Change of plans
Category: Creationism
I know many of you had your hearts set on a debate between me and Ray Comfort, but there has been a slight change of plans, for the better, I think. Instead of a debate, Comfort will be on tomorrow morning, Tuesday, at 10am Central time, and will express himself without fear of snorts of derision from me. I will then be on Wednesday, same time of day, to address the same topics. It's a better plan, since we all know Comfort is going to gallop through a scattershot collection of nonsense, and I'll be able to say something coherent in contrast the next day.
You can listen to WDAY radio live. I'll open a thread Tuesday morning for anyone to state their opinions here as it plays out on the radio.
Posted by PZ Myers at 4:56 PM • 1 Comments
Posts
I don't like this. Not even a little.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, Nothing can be gained by debating Cumfuck. Period.
ReplyDeleteIt is like debating Sye TenB, for those of ou who know what I mean.
I was looking forward to hearing Ray try to defend the coca cola can or one of his other inane analogies.
ReplyDeletePZ Myers posted that it was the stations idea to change the format. He still likes it. I'm still not sure. Believers will listen to Ray spew his lies and inanities, but few of them will listen to Myers the next day. I wonder how Christopher Hitchens would have reacted to this change?
ReplyDeleteSomeone over at Pharyngula posted that it was good for reason, bad for entertainment. That's true.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was looking forward to a debate too. Maybe it's better this way. All too often, rationalists find themselves in a situation where they meet unacceptable debate standards and people who think they can go by their own rules, moderators who don't do their job or are strongly biased. I hope this will give PZ the time to meticulously point out Ray's flawed arguments. If this format is really about ID, I suspect neither one of them will be on the DI's line anyway. They fall all over themselves trying to paint ID as non-theistic, and it's getting worse for them every time someone supports ID and unabashedly hails religious faith in the same breath. People in favor of ID are several types: fundamentalist theists following the Lying for Jesus strategy (Wedge), 'moderate theists' who have no scientific education but think ID is a good way to protect their precious gaps, and theistic scientists who incidentally have to date not produced any scientific work that would give ID merit, after more than two decades of research. I'm sure PZ will point that out.
ReplyDeleteRay would probably advocate his own version of ID, instant magical creation of complete beings with a little micro-twiddling. Which is pretty much the opposite of what the DI is trying to do. He's set himself up in a dead end, and in this interview show he can either misrepresent what he's saying in his blog and to his flock, or he can come out straight and say that it's literalist Sunday School he wants in science classes.
I can only hope that at least some people will not turn off but stay to listen to PZ. If you refuse categorically to listen to an opposing standpoint, you're discrediting your own integrity and tacitly admitting that you're fearful and bigoted. Someone who would rather close their ears and minds by turning off isn't worth addressing anyway.
Oh, boy. I just finished listening to the mp3 of Ray's interview. Note that this is not a Christian station, and one of the hosts commented at PZ's that he would have almost broken down from the avalanche of stupid. He called it bullshit outright. He just tried to be polite in the show.
ReplyDeleteThis is what you get when you try to be polite all the time, and don't call a lie when you hear it.
Great thing: as I expected, Ray proved without any doubt how much ID is identical with creationism. I could almost hear Dembski and the other DI guys punching the walls. Ray singlehandedly destroyed their case.
Anyway, here's the mp3 file of the show.