Tonight, Bill Nye will be debating the validity of evolution with unreasonable Christian fundamentalist Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum. I will not be watching.

One of the main goals of Ken Ham and the Creation Museum is to present Creationism as a valid scientific theory. A few years ago, when I visited the Creation Museum, I was particularly struck by this one room that was built to look like an archeological dig in process. There was a looped video running, part of which you can find around 1:02 here. In it, a creationist archeologist discusses the difference between himself and another worker: they both went to the same school, took the same tests, and have the same degree, but they have different starting points. His friend believes the Earth is 4.5 billion years old; he believes that God created the world in six 24-hour days (they are always careful to say “24-hour days”) 6000 years ago. (The same YouTube video linked even shows a “Different Starting Points” sign at one point.)

False. Any argument that begins with, “I know this because the Bible says it is true” is an argument of unprovable faith. Creationists will say that because I am not a scientist, my belief in evolution and a 4.5 billion year-old Earth is also faith, but this is a false equivalence. The faith that a Christian has in the word of their Bible is not the same as my faith in the body of work presented by modern science. I can trust evolution and the age of the Earth because experts in numerous fields have agreed on processes, released studies, and signed off on data that prove these facts. In other words, I do not need to be an evolution expert because there is an established body of work that can be reviewed, pulled apart, and explained — every piece of it, every step of the way. I trust that this is true and I am right. Creationism, on the other side, ultimately leads back to, “The Bible says it’s true.” It is impossible to argue a topic with someone who will never agree with you. There can be no debate because one side is based in fact that can be tested and explained, the other is based solely on faith and nothing else.

The problem with tonight’s “debate,” then, is that it is not a debate. It is a publicity stunt by Ham and the Creation Museum with the goal of legitimizing their belief system. By agreeing to participate, Bill Nye allows them to achieve this goal by sending the message that he and Ken Ham are peers with differing perspectives, which could not be further from the truth. Bill Nye is a scientist who has committed his adult life to inspiring and educating the world through his love of science; Ken Ham is a fraud, a fear-monger, a liar who aims to derail science education in America by promoting his dogma as plausible fact. They are not peers and they have no business standing opposite a stage one another in an event sponsored by Ham’s organization.

Do you know why 9/11 Truthers and their opinions are not included in articles about the September 11 terrorist attacks? Because 9/11 Truthers are full of shit and any news source that gives them a voice outside the realm of, “Hey, listen to the bullshit these dicks are pedaling,” gets laughed at. This is important. Hearing from dissenters is important; giving voice to people with opinions that are completely unprovable is a waste of time at best and dangerous at worst.

Ken Ham, the Creation Museum, and organized religious fundamentalism are dangerous. By engaging them respectfully, Bill Nye has regrettably sent a message that Christian fundamentalism is a reasonable dissenting point of view. It is not, it will never be, and giving them the satisfaction of a conversation of peers is damaging to science, education, and progress as a whole.