…and this is a 
Confronting Hovind and Martin
Category: Creationism
Posted on: March 1, 2006 1:46 PM, by PZ Myers
Here are a couple of accounts of encounters with creationists that are amusing to read.
- Jobe Martin. Jobe Martin is, well, a radically insane classic young earth creationist, whose favorite arguments are all ancient chestnuts, like the receding moon and the woodpecker's tongue and other such tripe. And he was invited to speak by an IDEA club? That kills the notion that IDEA has anything to do with science, I think. I've got one of Martin's books (my son Alaric gave it to me: I think he was trying to kill me to get his inheritance early, but it didn't work), and it's positively ludicrous.
- Kent Hovind. I put up that request for good questions, and gnosos carried through. Hovind cut the mic on him, so despite losing his cool a bit, he must have been effective to some degree—he also got lots of questions from other attendees afterwards.
Comments
Cutting the mic: the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Posted by: Joe | March 1, 2006 2:06 PM
So bring "Mr. Microphone" to future Q and A sessions!
Posted by: Rocky | March 1, 2006 2:15 PM
My thought exactly. Or is there a way to project text typed up on a keyboard onto the stage? (How about "LIAR!" smack on Hovind's face.)
Posted by: Kristine | March 1, 2006 2:19 PM
Kudos to both for their research, observation and reporting. Per Gnosos' blog, he was brought up a YEC, so it must have been especially challenging, yet gratifying to stand up to an experienced, full-time charleton. I think Gnosos did great for a first-timer.
Posted by: J-Dog | March 1, 2006 2:24 PM
Oh I do hope that Alaric is a goth.
Posted by: mothworm | March 1, 2006 2:29 PM
Well done Gnosos, for standing up to the bastard in public! You've got more gumption than I have ;-). Of course you can't get through to a charlatan, nor to the True Believers, and you're not likely to convert anyone to a whole new paradigm in 10 minutes. But there's always at least a few for whom you can drive the wedge of doubt between them and the charlatan -- and I call that a good day's work.
Posted by: lt.kizhe | March 1, 2006 2:49 PM
Props to you, Gnosos. That had to be gut-wrenching in a way. I also grew up as an immersed fundamentalist (Southern Baptist), although not nearly to the extent you were. I think that kind of background makes it hurt a lot more than for people who just can't understand it to begin with. If you've been raised in it, you see it, you know how extensive it is, you understand it, you appreciate the lure it has, how easy it is to be totally entrenched and blinded in it, you're mad as hell that you were deceived for so long, and you know full well all the traps that you can fall into that will just completely shut the door if you try to pull anyone out of it. I certainly don't think I'm even at the point yet that I could make a direct public confrontation the way you did. Congrats.
Posted by: Carlie | March 1, 2006 4:09 PM
Jobe. Is that a misspelling of the name of the biblical long-sufferer, or does it rhyme with Kobe (beef/Bryant)?
Mad props, Gnosos, for laying it out there for the mad fundies. Wish I could've seen it.
Posted by: Molly | March 1, 2006 7:19 PM
Yeah, we all know it's spelled G.O.B.
Posted by: Rey | March 1, 2006 11:10 PM
Alaric? That sounds like a poison extracted from mushrooms, or something.
Posted by: No More Mr. Nice Guy! | March 2, 2006 12:34 AM
"cut the mic"
this is not just surrender, this is abject cowardice!
p.s. what was the question that non-doctor Hominid cut off?
Posted by: djlactin | March 2, 2006 1:37 AM
never mind... (blush)
Posted by: djlactn | March 2, 2006 1:43 AM
Mr. Hovind is a coward and note how he quickly shifted discussion the moment credentials came up. He doesn't like being reminded he's nothing but an uneducated fraud who just happens to be able to talk quick. Anyone who has seen Hovind knows fully why he cowers behind stacked audiences in situations like this and shirks challenges to a written debate.
Posted by: Joseph O'Donnell | March 2, 2006 4:24 AM
my son Alaric gave it to me: I think he was trying to kill me to get his inheritance early
Nah, just getting revenge for the name I reckon.
Posted by: outeast | March 2, 2006 5:30 AM
What ws the question that Hovind cowered from?
Posted by: Lya Kahlo | March 2, 2006 6:55 AM
The question is on http://gnosos.blogspot.com
BTW, my pseudonym is "Zeteo Eurisko". My blog is Gnosos.
From Greek
Zhteo - "to seek"
Eurisko - "to find"
Gnosos - "knowledge"
Posted by: Zeteo Eurisko | March 2, 2006 8:06 AM