Saturday, January 25, 2014

What you need to know before watching the Bill Nye and Ken Ham debate:



The upcoming debate (click here for free live-streaming of the debate) with Bill Nye and Ken Ham is generating a lot of interest on both sides of the issue.  Here's what you need to know, regardless of your perspective, before you watch the debate:

#1. Neither of the debaters are overly academically credentialed.  Nye has a Bachelor's in engineering, Ham has a Bachelor's in biology and a teaching certificate.  So neither one should be considered an expert, nor will they be a professor anytime soon...

#2. Neither of the debaters are entering this with an open mind.  It is a debate, not a dialogue.  So don't expect these two to build on any common ground, nor will they win the other one over.   Sadly, as a result there will be more division over this subject than there needs to be.

#3. What is the exact topic of the debate? "Is creation a viable model for origins?"  That is a narrow topic to cover, without straying into other metaphysical areas.  So I expect both debaters to go off on tangents.

#4. Both debaters have a lot on the line, reputation wise.  So, after the dust settles, expect both men to declare themselves the winner of the debate.

#5. You should watch the video for yourself and form your own opinions of the debate, don't let your social circle pressure you into their opinions of the issue.


An earlier post on why I'm not 100% optimistic about tonight's debate: http://craigcottongim.blogspot.com/2014/01/when-stars-align-bill-nye-science-guy.html

4 comments:

Robert said...

I feel like this will be nothing more than two people with dogmatic views debating for the sake of debating. I wish that it was someone like Hugh Ross who was "debating" Bill Nye instead of Ken Ham. I will watch it but I don't feel that anything good will come from this debate.

craigcottongim said...

Amen Robert! And, Hugh Ross immediately came to mind for me too...

Robert said...

I appreciate your posts about this subject on your blog. I feel that people like Ken Ham and others treat YEC as gospel when it's not.

craigcottongim said...

Thank you Robert!