Creationist Ken Ham says I’m “fake news.” (Which I think, in some weird Opposite World sort of way, means I tell the truth…?)

On Monday’s episode of Answers News, in which Answers in Genesis staffers discuss stories from the past week, co-host Avery Foley brought up a post I’d written about how researchers had found a link between people who are religious fundamentalists and people who fall for “fake news.”

You can read all the details here, but the gist of it is that researchers at Yale University had published a working paper making that claim. It made sense. After all, if you’re not engaging in analytic, open-minded thinking — and you just believe what you’re told — you’re more susceptible to hoaxes.

I wasn’t the only person who covered it. Laura Hazard Owen at NiemanLab did a nice job explaining what the paper said in more detail.

But I just want to stress: This is a real paper. If people don’t like its conclusions, then they should describe the problems with the methodology or why the analysis was flawed.

The Answers News team didn’t do any of that. Instead, they spent several minutes just trashing me for mentioning the paper existed.

You can see it around the 10:02 mark.

Since you won’t get an analysis of the paper, here’s what they said:

Ken Ham: “He’s not a friendly atheist.” (Ouch. My feelings.)

Ken Ham: “He uses all sorts of swear words.” (This is pretty goddamn accurate.)

They said I defined religious fundamentalists as “people who believe in biblical Creation”… as if I’m wrong. I’m not. That’s literally what they are.

Co-host Bodie Hodge attempted a joke about how they pulled up my story… and if Creationists believe fake news, then I must be fake news, because LOGIC! After a long awkward silence and tepid laughter, Ham chimed in with, “That’s a good point.” (It’s not. Even people who believe in a lot of nonsense will come across accurate stories at times.)

attempted a joke about how they pulled up my story… and if Creationists believe fake news, then I must be fake news, because LOGIC! After a long awkward silence and tepid laughter, Ham chimed in with, “That’s a good point.” (It’s not. Even people who believe in a lot of nonsense will come across accurate stories at times.) Ken Ham: “Well, he is fake news.” (How?!)

Avery Foley: “Obviously, there aren’t really any non-religious people. Everyone has religious beliefs.” (Silly atheists. You all thought you existed. You were wrong.)

Foley brought up an older paper claiming atheists were more closed-minded than religious people. I don’t know what paper that is since she didn’t cite anything. But as the saying goes, you should never be so open-minded that your brain falls out.

Bodie Hodge: “Atheism is a religion.” (Sure, and bald is a hair color.)

Bodie Hodge: “If he was not religious, he wouldn’t be talking about religious topics all the time.” (Are you kidding me?! You would think they’d know damn well why atheists talk about religion. After all, these are people who deny evolution but constantly talk about why it’s not true.)

Ken Ham: “He’s very dogmatic in this article.” (I don’t even know what that means.)

Ken Ham: “He’s an atheist. He’s already rejected evidence. He’s rejected the Bible, which is evidence.” (Can someone please send Ken Ham a Qur’an just to make a point?)

Ken Ham (referring to this site): “I very rarely go to his site. A lot of it, there’s pornography and blasphemy.” (Pornography? That’s news to me. But apparently the few times Ham visits this site, that’s what he sees. I think that says more about him than me.)

Ken Ham: “90% of the time, he attacks Christians or Christianity.” (Umm… yeah. In the U.S., Christians do more damage in terms of public policy and education than any other group. Why wouldn’t I cover that?)

Bodie Hodge (on me using the word “lies” in the post): “Well, that’s awful Christian of him, because it’s the Bible that says not to lie… he’s borrowing from Christian morality!” (Jesus H. Christ. They act like Christianity is the basis for all moral thinking and no one can talk about good, evil, lying, or ethics outside of a Christian paradigm. These people are delusional.)

I just want to repeat: They never once talked about the research paper itself or why my characterization of it was wrong. (It wasn’t.) They just saw the headline, claimed I was a liar, and spent several minutes losing a roast battle I didn’t even participate in.

I don’t care about them not liking my opinions. I expect that. But c’mon, if they’re going to say I’m making things up, shouldn’t they point out where I misrepresented the research paper?

Of course not. This is Answers in Genesis. If they could reasonably respond to criticism, the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter would have to shut down.

(Thanks to Kerri for the link)

