Veteran children’s TV presenter Johnny Ball was booed off stage last night after denying man-made climate change before an audience of liberal atheists.

By Billy Kenber
Published: 12:50PM GMT 16 Dec 2009

Johnny Ball Photo: PA

Ball, 71, claimed that spiders’ flatulence was more damaging to the environment than fossil fuels, and criticised the “bad science” of global warming during a performance at a Christmas show in celebration of atheism and science.

Audience members at ‘Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People’ at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London responded with slow handclaps, whistles, jeers until he left the stage.

One blogger who was in the audience wrote that Ball had delivered a “ten minute rant descending to an incoherent ramble” in which he said that he doubted the small proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can cause global warming.

They added: “A cry of ‘shame’ from the audience broke the dam, the boos started and a perplexed and shaken-looking Ball was finally forced from the stage.”

Ball, the father of BBC Radio 2 DJ Zoë Ball, rose to fame in the 1970s and 80s as the presenter of popular science and technology programmes aimed at children.

He was performing as part of a bill which included science writers Ben Goldacre and Simon Singh, and outspoken atheists and comedians Robin Ince and Chris Addison.

Robin Ince, who organised the show, later wrote on the microblogging website Twitter that Ball had “overran doing manmade climate change stuff that both I and the audience disagreed with.

He added: “Johnny ball is a lovely man who has done much to popularise science it’s just his climate change angle seems wrong”.

Other audience members used Twitter to voice their surprise at Ball’s views.

Helen Lippell wrote: “Oh my god just been listening to johnny ball blame global warming on farting spiders. Weirded out.”

Paul Sims, news editor of New Humanist magazine, tweeted: “Johnny Ball, childhood hero of many younger than me, just rolled out climate denial.”

However, there were some dissenting voices. Andy McHaffie wrote: “I do hope the next few audiences…are liberal enough not to boo Johnny again.

It is not the first that time that Mr Ball has caused controversy with his views on climate change.

Two years ago he used a Christmas lecture at Edinburgh University to claim that “the greens…want society to collapse”, and said he doubted whether the polar ice caps were melting.

Ball told the Telegraph today that he "regretted" his comments last night and would not be repeating them at performances this evening or tomorrow.

He said: I knew there would be people vehemently opposed to what I was saying, but I think where I went wrong was accusing the University of East Anglia of cooking the books, and in going on too long and labouring the point.

"I shouldn't have turned it into a political rant and I won't be doing climate change again because I didn't go to be controversial or upset the show."

He added: "I looked on Twitter this morning and there were a lot of people saying how disappointed they are because they've admired my work in the past and I'm upset by that."

However, he remained defiant over his views and said he always planned to "make a stand" during the show.

"The reason I do this is because I canot stand by and see young people scared to death that climate change is going to bring about the end of the world by 2050," he said.

North Carolina’s constitution is clear: politicians who deny the existence of God are barred from holding office.

Opponents of Cecil Bothwell are seizing on that law to argue he should not be seated as a City Council member today, even though federal courts have ruled religious tests for public office are unlawful under the U.S. Constitution.

Voters elected the writer and builder to the council last month.

“I’m not saying that Cecil Bothwell is not a good man, but if he’s an atheist, he’s not eligible to serve in public office, according to the state constitution,” said H.K. Edgerton, a former Asheville NAACP president.

Article 6, section 8 of the state constitution says: “The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.”

Rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution trump the restriction in the state constitution, said Bob Orr, executive director of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law.

“I think there’s any number of federal cases that would view this as an imposition of a religious qualification and violate separation of church and state,” said Orr, a former state Supreme Court justice.

Asheville Citizen-Times: Critics of Cecil Bothwell cite N.C. bar to atheists

Arguing that there was “no hope” from atheists who scorn God, he said the best way to confront the secularist agenda was for all faiths to unite against it.

The final phase of the atheist bus campaign will challenge the idea that children can be labelled with their parents' religion

Ariane Sherine

Wednesday 18 November 2009 10.00 GMT

A poster from the atheist billboard campaign. Photograph: Public Domain

This week, the final phase of the atheist bus campaign will appear in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – not on buses, but on billboards. Due to the amazing sums donated to the campaign fund by many Cif readers at the end of last year, we raised enough for a second wave of adverts – and the above posters will launch today.

When, in this Cif piece back in October 2008, we asked how the extra funds should be spent, one of the issues which came up repeatedly in the comments concerned the growth of of faith schools in the UK and the segregation of children according to their parents' beliefs. Many of you felt strongly that children should be given the freedom to decide which belief system they wanted to belong to, if any, and that they should not have a religion decided for them. Commenter Finite187 wrote, "A campaign against faith schools would be good as a next step," ciderpower said "You could address faith schools – religions want schools for the few, not for all" and 555555 asked, "How is this distortion of school education happening in this country?"

The atheist campaign team shared this point of view. However, rather than using adverts to try and campaign politically, we thought it would be more beneficial to try and change the current public perception that it is acceptable to label children with a religion. As Richard Dawkins states, "Nobody would seriously describe a tiny child as a 'Marxist child' or an 'Anarchist child' or a 'Post-modernist child'. Yet children are routinely labelled with the religion of their parents. We need to encourage people to think carefully before labelling any child too young to know their own opinions, and our adverts will help to do that."

We have scheduled the launch of the billboards to take place during the same week as Universal Children's Day (20 November), which is the United Nations' "day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children". We hope the advert's message will encourage the government, media and general public to see children as individuals, free to make their own choices as soon as they are old enough to fully understand what these choices mean, and that they will think twice before describing children in terms of their parents' religion in the future.

Lastly, I'd like to take a final opportunity to thank everyone who donated to the campaign, supported it, commented on it or blogged about it – you really did make a difference to public discourse in this country and around the world. We hope you feel the new poster campaign is worthwhile and effective. After this phase, I will be taking a step back from atheist campaigning and returning to journalism. For those of you would like to continue to donate to campaigns on this issue, the BHA have launched a new pro-inclusive schools initiative here.

If you're coming to the final night of Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo on Sunday 20 December, then we have some very exciting news – we can now announce that the special guests that night will be Al Murray and Dara O Briain.

For me, Dara O Briain's set at Hammersmith was possibly the highlight of last year's shows – if you're a fan of him as host of Mock the Week, but you haven't seen his stand-up yet, then you've definitely been missing out. He's one of the best stand-ups I've seen, and I've been looking to go and see him do a full show ever since Nine Lessons last year. In the meantime, I'm excited about seeing him do another spot at this year's Hammersmith show.

Al Murray will be appearing as his Pub Landlord alter ego – here in the New Humanist office, we're hoping the Landlord chooses to share his views on science, evolution and religion. If you're familiar with his rants, you'll know exactly what we mean.

We've also added Canadian rapper Baba Brinkman, who'll be performing his Rap Guide to Evolution, which received glowing reviews at this year's Edinburgh Festival. Take a look at his website to find out more.

It's going to be quite a show - Murray, O Briain and Brinkman are added to a bill that already features Richard Dawkins, Barry Cryer and Ronnie Golden, Simon Singh, Richard Herring, Robyn Hitchcock, Ben Goldacre, Chris Addison, Brian Cox, Martin White's Mystery Fax Machine Chamber Orchestra, the BHA Choir, all hosted by Robin Ince.

Tickets are selling fast, but there are still some available – if you haven't already booked, be sure to do so now to avoid disappointment. Tickets are priced £25 or £27.50, and are on sale now from the box office on 08448 444 748 or via the Ticketmaster website. The show is produced in association with the Rationalist Association and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Mustard Seed Secular School in Uganda.

With 5 nights at the Bloomsbury Theatre already sold out, this is your last chance to see Nine Lessons this year – with a line-up like this, you wouldn't want to miss out, would you?

Hundreds of Proofs of God’s Existence

Formerly: Over Three Hundred Proofs of God’s Existence

Originally adapted from a forum on the Internet Infidels.

Which is your favourite "proof"?