You may or may not have heard about the debate last week between Bill Nye (a/k/a the Science Guy) and Ken Ham (a/k/a [bleep]) regarding evolution and creationism. Well, it was sort of a debate and it was sort of on that topic. From what I’ve read, Nye took the opportunity to make an impassioned and eloquent plea for science education, while Ham tried to focus on how evolution can’t prove how life began (no one ever said it could.) I don’t know if anyone had their minds changed, but I do appreciate that Bill Nye is out there fighting the good fight. Ham was going to claim this as a win no matter what happened.

An interesting thing happened after the debate, though. A BuzzFeed staffer asked creationists in the audience to write down questions, comments, etc., which he published as a listicle entitled “22 Messages From Creationists To People Who Believe In Evolution.”

I admit that the questions/comments mostly just annoyed me, because it’s the same thing again and again, e.g. “Are you scared of a Divine Creator?” Luckily, it’s not even remotely up to me to respond to these questions. The responses people have written have ranged from the derisive to the snarky to the earnestly helpful. I’ll start with that last category.

Phil Plait, of Bad Astronomy fame, took the time to answer all 22 questions on Slate, treating the questions, and the questioners, with respect and dignity: Continue reading →