Ham on Nye: Kentucky Creationism Debate for Dinner
I’m sure there will be plenty of interesting commentary in the coming days about last night’s (Feb 4th) much-hyped public debate between “Evolution” defender Bill Nye (The Science Guy) and “Creation” defender Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis/Creation Museum). As initial media coverage is already showing, it was a lively time. But rather than offer a political analysis of the event–I’ll do that in an upcoming piece–I want to reflect on one moment in the event when the whole thing took a deep and fascinating philosophical turn. The following discourse took place about 2 hours into the event, when the Moderator asked the following audience question to Ken Ham. There were a few good parts in the debate that stood out, but I think this is the most memorable. In my mind, this is really getting at the heart of the rift between naturalism and supernaturalism in relation to science and what counts as evidence.
Moderator: “Mr. Ham, a new question. This is a simple question I suppose, but one that is actually fairly profound for all of us in our lives. What, if anything, would ever change your mind?”
Ken Ham: “Well, the answer to that question is, I’m a Christian. And as a Christian I can not prove it to you, but God has definitely shown me very clearly, through his word, and shown himself in the person of Jesus Christ. The Bible is the word of God. I admit that is where I start from. I can challenge people, that you can go and test that. You can make predictions against that. You can check the prophecies. You can check the statements in Genesis. You can check that. And I did a little bit of that tonight. And I can’t ultimately prove that to you. All I can do is to say to someone, look, if the Bible really is what it claims to be, if it really is the word of God and that is what it claims, then check it out. Now the Bible says if you come to God believing that he is, he’ll reveal himself to you. And you will know. As Christians we can say we know. And so as far as the word of God is concerned, no, no one is ever going to convince me that the word of God is not true”…[creation models can change, just not creation past. Scientific discovery.]…”As a Christian, I would ask Bill. What would change your mind?”…[reference to Nye comment about old earth].
Bill Nye: “We would just need one piece of evidence. We would need the fossil that swam from one layer to another. We would need evidence that the universe is not expanding. We would need evidence that the stars appear to be far away but they are not. We would need evidence that rock layers can somehow form in just 4,000 years, instead of the extraordinary amount. We would need evidence that somehow you can reset atomic clocks and keep neutrons from becoming protons. Bring on any of those things, and you would change me immediately. The question I have for you though, fundamentally, and for everybody watching. Mr Ham, what can you prove? What you have done tonight, is spent most of, all of the time, coming up with explanations about the past. What can you really predict? What can you really prove, in a conventional scientific, or, in a conventional, I have an idea that makes a prediction and it comes out the way I see it? This is very troubling to me.”
I also made a catchy little infographic to share this around with. ;p
(For reference, this transcript starts around 2:04:00 into the event video here: Bill Nye Debates Ken Ham). Stay tune for more thoughts on the Ham and Nye debate.
Until next time…#science+faith
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