Ham vs. Nye Debate Continues

Debaters Ken Ham & Bill Nye

Bill Nye has come out with a 3100-word essay about his debate with Ken Ham.

If I were Ken Ham, I would have ignored it. I don’t think it merited Ham’s time or effort to reply. However, Ham responded with corrections and a challenge in a 2700-word answer. This continues their debate that began in person at the Creation Museum on February 4, 2014.

An estimated 10 million viewers watched the live stream of the debate:
Is Creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific era?

Additionally, as of press time, the YouTube video of the debate has been viewed over 2.8 million times. The Debate site has an indexed video of the debate, so that viewers can jump to any point in the debate using the drop down menu index. Interest and conversation about the debate continues to be intense and vigorous.

Following the debate, the Skeptical Inquirer invited Bill Nye to express his view of this highly publicized event, the circumstances surrounding it, the reasons he decided to take part, and his preparation and strategy. In response Bill Nye published a long essay Bill Nye’s Take on the Nye-Ham Debate on April 14, 2014.

Ken Ham disagreed with many of Bill Nye’s essay claims and published his own rejoinder Bill Nye and I Have Different Accounts of Our Debate on April 16.

These essays contest historical events related to the debate. They really do nothing to advance the argument over the debate topic.

In the debate, Bill Nye used a “swamping” technique where one raises so many issues that the opponent cannot answer them in the allotted time. It takes much less time to ask a question or raise a challenge than to give an answer. In his essay, Bill Nye admitted,

“I did my best to slam Ken Ham with a great many scientific and common sense arguments. I believed he wouldn’t have the time or the focus to address many of them.”

In response after the debate, Answers in Genesis offered a wealth of material answering questions that Bill Nye raised in the debate. There were so many that Ken Ham did not have time to address them all. But AiG’s Post-Debate Answers page gives a long list of web articles answering all the scientific issues brought up in the debate. This Post-Debate Answers page is an excellent resource for answering the common questions posed to creationists. It turns the tables on Bill Nye by “swamping” him with facts, evidence, and logical arguments.

Ken Ham ended his essay by repeating two questions he used to challenge Bill Nye during the debate. He received no answer then, and Bill Nye has not replied to them since. In fact, Bill Nye has yet to publish any list of articles defending his claims or rebutting Ham’s debate statements. Ken Ham asked,

• “How do you account for the laws of logic and laws of nature from a naturalistic worldview that excludes the existence of God?
• Can you name one piece of technology that could only have been developed starting with a belief in molecules-to-man evolution?

I await the answers.”

These are important and incisive questions. Various versions of these questions have been asked by creationists for decades without ever getting good answers from evolutionists.

Questions to Ponder

1. How do you think an evolutionist would answer Ken Ham’s two questions? Do you consider such answers satisfactory?
2. If Bill Nye cannot answer Ken Ham’s two questions (and he hasn’t so far), what does this say about the credibility of evolutionism?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

Read the prequel articles on this debate:
Creation-Evolution Debate: Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye – background info & the YouTube videos that sparked the debate.
Ham on Nye Debate Update
Who Won the Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye Debate? – includes YouTube video of debate
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #1 – 4 web commentators
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #2 – 4 web commentators
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #3 – comments from debate moderator and post-debate challenges from debaters to each other
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #4 – Albert Mohler’s assessment
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #5 – Nye’s debate coach comments
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #6 – astronomer, CMI, WORLD mag
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #7 – Gary DeMar, Mally sisters video
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #8 – apologetics prof, science historian, debater
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #9 – chemist, ID advocate
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #10 – ID advocates
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #11 – space scientist
Post-Debate Buzz Heats Up for Ham vs. Nye #12 – creationist speaker, canyons

Read the sequel:
Ham-Nye Debate: Behind the Scenes

Soli Deo Gloria.

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Wednesday April 23, 2014 A.D.

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:11)