If you have not heard there is going to be something interesting happening this Tuesday night. On this February 4, 2014, starting at 7 PM, Bill Nye “the science guy” and Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis will be debating the question, “Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern, scientific era?”
We will be live streaming the event from our church; our doors will be open at 6:30 PM. The debate has generated a lot of media attention and interest in general. I am not a big fan of debates typically and I think I should elaborate on that so we can know what to expect this coming Tuesday.
One reason I do not like debates is the truth is often obscured by the drive to win. Debates can quickly devolve into a mean-spirited argument generating little light but a lot of heat. At present, I do not sense this debate will go in that direction. I think there is too much at stake on each side of this issue for either of these men to loose control in front of viewers.
But there is another truth to be considered here. If God exists (this should not be misconstrued as doubt on my part, it is a rhetorical device used to make a point) and His creative act is true, then that truth does not rise or fall on the outcome of a debate between two of His creatures. One may be more clever, smarter, or do a better job of presenting his position, but the truth of the current state of the universe, the existence of God, and what happened in the past will not be decided in a war of words.
Here is why, neither creation nor evolution can be proven beyond doubt. If they could there would be nothing to debate. We do not debate whether water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level; it’s a fact. I could recite a laundry list of facts that are not debated but I think you get my drift.
Do not get me wrong; I am a creationist. While I believe the Bible is not primarily a science textbook, I do believe when the biblical account speaks about the natural order of things it is correct. When the writer of Job declared three thousand years before the invention of the telescope that God “hangs the earth on nothing” (Job 26:7), I believe this account. Man eventually invented the telescope enabling science to catch up with the Bible.
So while I know there are a host of scientific evidences that corroborate the scriptural account regarding the natural order of reality, I know God cannot be seen in a telescope or examined under a microscope. I did not come to Christ convinced by some facts, I came to Him by faith. God ordained it that way, “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is [exists]” Hebrews 11:6. Science just makes me very comfortable in my faith.
Evolution is like creation. He who comes to evolution must believe in its theory, because without facts it is impossible to prove it. Mark Twain once said “Facts are stubborn things, statistics are much more pliable.” Substitute the word “statistics” with the word “theories” and we can say, “Facts are stubborn things, theories are much more pliable.” A scientist can take a handful of facts and create almost any kind of theory he wants.
I see them do it all the time. When the Higgs Boson (nicknamed ironically the God particle) was discovered in the Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva, Switzerland, scientists created a new theory on the age of the universe. They no longer believe the universe to be 13.7 billion years old; they now think it is 13.81 billion years old.
See how easy it is for scientists to create a new theory. Of course, this is all conjecture. Scientists did not observe the beginning of the universe (this is what us creation guys call a fact). They certainly have not been around the last 13.81 billion years to measure how long the universe has existed, or to observe whether the processes on which they based their theories have remained constant (oops, I just mentioned some more facts).
While scientists scramble around creating new theories, which they must do because they do not have all the facts, the account in the Bible that the world hangs on nothing has remained unchanged for 3500 years because it is a fact. Here is the bottom line: this debate may change some peoples’ theories, but it will not change the facts.
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