So the history teaches them that these aren’tnew questions and that before those who had asked were answered and accepted it. They may then jump to other dumb arguments, but the oldest ones will be dropped and a crack in the anti-side will have developed: “Well, maybe it has been answered like the other ones they are still asking…”.

They don’t know how old some of the arguments are. At the very least they can be educated in the history, even if the maths and science isn’t their thing.

The bit that should be interesting for “deniers” who are just ignorant and lazy, is that it shows when the questions that they’ve been told are being asked and are going unanswered were asked over a century ago and answered nearly a century ago.

But would they bother to read a book like that, and even if they did, would they buy the presentations made in it when they’ve already comfortable denying everything the science says?

I like the programming books and other tech aimed at kids. One of our department members has set up “stem days” for kids from local elementary schools: we bring in several classes of 4th, 5th, and or 6th graders, and they are exposed to different topics: I’ve done presentations on fairly simple encryption, but some of the CS people have introduced the older groups to some programming basics. It’s fun — but it is amazing how much more tired we are after a day with kids that age than we are with “traditional” age college kids.

One day even Betty will have said something worth thinking about. I’m still waiting for it to happen, but I don’t just give up and not read just because the loon is a loon.