Idiots give Darwin a break

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Genesis 1:16

Interesting developments in the wacky world of religious fundamentalism. Hardcore Bible-heads in Waco, Texas, have been taking time out from their favourite pastime of furiously denouncing evolutionists as Satan's little helpers, only to take offence at a whole new group of scientists - astronomers and planetary scientists:

Bill Nye, the harmless children's edu-tainer known as "The Science Guy," managed to offend a select group of adults in Waco, Texas at a presentation, when he suggested that the moon does not emit light, but instead reflects the light of the sun....

The lesser light, he pointed out, is not a light at all, but only a reflector.

At this point, several people in the audience stormed out in fury. One woman yelled "We believe in God!" and left with three children, thus ensuring that people across America would read about the incident and conclude that Waco is as nutty as they'd always suspected.

To be fair, this article, which was strangely posted under "latest news" on the Butterflies and Wheels web site yesterday, first appeared on the Think Atheist blog in February 2009, but it's still pretty extraordinary. I wonder what would have happened if the speaker had been Neil Armstrong himself, providing eyewitness testimony?

Crazy Woman (angrily): We believe in God!

Armstrong: Ma'am, I've been there. I've stood on it and I've walked on it and I can assure you that it does not emit light. It's made of rock.

Would Crazy Woman have accepted his word, or would we have witnessed a new alliance between people who are crazy enough to believe in creationism and people who are crazy enough to believe that the moon landings were faked in a in a Hollywood studio?

Whatever. Assuming the Bill Nye incident actually happened and isn't a wind-up (the link to the original article in the Waco Tribune no longer works, but then it is old news), I'm pleased for evolutionary scientists, who can take a temporary break from explaining yet again how inescapably colossal the mountain of evidence supporting the Theory of Evolution really is. On the other hand I'm a bit sorry for astronomers, who already waste enough time debunking fools who keep challenging them to disprove astrology, however many times it's already been debunked...