A SCIENTIST and a creationist walked on to a stage. This is not a joke; it happened on February 4th in Kentucky. In one corner: Ken Ham, who founded Answers in Genesis, a group that believes the Bible is literally true and the earth is 6,000 years old. In the other: Bill Nye, the former host of a TV show called “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. The setting: the Creation Museum, also founded by Mr Ham, where you can see an animatronic Noah building his ark and cavemen co-existing with dinosaurs. The subject: “Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?”

Mr Ham debated with the punchy, authority-quoting fussiness of a scientist, while Mr Nye showed the corny volubility of a guy who just can’t keep the good news to himself. Shortly before taking the stage, Mr Ham told reporters that when all was said and done, “I don’t think we should say, ‘Bill Nye won,’ or ‘Ken Ham won’…I know that God’s word is true. Nothing [Mr Nye] said will cast doubt on that.”

Neither took the stage expecting to change his opponent’s mind. Instead, both spoke to American children. Mr Ham lamented that evolutionists “impose an anti-God religion on generations of unsuspecting students”, and urged them to “admit the belief aspect of their worldview”. Mr Nye noted that if Mr Ham were right—if the earth is only 6,000 years old and Noah’s ark held 7,000 types of animals—new species would need to have emerged daily to produce the diversity of fauna that now exists. He asked how a pair of kangaroos on an ark that ran aground on a mountain in Turkey could have hopped their way to Australia, leaving neither descendants nor fossils anywhere in between.

He worried that allowing creationism a veneer of scientific respectability would harm America by producing scientifically illiterate students. Laws passed or under consideration in several states tacitly endorse the teaching of creationism by allowing teachers to introduce material critical of evolution in science lessons.

Most Americans reject young-earth creationism. But the share of Republicans who believe that humans evolved fell from 54% in 2009 to 43% last year. Democrats, do not look so smug: your lot are likelier to believe in UFOs, ghosts and astrology. Also, that the moon landings were faked, that the CIA introduced crack to inner cities and that America’s government conspired in the September 11th attacks. It’s enough to make an ape weep.