A few weeks ago we were a bit startled to find a “Science Saturday” episode of BH.tv featuring Paul Nelson, an honest-to-God young-Earth creationist. Not really what most of us like to think of as “science.” So there were emails back and forth trying to figure out what went on.
Why would emails be flying back and forth if he didn’t care about the creationist?
But now my experiment’s over. This post is an explanation of why, and how this turn of events has gotten me thinking about the future of science in new media.
Last month Bloggingheads posted a talk between Paul Nelson, a creationist, and Ronald Numbers, a historian of science. They even put the talk on a Saturday, which they set aside for science. (Hence the name Science Saturday.)
Sean Carroll and Carl Zimmer leaving BhTV is what kicked the whole thing off, in case you haven’t followed the affair at all, and they both explicitly stated in the articles quoted above that they were cared very much that the creationist was on but that they were willing to accept it was a one-time mistake that wouldn’t happen again. How do you interpret that as “not caring”?
If you’re going to call people liars and say they didn’t really have the interactions they said they had with BhTV folk after the creationist was on (which as far as I know nobody at BhTV has denied), you need to provide evidence of that.
and say they didn’t really have the interactions they said they had with BhTV folk
I’m not denying which interactions they had. I’m claiming that they would have had exactly the same reaction to the Behe video without being primed by the Nelson video. Maybe “lying” is too harsh, but I stand by the claim that no one actually cares about the other video. People I see linking to Zimmer and Carroll, like Eliezer, usually don’t mention the first video. People who bring it up in the comments to those posts don’t name Nelson.
They’ve both stated that they contacted BhTV and expressed concern about the creationist being on BEFORE Behe was on. I don’t know how you can square that with the belief that they didn’t care about the creationist being on at all and that they would have felt exactly the same way about Behe regardless. You have yet to offer evidence or make an argument, and you are calling them liars, because they’ve publicly said having Nelson on was disturbing and a contributing factor.
Wrong.
Sean Carroll:
Why would emails be flying back and forth if he didn’t care about the creationist?
Carl Zimmer:
Sean Carroll and Carl Zimmer leaving BhTV is what kicked the whole thing off, in case you haven’t followed the affair at all, and they both explicitly stated in the articles quoted above that they were cared very much that the creationist was on but that they were willing to accept it was a one-time mistake that wouldn’t happen again. How do you interpret that as “not caring”?
I’m calling them liars.
They’re lying.
Yes, I have, thank you very much.
If you’re going to call people liars and say they didn’t really have the interactions they said they had with BhTV folk after the creationist was on (which as far as I know nobody at BhTV has denied), you need to provide evidence of that.
I’m not denying which interactions they had. I’m claiming that they would have had exactly the same reaction to the Behe video without being primed by the Nelson video. Maybe “lying” is too harsh, but I stand by the claim that no one actually cares about the other video. People I see linking to Zimmer and Carroll, like Eliezer, usually don’t mention the first video. People who bring it up in the comments to those posts don’t name Nelson.
They’ve both stated that they contacted BhTV and expressed concern about the creationist being on BEFORE Behe was on. I don’t know how you can square that with the belief that they didn’t care about the creationist being on at all and that they would have felt exactly the same way about Behe regardless. You have yet to offer evidence or make an argument, and you are calling them liars, because they’ve publicly said having Nelson on was disturbing and a contributing factor.