Here’s all but the snacks. Bring your own.
Bill Nye the science guy vs. Ken Ham the Genesis slam here at 7:00 pm EST. You can always drag the progress bar back if you arrive late.
Meanwhile, here’s the promo vid.
CNN’s Tom Foreman’s the moderator:
During key primary and caucus nights of the 2012 election cycle, Foreman conducted discussions with focus groups in key battleground states, and he lead the network’s fact checking initiative, for which he and his team were awarded the 2013 Walter Cronkite/Brooks Jackson Award.
Geek Goes Rogue is live blogging the debate.
Nye’s shoutout to fans:
Tuesday’s debate will be about whether Ham’s creation model is viable or useful for describing nature. We cannot use his model to predict the outcome of any experiment, design a tool, cure a disease or describe natural phenomena with mathematics.
These are all things that parents in the United States very much want their children to be able to do; everyone wants his or her kids to have common sense, to be able to reason clearly and to be able to succeed in the world.
The facts and process of science have enabled the United States to lead the world in technology and provide good health for an unprecedented number of our citizens. Science fuels our economy. Without it, our economic engine will slow and eventually stop.
Ham’s shoutout to fans:
Even though the two of us are not Ph.D. scientists, Mr. Nye and I clearly love science.
As a former science instructor, I have appreciated the useful television programs that he hosted and produced, especially when he practiced operational science in front of his audience.
He and I both recognize the wonderful benefits that observational, operational science has brought us, from cell phones to space shuttles. But operational science, which builds today’s technology, is not the same as presenting beliefs about the past, which cannot be tested in the laboratory.
For students, the evolution-creation discussion can be a useful exercise, for it can help develop their critical thinking skills.
Note: CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live” will host both Nye and Ham at 9 p.m. post-debate.
“also, plea to ID types: Be realistic”?: “Mainly ID” types like Steve Meyer are concerned that the media whoopfest will detract from science issues around design and information theory vs. Darwinism and materialism.
Fair enough, that’s a risk.
But would Meyer even have been quoted in a legacy outfit like NBC if all he has to offer is genuine knowledge of the Cambrian explosion? Far from it, NBC is probably hoping for fistfights in the stands, a shooting, an altar call, miracle claims, an exorcism, and a police raid, with criminal charges and big lawsuits to follow.
Even so: How many NBC viewers would know about Meyer, the Cambrian explosion, or Darwin’s Doubt but for this event? As a result of ambulance chasing, NBC ended up having to mention Meyer.
Hey, the breaks. If fifteen people start reading and thinking as a result of that, guys like Meyer will be better off. And it won’t have cost them anything but anxiety.
Again, you can watch the debate free online here.