Discussion on Bridge the Divide Podcast (James Tour Debate) 

It was an honor to have you over for this discussion, Dave, and my gratitude for your generosity in reposting. All the best and can't wait for the next one!

I think nothing represents science miscommunication more than the sound of Tour yelling MR. FARINA!! Makes me giggle thinking about it

Aron Ra ALWAYS showing up is the best part of literally every big creationism-science debate. It's so funny to know that Christians probably think that Satan actually showed up.

Dave brings up some good reasons why not to debate--the time is too short to get an decent explanation across. It's about theater, not about ideas.

I hadn't heard of Bridge the Divide before this, but I found him to be a rather remarkable interviewer here. Hopefully after sharing your discussion on your much larger channel more of your audience will check him out, like I did!

Hey Dave, first, LOVE the JT debate! You crushed it. Any chance of doing more debates like this?

As a water treatment professional and operator I truly appreciated Dave’s piece on water. He is very good at every aspect of making a thorough lesson on this stuff.

I am so mad I took a flight down there from NYC to be at the Debate and because he "reserved" so many seats I couldn't get in I was a few people behind Aron Ra glad he got in love your work Dave you are great I listen to all your stuff while working and gaming my wife thinks I am weird that i listen to your science stuff alot lol

Awesome content dave, I began the journey into the flat earth rabbit hole almost a year ago. You pulled me out and inspired me to study some physics, thank you. Stay awesome 👍

Tour: " phospholipids! Clueless!" Dave: " here's a paper that precisely explains exactly that." Tour: " it's not Prebiotic!!!" Dave: " yes, they accounted for that, see these methods." Tour: " on the chalkboard!!"

Thanks for platforming JL, Dave, he truly deserves it....

Dave touched on this around the 28 min mark but I feel like he needed to hammer this point way harder. The whole strategy was God of the gaps. If Dave showed a paper showing successful side chain creation at whatever perfect ratio needed, they would have moved on to the next thing we didn't know. The moderator even demonstrated this to an absurd degree when he mentioned how we havnt been able to synthesize the different types of mRNA. Anyway love your work Dave, I just feel like you have to focus on their bad faith strategy itself, as the science is way over almost everyone's head

Thanks for introducing me to this podcast, Dave! Found a lot of cool channels this way.

I really appreciate how you've exposed the Discovery Institute. Some of Tour's defenders seem to be legitimately credulous (rather than creationist stooges). I hope that those people become curious enough to look into the DI, so they can recognize the tactics being used by Tour, and why he decided to target abiogenesis specifically.

Tour: DO YOU HAVE A REFERENCE ON THAT?!! Dave: Yeah I have papers Tour: DAVE CAN'T ADDRESS THE PAPERS!! HE DOESN'T KNOW CHEMISTRY!! Dave pulling up to the debate: Well here, I have a bunch of pap-- Tour in the debate: NOO YOU HAVE TO DRAW IT ON THE BOARD!!!!

What a great interviewer ❤Thanks for introducing his channel Dave. ❤

I really like this guy, fantastic interviewer.

Hearing Dave say he’s got 4 more in the chamber when it comes to the DI makes me very excited.

Watching them tear into Tour makes my day Also, Tour seems like he knows that Dave is right. He is just also a pathological liar who uses his faith as a weapon and lies about the science he knows is true.

It's hard to debate against someone who gish-gallops in front of people who don't know any better because as they say, "a lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is still putting It's boots on".

At this point it might be fair to say Dave's job is to embarrass Tour and THEN science communication lol. Keep fighting the good fight Dave.

I like this interview very much. Thanks for it & best wishes from Munich!

Fun interview, thanks!

Certain science denial conspiracy types are just moronic on the surface. But James Tour's stuff is particularly malicious because he's a legit chemistry professor and he can sound to the uneducated like he knows what he's talking about by throwing out all the jargon and go over people's heads - people who already have a religious objection to abiogenesis and are predisposed to just accept it all at face value at the outset.

How does that guy still keep arguing with science? I mean this is just incredible, I give him that!

loved your jt debate, been a viewer since 3 years and love your videos

The crazy thing about flat earthers having an issue with you, is that they want to believe their crap without actually learning anything. Some people just love learning and value education. I'm a student of Psychology and soon Biology, but I still learn about most subjects because i love learning. I have watched your tutorials on several subjects and never thought twice about how you cover so many topics. You have not ever made any reservations about how experts and doctoral graduates are writing your tutorials. You're an educator. Not a lying grifter like James Tour. That guy is a narcissistic nutjob. Thank you for all you do, and for introducing another excellent content creator to support (JL).

We need more Daves. Desperately. Science ignoring theocrats have always been a problem, but nowadays we get science hostile journalism and politicians which is plain dangerous. Don't ever shut your mouth and keep speaking up!

Hey Dave, quick answer on that prion question near the end: a prion is a protein that is, essentially, contagiously misfolded. The sequence of amino acids remains the same, but secondary structures (on up) are altered, and altered in such a way that when the prion isoform encounters a normal molecule of that protein it will force the normal molecule into the prion form. Atop that, at least some are resistant to proteases, which is just great. As you might expect, the conversion can continue exponentially, with each new prion capable of inducing the misfolding of more normal proteins. This also means that they're transmissible; if not sufficiently denatured, eating prion-contaminated meat (etc.) can cause you to "catch" it. Naturally, mad cow (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is strongly suspected to have originally occurred spontaneously in a cow or sheep and then to have been spread due to being made into bone meal (etc.) and fed to other cows. Two bonus fun facts: First, there is one protein involved with mad cow, scrapie, and most other examples of prions we've discovered, and it is actually named "major prion protein" (or PrP) thanks to that; it's not the only protein that can become a prion but it's a standout. Second, thanks to our evolutionary similarity (i.e. the presence of a PrP homolog in humans), "mad cow" is apparently transmissible from contaminated beef into humans; the resulting disorder is called "Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease", which comes with psychiatric problems, pain, changes to behavior, and about a 13-month life expectancy once symptoms start arising. (And, as an inference, because Tour's particular brand of psychiatric problems have been going on for longer than 13 months mad cow is probably not to blame.)

That "moderator" was as fake as his rug.

just bumping your algorithm , great job as always

Dave you should do a detailed video on one of those OoL papers for the benefit of Tour's students.

JL @Bridge the divide is a stand up dude. Watched the debate live over there and great to see this interaction. Thanks Dave

JL is a great guy and a great interviewer. Thanks Professor 🤙 love you bro.

Inellectually dishonest people are ready to call themselves experts in any subject with a couple google searches and then get upset with Dave for refusing to call himself an expert even though he knows more than them. The honesty from people who properly represent science comes across as not being sure about the topic.

This is excellent! A few months ago Nobel laurate and OOL leading researcher Dr. Jack Szostak gave a lecture at Arizona State University on the current state of OOL research. The YT vid can be found at *The Origin of Life: Not as Hard as it Looks? Jack Szostak, Spring 2023 Eyring Lecturer* I'd love to see blowhard Tour address all the recent discoveries Dr. Szostak presented, but he won't. 🙂

Dave… that was the best “Rope-A-Dope” I’ve ever seen in a science setting. Tour was raging like a drunk in a dive bar wanting to fight with pool cues and you just kept your cool and didn’t take the bait. LOL

I was gonna call my podcast Bridging the Divide but I guess I can’t do that anymore lol.

Hey, Dave. Saw the debate with James Tour. It is appalling how completely unprofessional he, the audience, and even the moderator were. You definitely handled yourself far better than any of them did. It's great seeing scientists like you and Forrest Valkai completely tearing down all the pseudoscience, science denial, and blatant lying about science by creationists and flat earthers alike.

I'd really love to hear more about the lessons Dave picked up from comedy performers, if he ever wants to share. Mash in how music relates to his influences, or the way it's influenced by his other practices. Would love to hear how he developed bc I admire how straightforward, blunt, & balanced (as in fair-minded, but also with tone/code-switching to match or counter escalating behaviour like Tour's) Dave is, without losing either the big picture or nanoscopic details of his argument vs the other person's argument + tactics. As an invertebrate aspiring to grow a spine, I feel I'd learn as much from that Prof Dave video as I do with all Prof Dave videos.

I was surprised that the debate organizers, and presumably Tour, agreed to this as the debate question. Even if we have some clue, we are not clueless. Takes just above zero evidence to not be clueless.

Yes I remember seeing that the date all he wanted you to do was write on the board wasn’t showing any evidence And all he was doing was yelling

Hey, Dave, could you make a series analysing Jonathan Mclatiche's response to your Michael Behee video? He wrote an article or something titled "Answering Farina on Behe’s Work: Bacterial Flagella" And likely other such documents on you Michael Behee video So, could you make a video on those documents ?

Oh wow, J.L. has a dazzling smile.

Enjoyed the debate and this follow-on, Dave. All I can say about J. Tour is that he, like so many other apologists, epitomize the concept of Confirmation Bias. They know what they believe, they don't care what you can prove otherwise. They will cherry-pick and quote-mine anything they can that seems to confirm their beliefs. Yes, I agree with your point that religion deforms the growth of science and rationality in society. All cults do.

JL aka Bridge the Divide is a legend.

I love how research isn't evidence but writing an equation and shrieking about how it could happen is. James was running out the clock at best.

Never heard of JL, but I'm glad I did. Seems like a great guy!

Hi professor Dave, I was wondering you could do some videos on AI? I have some trouble understanding it, your expositions are always thourough and nice.

Looking forward to watching this! Prof Dave, you should debate RFK Jr. on Joe Rogan's podcast! It would be amazing to see you smash that fraud.

Hey Dave, I've got high definition videos of erupting volcanoes if you wanna use some. Even have drone video!

Dave, your guess about the currency RON was right! It's Roman lieu

awesome!

辛苦了 : ) from Malaysia

I still think your debate with dave weiss (flat earth dave) was more fun to watch than the tour debate. The tour debate was kind of difficult to follow at some times, while everything flat earth dave said was just obviously and hilariously stupid. it gave us gems like "daylight is not from the sun", and "spectroscopy needs to be in a container"

Jews have been saying the creation myth is allegory for thousands of years. It’s not difficult to believe in God and accept science. It’s just remarkable how absurd these apologists are.

I think there is one major logical error Tour and others do in these exchanges. They basically want you to recreate a process which took billions of years and many, many different molecules and wildly varying conditions in drastically shorter time (days to a few years) under lab conditions. This is obviously impossible at the current time and IF they understand it, completely dishonest. The only way we can research such long and gigantic processes is by reconstructing stages and steps of the whole which are the clues that it could have happened this way or similarily.

You should have seen the ID vs Science debate at the AMNH. Bill Dumbski was reduced to stammering.

right off the bat “oh didn’t know you could steal someone’s stuff.” lol

It was a 100% win for Professor Dave! Tour was only crying like two six years old kids which are debating about pokemon strength...

55:45 the thing with "rocks dont reflect light" is just as stupid as the vacuum should suck the atmosphere argument; their only context for the phenomenon of reflection is a mirror so they literally dont know diffuse reflection is a thing..as a grown up person

Experimental for determining the magnetic field in the space outside straight conductors Apparatus • Current conductor • Clamping device • Power supply • Digital Teslameter • Hall probe • Current transformer • Digital multimeter • A meter scale • Barrel base • Support rod • Connecting cords PLE CAN YOU GENERATE A CIRCUIT DIAGRAM FOR SUCH AN EXPERIMENT GIVEN ALL THIS APPARATUS🙏🙏🙏

Do you know of the Hibbeler Production doc, "Level With Me?" Seeing that debunked would be very satisfying.

James isn't wrong BECAUSE he is a liar. He is wrong AND he is a liar.

Regardless of Daves background, he have knowledge of so many topics, like 20 times more than normal dude. And his understanding of scientific papers over different fields and the way he explains this stuff, even he's honest his expertise he really understands what he's talking about. And many times straight from his head. This equals: prof Dave is very smart guy, every time I watch his videos, I learn a lot. Those idiots who questioned Daves level of knowledge, they don't stand a chance to debate with him, nor they are not qualified even wash Daves underwear. 🙂 Keep up great way to spreading scientific real information 👍 Mikael from Finland 🇫🇮

I will admit that I wasn't able to watch the whole debate. One reason is that due to a chronic illness, I have a rather limited amount of energy. Between not really understanding most of the technical terms -- I've never studied chemistry -- and therefore struggling to follow what was being said, and all the yelling by James Tour, I got to a point where my body said that's enough. Actually I did last until partly through the question period. I liked that there was one person who addressed the over-talking and yelling. I'm glad that I did watch this video, because I did have a negative take on Dave's opening remarks in the debate. I didn't understand why he felt it necessary to criticize Tour's character. Of course that became somewhat clearer as the debate progressed. Or should I say, as Tour's demeanor regressed? But now that I understand Dave's motivation a bit better, it makes more sense to me. One thing I don't like about debates in general is that they seem to be a very ineffective way to ascertain the truth of any given proposition. It always reminds me of two guys in a bar going out to settle their differences by physically fighting. In the end, the winner has not shown that he was right all along, only that he is a better fighter, at least on that particular day. Now I see that Dave's main goal appears to be to show that Tour doesn't know what he is talking about, while at the same time bringing up what is actually going on in abiogenesis research. Viewed in this light, I can say that I believe that Dave succeeded. With a lot of help from James Tour, himself. Thanks Dave. And thanks to all the other RU-vidrs out there -- such as J L -- trying their best to combat the anti-science being spewed on the internet. Because of you, this Boomer is learning stuff nearly fifty years after graduating from high school.

Hey Dave. Has Cameron Betruzzi taken you up on your offer to do a live discussion with you and that scientist he had on that "reviewed" the Tour debate?

@Bridge The Divide is one of the best channels on RU-vid. JL has some of the best arguments against science denialism, young earth creationism, and fundamental religion. Plus he has a huggable character.

I watched the hovind documentary and liked it so much that i have it downloaded in case i lose cell service for a while

Wait, the moderator is a Young Earth Creationist? Because that would be ridiculous.

I still invite an open criticism of my black hole theory. Available on the channel of my posts, right here on RU-vid.

"Your thoughts, real quick, on that moderator. And not that thing he shot out in the woods on his head." 🤣 I had completely forgotten about that. I legit felt bad for the guy because whoever provided him with it and said it looked fine did him a huge disservice. Then he opened his mouth and said things I could verify weren't true with 30 seconds of search engine use, so I didn't feel so bad.

Just to set the tone, Wee Jimmy Tour is a prat. I suspect he's probably also a young earth creationist (but keeps it quiet to keep Rice off his back), and for all I know could even be a flat earther!

Maybe have an online course presenting strategies when debating science denying "experts."

As much as I kind of figured why you were largely ignoring his chalkboard requests, I think it would have been nice to physically point out how ridiculous it was. Like, pull up any paper and show the complex schemata involved in the chemical reactions and how ludicrous it would be to write it out in a five minute response. Just drive that point home to the audience that may not understand and interpret you as 'not being able to'.

The best interviewer is the one who asks short questions. Professor Dave is great though.

I had no clue Knodel had died until now.

The globebusters debacle was probably one of the best ever. There are other globe science channels that have done some great work going into detail about the ins and outs of how we know Earth is a sphere. But Dave's particular direct style on the subject was smart and hilarious. Not sure if Dave knows about the famous blunder where Bob Knodel purchased a ring laser gyro to "prove" that there was no Earth rotation? If Earth rotates as described by current knowledge, the gyro should show a 15°/hr drift and that's exactly what it showed. Bob proceeded to try to come up with ANY other explanation than the Earth is simply a sphere that rotates. Unbelieveable 🤣

11:09 Wouldn't be suprised if james tour decideds to make another video and take this out of context. xd

Cthulhu funko! I got a Pinhead myself.

To Tour I quote the priest Abbe Boureois 'there is no such thing as a biblical chronology. It is the business of science, to establish the date upon which man 1st appeared on the earth.'

Dave makes Ahegao face at 47:36 🥴

Tour seems a little mentally ill

RON (aka LEI) is Romanian currency

What do we want, immunology! When do we want it? Now!

Dave, would you consider doing a rebuttal to Vaush’s ‘critiquing Professor Dave Explains “Let’s All Get Past This Confusion About Trans People”’ video? He’s a lefty who tries to argue the basis for trans being a social construct and thinks it’s a logically valid and sound position.

Dave, what are you going to do with the artwork Tour gave you?

While not a science highlight, my favorite part was when Dave dropped his first F-bomb and five old, pinched faced religious nut job plants got up and walked by me muttering, “he’s just awful… I can’t listen to this” before one caught sight of my “Not Today Jesus” shirt. Because it was so packed, my wife and I had to sit apart. She ended up next to two more religious plants, that were more pleasant, but had been asked to be there by their pastor. Totally stacked audience and not at all representative of Rice. Actually, the heckling towards Tour was coming mostly came from students.

Just regret you didn’t ask J Tour if he had signed a statement of faith and if in his view The Bible has authority over scientific evidence! That would have exposed his bias in front of the audience or force him to “betray” his team.

Is there anyway to Wakefield James? Like hes spreading false info and actually causing problems. He shouldnt be teaching or have a platform. Im not for censorship but at some point a stand needs to be made.

It's his favorite word because his last name is IMax.

Yeah I'm not sure that I understand the whole perspective about Dave and ad hominem. I think people who understand the chemistry or can at least digest the literature can plainly see how frustrating of an experience the debate was for Dave or what Tour is actually doing. Tour will claim that no one knows anything about xyz. Dave will present several pieces of literature that elaborate upon xyz and even abc. Tour will word vomit irrelevant or misrepresentative jargon until his congregation claps for him. For Dave to directly address Tour and his portion of the audience for this behavior is important- it is the exact reason why Tour is a problem. Tour is being dishonest, Dave calls him out for being dishonest, everyone calls it ad hominem. It's not right and I understand Dave's frustration. It sucks too, in that when Dave addresses Tour's behavior directly, people give Dave a hard time for not using chemistry. When Dave uses chemistry, they again criticize him for reading too much or using a script. Tour pretending that being able to draw an amino acid then misnaming it several times is enough to understand this field of research in a meaningful way is beyond disingenuous and is inappropriate behavior for someone of his position. No one there for Tour is actually discussing the science, yet are criticizing Dave for not knowing the science. Its insane. Tour isn't just some random person, he is a researching and teaching academic at a well known institution. He should be held to a higher level of scientific honesty and candor. Anyone, of course, is entitled to their personal beliefs. However, publicly denouncing an entire field of research constituted by even his colleagues for the sake of garnering clout with his congregation is a huge abuse of his position and authority. There wasn't really a debate, just Dave dangling reality in front of Tour as he has a temper tantrum.

Pretty sure that Tour was forced to apologise in some fashion in the student paper.

Before, there was a week gap between your zoology videos, but now they take FOREVER to be released.

Dave is always cordial until you start to insult him and I don't blame him I would never like to be made a fool of by somebody so I would go after them too if I was able... And Dave is pretty rock solid with science stuff so you can't BS science and not expect Dave to be able to break it down and make you look it like an idiot. If anyone who's denying science have any brains whatsoever they would be hiding from Dave.

Could you please debunk Joe dispenza

JL was great here

#NotClueless 😁👍

i watched the debate, i thought you were winning right up until he wrote clueless on the board.

hello