence himself and Beck is a fridge wingnut without the authority to legally murder
BrunoDawkins and force our generations’ many biological Galileos to shut up an live under house arrest. But kudos for pointing out the obvious similarities!Now, I haven’t had a chance to actually watch that video but I assume he is comparing himself to the Catholic Church’s religious supporters and Nye to Galileo.
Because otherwise he’d be a fucking lunatic.
Thank you. That was a thing of beauty.
I particularly agree w/ your last sentence. You’re absolutely correct; he’s not just your average lunatic, he’s the very worst type – a fucking one!
And the bastard makes millions just by troll trolling. It’s his well-mastered, art-form.
This has got to be proof positive that there is no god.
“Because otherwise he’d be a fucking lunatic.”
Bingo!
To appreciate Glenn Beck one has to watch Jon Stewart.
This evening driving home I stopped at a red light and noticed the license plate “holder” of the car in front of me. On the bottom was the sentence, “I went and I believe.” On the top, in smaller letters was, “Creation Museum.”
hey there! , Everyone loves your current creating quite a lot! fraction all of us communicate further about your document for America online? I actually need to have a consultant during this space or room to fix our trouble. Might be that is anyone! Anticipating look people.