Delightful — a hapless critic snarked that chemist James Tour’s detonation of current theories of abiogenesis — life from non-life — were off-base because Tour believes in Jesus. Get the foolish audacity of that. Tour is a man who is a towering scientist in his field. Who cares what he thinks about Jesus? What I do care about is enlightenment on the relevant science, and entertainment.

Well, Professor Tour of Rice University has a gift lined up for us: a 13-part series on the subject of abiogenesis, taking the occasion of striking back at the critic to detail the reasons that the current theories fail. Tour does not suffer fools gladly, and his style is simply a delight. Look here for a preview:

Episode 0 of 13 launches on February 14. See it here:

Interested in Tour and this profound and fascinating subject? Check out this free offer from Discovery Institute — two chapters to download from the book The Mystery of Life’s Origin: The Continuing Controversy, one by Tour, the other by philosopher of science Stephen Meyer. 

Tour is, how shall I say, a coiled intellectual weapon. Here is the critic, who falls somewhat short of that description.