Hi John,
Amy and I also watched the creation debate last night, and I, too, was disappointed in both sides. Mr. Nye was much more confident and at ease in his debate style (though sarcastic and contemptuous at the same time), and Mr. Ham seemed nervous, unorganized, and unprepared to answer the tough questions. As a result, Mr. Nye basically controlled the entire debate, and Mr. Ham was constantly on the defensive. I couldn’t understand why Mr. Ham kept using the Bible as his primary evidence for creation to someone who doesn’t believe the Bible (I think lawyers call this “begging the question”). From what I have read and heard other creation scientists say, just about everything Mr. Nye put forth as evidence for evolution has been refuted, but Mr. Ham didn’t offer much of the existing scientific evidence in his couterarguments. I wondered why no one asked Mr. Ham the question, “Would you still believe what you believe if the Bible didn’t exist?” And I wondered why no one asked Mr. Nye some of the tougher questions also, such as, “How do you explain, using the theory of evolution, the irreducible complexity of any given living organism? For instance, did the heart, blood, arteries, veins, capillaries, and cells all evolve at the same time? If not, which one of these components could be absent and still make for a viable circulatory system?”
With all that said, though, I also feel the same way everyone else has already said, that the witness of the holy ghost – the power of God – was the key thing missing from the creation side of the debate. Like Gary, I also wondered what would have happened if Mr. Ham could have testified of an experience that he had with God, and the power of God fall and he begin speaking in tongues, and everyone in the audience feel the presence of God. I found myself praying for both men this morning, especially Mr. Ham, that they would have a real experience with Jesus – one that would trump all of their own thoughts and ideas about the Creator of heaven and earth!
I have seen other creation scientists, such as Kent Hovind, do a much better job of presenting the scientific evidence in this kind of debate, but also without the truth and the power of God. In the case of Kent Hovind, he became rebellious and arrogant with his knowledge, and now he’s in prison for tax evasion. So, perhaps God will only allow men to go so far in trying to “prove” God exists with their own knowledge – but still use them to get people thinking about Jesus, and considering a side other than the side that’s continuously forced down everyone’s throats these days.
I was reading in Deuteronomy 29 this morning, and these verses really stood out to me, in light of last night’s debate:
2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. (Dt. 29:2-4)
Even God’s own people, let alone the world, can’t believe the things He has done or understand the truth unless God gives them the grace to believe it, or see it, or hear it, or understand it. It makes me very thankful that Jesus showed me, just a few short years ago, how foolish I was to believe in the whole evolution thing. But there was no way I could have all of a sudden decided to stop believing in evolution and started believing in God, without God giving me an experience to let me KNOW, not just believe, that He is real, and that He loves us and cares for us.
Vince