By the end of the Nye-Ham Debate, creationism may have won more votes in the audience, but scientific evolution clearly emerged as the winner. One of the prime reasons that skeptics passed this verdict was Bill Nye “The Science Guy” insisting that people must inculcate an interest in scientific investigation – not as an end in itself but as a means to improve lives ecologically, economically and technologically.
During the debate on February 4, Nye took on creationist Ken Ham who apart from advocating a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis also stressed on the importance of “not knowing.” Nye not only shared with the audience his own love affair with science, but he also unapologetically and unreservedly confessed that there are big questions that mankind still has no answers to – all the more reason for one to go ahead and search for those answers. While parts of Nye’s pitch did lose the attention of both in-house and online audiences, it also managed to shake the profiles of the Creation Museum as well as fellow debater Ken Ham.
The duo later carried their debate to CNN’s Piers Morgan Live where Nye managed to embarrass Ham yet again. While Ham based 90 percent of his argument on the Bible and the remaining 10 percent on ideas of scientists who identify themselves as creationists, Nye explained each of his ideas with scientifically backed evidence.
Refraining from actually answering most questions posed to him, Ham was repeatedly heard saying “If you weren’t there to verify it, then you’re just assuming so you can’t prove it. However, the only proof I have is the book called the Bible.”
In fact, when Morgan asked Ham whether dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time, he said, “All the land animals were made on day six and Adam and Eve were made on day six,” indicating that both did actually coexist. To make things worse, when Morgan insisted that scientists have found dinosaur fossils more than 70 million years old, Ham said, “You don’t find dinosaur bones with labels on them. Where’d you get the 70 million years from? Prove that to me.”
During his entire stint on CNN, Ham basically dismissed the entire scientific community which comprises of numerous scientists, countless hours of research and centuries of data that have proven facts that most people live by today.
Nye and Ham’s highly anticipated debate had many people talking, including televangelist Pat Robertson, who is known for his faith in conservative Christian values. However, Robertson pleaded Ham to stop making creationists look bad during his appearance on a 700 Club TV program.
Robertson went on to oppose Ham’s Young Earth Creationism saying, “There ain't no way that's possible. We have skeletons of dinosaurs that go back 65 million years. To say it all dates back to 6,000 years is just nonsense.”
However, Robertson reaffirmed his own creationist views as a god-guided evolutionary process. “I believe that God started it all, and he is in charge of all of it. But the fact that you have progressive evolution under his control, that doesn't hurt my faith at all. No one knows what caused the Big Bang, but I say God did it,” he asserted.
If a recent survey by Pew Research Center is to be taken into consideration, Robertson’s point of view is actually quite common. According to the survey, 24 percent of American adults that believe humans have evolved over time think that a supreme force aided the process. In fact, after the Nye-Ham debate, BuzzFeed asked creationists to write “messages to people who believe in evolution” and this is only an example of the responses they received:
Photo Credits: Ed Schipul
