No, I didn’t watch Bill Nye debate Ken Ham. I’m not interested. Besides, it wasn’t for me.
It was for two kinds of people: crazy confused people and people who think they have to listen to crazy confused people to be a good Christian.
That may sound pretty crass, but this wasn’t a mainstream debate. This wasn’t for the population at-large: the population that isn’t confused by science and does know better. Nor is it for the people who think Young Earthers and Creationists should “get a say” in “the conversation” about our earthly origins. It was for people who reject science and those who think they’re supposed to.
Bill Nye, for his part, took the debate to speak to that latter group. He did not intend to give more press to this farce, but appeal to those who don’t know there’s another option.
Christians don’t believe in creationism. One type of Christian certainly does, and they aren’t the majority by any stretch. Just vocal. Look at who doesn’t believe in evolution. A second group is pretty split, but everybody else? Pretty certain. Not even close.
Unfortunately, Bill Nye isn’t the vehicle for helping the religiously conflicted understand. It is us. Those of us that aren’t afraid of science and aren’t afraid to discover new things about the world. Those of us that are hopeful and excited to discover the very nature of our substance and of the cosmos. Those of us that are inspired and brought to wonder by what could be as much as we are by what is. For we are Christians who believe and we are unafraid of what science can do.
The debate wasn’t for us. But it occurred because we haven’t been responsible. We’ve allowed our fear of complexity and conflict to let a really simple, and dangerous, idea slip into the mainstream. That maybe there is something to creationism. It’s a theory after all.
A crazy theory that is neither good science nor good religion. It is something completely alien and the mark of poor faith. And for that, we are all responsible.
This weekend also happens to be Evolution Weekend. A time in which we have the opportunity to highlight the beauty of creation that can’t be minimized by literalism. Coincidentally, this is a subject I’ve written about for several weeks at church, prompted by a question about how we are to respond to science as people of faith. I encourage you to read all three, which are found here:
Leave a Reply