Bill Nye, Ken Ham to Hold Debate on Viability of Creationism
Creation Museum CEO and President Ken Ham announced that he will hold a debate on the viability of creationism with popular scientist Bill Nye on Feb. 4 at the museum's Legacy Hall in Petersburg, Ky.
"A debate with Mr. Nye, nationally known for his children's TV program and for promoting evolution, will be one of our major events in 2014 to highlight how children and teens are being influenced by evolutionary thinking," Ham said on Thursday.
"This year, our AiG theme is 'Standing Our Ground, Rescuing Our Kids.' Having the opportunity to hold a cordial but spirited debate with such a well-known personality who is admired by so many young people will help bring the creation/evolution issue to the attention of many more people, including youngsters."
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The specific topic for discussion has been selected as "Is creation a viable model of origins in today's modern scientific world?"
Nye, who is most famous for the 90s TV show "Bill Nye The Science Guy," made a number of comments in the past couple of years criticizing the teaching of creationism to young children, arguing that it stifles innovation.
"If we raise a generation of students who don't believe in the process of science, who think everything that we've come to know about nature and the universe can be dismissed by a few sentences translated into English from some ancient text, you're not going to continue to innovate," Nye said in a September 2012 interview with The Associated Press.
The scientist has also insisted that creationism should not be taught in textbooks. In a September 2013 interview with TV host Bill Maher, Nye argued that "in order to have innovation, you need to have scientifically literate students graduating from all kinds of schools," to which he added, "but then you have this situation in Texas, where people want to have creationism in textbooks."
"You can believe what you want religiously. Religion is one thing, but science, provable science is something else. My concern is you don't want people growing up not believing in radioactivity, not believing in geology and deep time," Nye added in another interview with "CBS This Morning."
Ham responded to Maher's interview with Nye by saying that the scientist "still doesn't understand the difference between historical science and observational science."
"These two mock the Bible and totally distort the Bible's account of the creation of the sun and the moon. Of course, AiG (and probably many others) have answered their false arguments – but Maher and Nye aren't interested in answers that defend Christianity," Ham added, who is also the president and founder of Answers in Genesis.
As for the upcoming debate in February, Ham said that he hopes to show Nye and the debate audience that "observational science confirms the scientific accuracy of the Genesis account of origins, not evolution."
The Creation Museum CEO added that he also hopes to give Nye a tour of the museum before the debate, and have him meet a number of the staff members who hold a doctorate in science.
In a separate post, Ham asked supporters to pray for him, as he does not "relish public debates."
"But this debate will help highlight the fact that so many young people are dismissing the Bible because of evolution, and even many young people who had grown up in the church decided to leave the church because they saw evolution as showing the Bible could not be trusted," he stated.
Tickets for the debate in Petersburg are priced $25 each, and will be available on the Answers in Genesis website starting Jan. 6.
Nye did not return a request for comment by The Christian Post at the time of press.
