Our biochemist colleague Michael Behe is a patient man. He chatted with a popular atheist YouTuber, TJump, about intelligent design and evolution for nearly an hour and a half. I’m not sure the YouTuber, a self-identified philosopher, has any better argument than (paraphrasing), “Well, other scientists say you’re wrong.” Reclining in what looks like a La-Z-Boy armchair, TJump is respectful enough, and has an IQ advantage on fellow anti-ID atheist YouTuber Professor Dave. However, I could do without the smirks, which seem to be an atheist specialty. At the end he poses some of the more lucid challenges from his viewers:
About those viewers and commenters…it’s a bit distracting that the YouTube comments appear not only to the side of the screen as usual but are also reproduced within the screen itself, so that you can’t, as one would normally do, just ignore them. A great number of these folks sound like they’ve been overindulging in their legalized marijuana. As Behe and TJump discuss Lenski’s Long Term Evolution Experiment, the evolution of polar bears, and other matters, the commenters are floating in a strange parallel reality. “So evolution doesn’t exist? or…,” mutters Kanye Twitty, to which another viewer replies, “So is God changing the Jews in the bacteria experiment?” A commenter interrupts to say, “I am welcome to the hotel California…. Such a lovely place.” Another chirps, apropos of whatever, “We KNOW they are NOT related. This is a know false hood [sic].” And so on. I’m not sure I welcome the window on what atheists do with their free time. If I were TJump, I would cut this particular feature.