This, kids, is why you should never mix religion with science

A Saudi cleric has appeared in a recent video rejecting the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun and claiming the opposite holds true, prompting a wave of social media remarks. Answering a student question on whether the Earth is stationary or moving, Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari replied: “stationary and does not move.”…. [H]is most controversial method to debunk the rotation theory was a “logical” deduction in which he used a visual…. “First of all, where are we now? we go to Sharjah airport to travel to China by plane, clear?! focus with me, this is Earth;” he said, holding a sealed water cup. He argued that if a plane stops still in air “China would be coming towards it” in case the Earth rotates on one direction. It the Earth rotates on opposite direction, the plane would never reach China, because “China is also rotating.”

Wow…I do believe my pointy li’l haid is ‘bout to ‘splode, knowuhtimean?? I almost don’t even know to begin with something so breathtakingly vacant and ill-informed.

I could spend a fair amount of time, brain cells, and column inches debunking Sheikh al-Khaibari, but it would appear that social media has already done the heavy lifting for me. I’m not certain I could improve on the judgment as passed by the Internet. The willful ignorance inherent in the Sheikh’s assertions is self-evident and really needs no embellishment…other than to say it’s little different than the ignorance that sometimes passes for scientific knowledge in this country. One out of four Americans believes the Sun revolves around Earth, and we’re collectively pretty clueless when it comes to science.

All Sheikh al-Khaibari really did was to expose what can happen when the hyper-religious believe their faith to be superior to science, and that their dogma is sufficient proof of the inerrancy of [insert name of Imaginary Friend here]. In his case, though, the science denial from the realm of the ridiculous to that of the sublime. Sheikh al-Khaibari also denies that the lunar landing occurred…which really just puts him in league with intellectual luminaries like Alex Jones. I suspect that once he gets wound up, he’ll also hold forth as to how 9/11 was an inside job and how the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school was a hoax, an FBI false-flag operation whose nefarious purpose is as yet unknown.

SCIENCE!!! Or not.