Almost two years ago, Bill Nye ‘debated’ Ken Ham at the ‘Creation Museum’ in Kentucky. After the debate, some creationists scrawled some crude questions onto some lined paper and asked what follows below. Here are my answers:
1) “Bill Nye, are you influencing the minds of children in a positive way?”
I sure hope so. He is a skilled engineer and a great entertainer. I really wish they had Aron Ra to debate, but I know it would just be silly.
2) “Are you scared of a Divine Creator?”
No, not at all. I am only afraid of real things.
3) “Is it completely illogical that the Earth was created mature? i.e. trees created with rings … Adam created as an adult ….”
Yeah, pretty much. You could say the Earth was created 10 seconds before now. I think it is stupid concept and why would a god who wants us to believe in him create a world that looks old? To double dog dare us? Don’t we just have to assume it is old and just move on from there?
4) “Does not the second law of thermodynamics disprove evolution?”
If this was a closed system, maybe, but in an open system, like the Earth/Sun combination, it really does not apply. The universe as a whole will eventually succumb to entropy, and life will not be able to stop it.
5) “How do you explain a sunset if their [sic] is no God?”
The refractive index of our atmosphere. Oh, you mean why is it ‘pretty’ looking? It is entirely a subjective feeling. If you were blind, would this be an amazing thing?
6) “If the Big Bang Theory is true and taught as science along with evolution, why do the laws of thermodynamics debunk said theories?”
They don’t. In fact, the Big Bang is the beginning of the laws of thermodynamics, the eventual heat death of the universe is the end.
7) “What about noetics?”
I had to look this one up. Noetics is, more or less, complete New Age nonsense about mind over matter gibberish. I will use my hands to change the universe, not my ‘mind/soul/spiritual body’ and higher dimensions.
8) “Where do you derive objective meaning in life?”
You don’t. Life has whatever meaning you want to apply to it. There is no objective meaning. Your genes only want you to reproduce or die. Nothing else.
9) “If God did not create everything, how did the first single-celled organism originate? By chance?”
Sure, why not? Given enough time, energy and an ocean full of precursors to self replicating life, it is almost certain to occur. You can have life (something that can reproduce) without a cell as well.
10) “I believe in the Big Bang Theory … God said it and BANG it happened.”
Not a question. Where did God come from? Telling me he is timeless and immaterial is special pleading and makes no sense.
11) “Why do evolutionists/secularists/humanists/non-God believing people reject the idea of their [sic] being a Creator God but embrace the concept of intelligent design from aliens or other extra-terrestrial sources?”
This question is just a bunch of odd straw men, lashed together. Those 4 different people are not the same thing. I can only answer for myself. I am an ‘evolutionist’ I guess (accept the fact of evolution), secular, humanist, and I don’t believe in any gods. I totally reject intelligent design from aliens and I don’t believe in extraterrestrial sources is the most likely origin of life on Earth.
12) “There is no in between … the only one found has been Lucy and there are only a few pieces of the hundreds necessary for an ‘official proof’.”
Don’t really get this one. Human evolution is pretty well understood, with sometimes hundreds of individuals of each ancestor species of human already discovered, and we are discovering more every year.
13) “Does metamorphosis help support evolution?”
Hell yeah. Look at a frog. it starts as a fish like creature that changes into a frog, showing, plainly, how evolution works. Or, look at an insect, that goes from larval to adult forms. Again, as a juvenile, this is a simpler form that would transform into a more complex adult form.
14) “If Evolution is a theory (like creationism or the Bible) why then is Evolution taught as a fact.”
Creationism is not a theory. It does not even rise to the level of hypothesis. It fails every test. Evolution by means of natural selection has been tested for over 150 years, and always passes. It is the most tested theory in science. We understand evolution better than about ANYTHING else in science.
15) “Because science is ‘theory’–not testable, observable, nor repeatable, why do you object to creationism or intelligent design being taught in school?”
You do not understand the word science. Science is testable, observable, and repeatable. Theory is a tool used by science. An idea starts as a hypothesis, then if passes repeated experiments, it can become a theory. Theories can be (and are) constantly tested. Creationism and intelligent design can’t even reach the level of hypothesis. Gibberish question.
16) “What mechanism has science discovered that evidences an increase of genetic information seen in any genetic mutation or evolutionary process?”
Yes, all the time, I am not a genetic biologist, but here is a cool video https://youtu.be/I14KTshLUkg
17) “What purpose do you think you are here for if you don’t believe in salvation?”
To help my fellow humans have less suffering and play video games, collect watches, be a good husband and father.
18) “Why have we found only 1 ‘Lucy,’ when we have found more than 1 of everything else?”
We have found several members of Australopithecus afarensis, and hundreds of other human ancestors among dozens of species.
19) “Can you believe in ‘the big bang’ without ‘faith’”?
I don’t have to believe it it, the cosmic background radiation was discovered many years ago, and the math behind it is well understood.
20) “How can you look at the world and not believe someone created/thought of it? It’s amazing!!!”
It is amazing, it is amazing I am alive right now. The odds are staggering. But, to believe in something infinitely more complex than this universe that can not be proven to exist in any way is a waste of time.
21) “Relating to the big bang theory … Where did the exploding star come from?”
Exploding star? You mean quantum fluctuations? It has been tested in the large hadron collider. It appears to be a natural property of this universe.
22) “If we came from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?”
This is a really ignorant question. If I came from my parents, why do I still have a mom and dad? Same question, just shorter period of time. Why are there any species and not just one? Not how life works.