Mathematical Proof for Atheism?

Wendelin's Theory No. 2835: No matter what group you belong to, there will be some faction of that group that will give the rest of you a bad name.

I thought, I really really thought, there was no way this could happen in The Group Of People Who Think Creationism Is WACKO And Will Say So Loudly But Not Violently Or Anything. Well ha, ha. You may all point and laugh at my naivete.

Here's what happened. A guy called Kent "I Am Ze Nutcase" Hovind has issued a challenge on his website for years now: he says he'll pay $250,000 to anybody who can prove the theory of evolution*. (Of course, the challenge is asterisked; the fine print says that the acceptable level of proof is recreating the Big Bang in a lab. But let that be for now.) "I AM ZE NUTCASE!" Hovind cried. "Nobody can extract my quarter mil. from me!"

But his glee was to be shortlived... or was it? Wikipedia's entry on Hovind talked about some dude called Adam Kisby having met Hovind's challenge with a mathematical proof. I looked it up. With high hopes. I sorta deserved what was coming, no?

Okay, I've linked to the pdf file of the proof, but I gotta run (furniture shopping, whee!). Here's the challenge to you guys: figure out that's wrong with the guy's proof, all right? I did, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist or nothin'.

Bah. Humbug.

* Kent Hovind's own site seems to be down so I linked to an article detailing the challenge (and showing how bogus it is).

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• atheism
• rants