Evolution vs. Creation Debate

Yesterday the ever long debate between evolution and creationism took stage between "The Science Guy" Bill Nye and the director of the Creationist Museum Ken Ham.

Overall I thought Bill Nye performed really well. His point regarding the failure of the wooden ship Wyoming (built in 1905) was excellent for discounting the possibility that a handful of inexperienced people could build an arc that could last at sea for over a year. It was the first time I had ever heard that particular argument made.

Nye was also spot on when he said that we need to get past teaching kids about the Biblical creation stories and teach kids real science. Science and technology is the reason why our lives are so much better than the lives of our ancestors from 100-2000 years ago. Today we have air conditioned homes, cell phones, computers, cars, GPS systems, airplanes, hurricane/tornado warning systems ... none of which wouldn't be possible without using the same science that disproves the Biblical creation myths.

Of course there are a couple of points that I thought Nye could have improved upon. One of these was when he was asked where did the first atoms come from in the Big Bang, Nye responded "we don't know, it's a mystery" which is accurate. However he really could have driven the nail in the coffin with a follow-up like this:

"But just because something is unknown to science doesn't mean a god is responsible for the cause. For example, we don't know why an otherwise healthy middle-age person would get pancreatic cancer, but it would be silly to believe that a loving god caused it. Moreover, there have been many phenomena that at one time in our past were thought to be caused by god (rainbows, eclipses, lightning, motion of the planets, etc.), we even had specific gods in charge of them (e.g., Iris, Zeus, etc.), but later science was able to discover natural causes for each one. So to imply that god must be the cause of the origin of the universe because we don't know the true origin right now, is really a logical fallacy called an argument from ignorance."

However, it's easy to Monday-morning quarterback a debate. I thought Bill Nye did a great job and kicked Ken Ham's butt. Of course, I don't even think the greatest religious apologist & debater of all, William Lane Craig, would have a prayer at defending a 6-day creation, 6000 year old universe, global flood and Noah's arc. Science has simply driven those myths into the ground.