Kentucky Seminiary President Weighs In On Nye/Ham Debate

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 Bill Nye’s Reasonable Man—The Central Worldview Clash of the Ham-Nye Debate

Albert Mohler - President of Southern Seminary, Louisville Kentucky

 

 

Wednesday • February 5, 2014

 

....The central issue last night was really not the age of the earth or the claims of modern science. The question was not really about the ark or sediment layers or fossils. It was about the central worldview clash of our times, and of any time: the clash between the worldview of the self-declared “reasonable man” and the worldview of the sinner saved by grace.

 

Can a sinner saved by grace also not be reasonable?  Why does it have to be an either or proposition?

 

 

Of Course A Sinner Saved By Grace

 

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:20-22

 

Can Be Both Reasonable

 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1

 

And Respectful

 

I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. Isaiah 42:8-9

 

Too

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The Battle Over The Minds And Hearts Of A Nation's Children

 

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12
 

Nye and Ham weren’t going to convince each other. But the debate symbolized something deeper for both men–an opportunity to sway parents about what their children should know.

 

“What you teach children about who they are and where they come from is very important, because if they’re just the result of natural processes, and if like Richard Dawkins says and even Bill Nye says, that’s the end of you, that’s it, you won’t even know you’re ever alive,” Ham told msnbc in an interview Monday afternoon, “then what is the purpose and meaning of life?”

 

It was Nye’s brief remark about children and creationism from a 2912 YouTube video that set off the chain of events leading to Tuesday night’s debate, billed as the Mohammed Ali vs. George Foreman of creationism vs. evolution debates.

 

“I say that to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe that’s fine,” Nye said in the video, “but don’t have your kids do it because we need them, we need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future.”

 

Creationism needs the kids too. Every inch of the $27 million dollar Creation Museum, from the towering mastadon skeleton in the lobby to its zip lines and petting zoo, is designed to appeal to children. Animatronic puppets explain the exile of Adam and Eve from their paradise of frolicking vegetarian dinosaurs and the construction of Noah’s Ark, while videos showing teenagers consuming Internet pornography or wives dissing their husbands behind their back are used to illustrate the fallen nature of the world. With its alternative narrative of a world where the biblical flood carved the Grand Canyon, racial differences were created by a mass migration following the destruction of the Tower of Babel, and all human suffering can be reduced to a rejection of Christianity, the Creation Museum offers hope for parents who want to arm their children against the atheist indoctrination of evolution.

 

Other than its appeal to children, it’s the fear of death that permeates every corner of the Creation Museum. As expensive and professionally produced as it may be, the museum amounts to a fragile shelter against the storm of realization that we all die alone.

 

“For someone who is an atheist, if there’s no god, when you die, from your perspective you won’t know you ever existed,” Ham says in a Creation Museum produced 2012 YouTube video responding to Nye. “When people near you die, they won’t know you existed, eventually everyone dies, no one will know anything ever was, no purpose or meaning in life, what does it really matter anyway?”

 

Speaking to msnbc in his office the day before the debate, Ham struck the same theme. “Bill Nye talks about the joy of discovery, that’s what science is all about, but so what?” Ham asked. “When you die that’s it? you won’t know you ever discovered anything, so what’s the point anyway?” http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bill-nye-creation-museum?cid=eml_mda_20140205