The creation versus evolution debate at the Creation Museum in Kentucky on Tuesday pitted Ken Ham and Bill Nye "The Science Guy." The verbal tug of war ended in a draw.
The question the debaters tried to answer was about creation and its viability as a model of origins in today's modern scientific era. Tom Foreman of CNN served as the moderator of the debate that attracted 900 paying attendees, almost 550,000 simultaneous viewers on YouTube, and triggered a heated discussion in the social networks.
Ham took the stage first after winning a toss coin prior to the start of the discussion.
"The word science has been hijacked by secularists in teaching evolution to force the religion of naturalism on generations of kids," said Ham during his opening statement. The creationist pointed out the big difference between how modern society teaches about origins compared to how the Bible accounts for it.
Ham strengthened his submission by presenting testimonies of renowned and accomplished scientists who are also biblical creationists. The former science teacher in Queensland, Australia, pointed out how people like him can agree with science on present things but argue about the past where no one observational science apply since no one was there yet.
The founder of the controversial museum insisted that God is his ultimate starting point. He cited predictions in the Bible that may have traceable evidences. Then he went on to discuss the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin and compared it to how creationist think how things happened. Ham also presented published journals to strengthen his case.
Ham went on to say that the word "evolution" was also hijacked by those who believe in the theory and asserted the point that evolutionists cannot be certain about things that they did not witness.
"Evolution is used for observable changes and for unobservable changes such as molecules to man... evolution has been hijacked using a bait and switch to indoctrinate students to accept evolutionary belief as observational science," said Ham.
Nye started his argument by attacking how Ham dichotomized science and pointed out how billions of religious people do not believe that Earth is just 6,000 years old, a reference to what the Creation Museum teaches its visitors.
"The Science Guy" opened his presentation by attacking Ham's belief about the age of the planet and how the account of great flood in the Bible is contradictory to evidences that humans have found.
"Mr. Ham and his followers have this remarkable view of a worldwide flood that somehow influenced everything we observe in nature - a 500-foot wooden boat, eight zookeepers for 14,000 individual animals. Every land plant under water for a full year? Now I ask us all, is that really reasonable?" Nye pointed out.
Nye strengthened his case by emphasizing how natural laws that humans believe today apply to the past. The Emmy-award winning science entertainer presented numbers and evidences to trash the beliefs of creationist. He also criticized how Ham and other creationists take certain parts of the Bible literally and other parts as poetic.
"If we continue to eschew science ... we are not going to move forward," Nye said at one point.
The debate lasted for more than two hours with the contenders showing enthusiasm to defend their own beliefs. Nye had his numbers and scientific theories while Ham had his science, the Bible, and his beliefs.
In the end, neither side - pro-creation or pro-evolution - had the edge over the other.
Nye's expenses were covered by the Creation Museum that sponsored the event. He might have also received a fee of at least $50,000 for the speaking engagement
Nye, while praised by a lot of people on social media, was also criticized for engaging in such debate. Ham, on the other hand, was not able to push the belief on creation to make people doubt about evolution.
The winner of the debate may actually be the Creation Museum. It was able to generate good PR for itself, charged $25 for the people that streamed to its auditorium, and sold copies of the debate.
