Ken Ham, CEO of Answers in Genesis and stand-in for Captain Noah on the Kentucky Ark of Ignorance, is well-known for pointing to the Bible — God’s science textbook — as THE (only/final) authority when it comes to understanding how the universe came to be. Ham is noted for telling Bill Nye that the Bible was all-sufficient, that it alone explains how everything came to be. But here’s the thing, Ham doesn’t really believe this. Here’s proof of my contention:
Ken, I ask you, why do we need to read your materials? I thought all we needed to do is read Genesis 1-3. Now you are saying that the Bible is NOT sufficient for our understanding of how the universe and biological life came to be. What’s up with that?
Of course, Evangelicals don’t really believe that the Bible is a one-stop knowledge store. If this was really the case, there would be no need for the thousands of Christian books that are published every year. There would also be no need for “ministries” such as Answers in Genesis. Ham and his cadre of professional dispensers of ignorance have published over ten thousand articles that are meant to help Evangelicals understand what God said in Genesis 1-3. If God has spoken, why would Christians have any reason to read any of Ham’s articles? The answer, of course, is that Ham needs 10,000 loads of bullshit to cover up his irrational, anti-scientific, literalistic interpretation of the Bible.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Here are the latest AiG materials addressing the vexed question of ‘millions of species in thousands of years’ (no – I have NOT ploughed through it):
https://answersingenesis.org/natural-selection/speciation/on-the-origin-of-eukaryotic-species-genotypic-and-phenotypic-diversity/
But the answer appears to be ‘created heterozygosity’.
https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2016/04/29/millions-of-species-in-thousands-of-years/
Last time I looked I could not find ‘rapid speciation’ anywhere in the Bible (though it’s a big book). But I guess AiG have to address observable realities such as millions of species too.
Meanwhile this thread seems to have exploded (29 new posts since I last looked, around 14 hours ago):
https://thenaturalhistorian.com/2016/04/26/is-natural-selection-the-same-thing-as-evolution-assessing-dr-purdoms-confusing-answer/
I don’t readily recall Ham telling Bill Nye that the Bible is ‘all-sufficient’ but I did find this by Ken Ham’s brother:
https://answersingenesis.org/christianity/christian-life/the-sufficiency-of-scripture-for-helping-people-in-need/
Ham’s famous remark at the debate that I particularly recall was “there is a book”.
http://www.youngearth.org/index.php/archives/rmcf-articles/item/21-transcript-of-ken-ham-vs-bill-nye-debate (see the transcript of the Q & A)
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Ken Ham never misses an opportunity to advertise his literature. I saw him speak at Ray Comfort’s Deeper Conference in 2010. About a third of Ken’s talk was dedicated to advertising books and homeschooling resources. His top PhD lackey at the time, Jason Lisle, also gave a talk at the same conference. He ended his talk with a commercial as well, telling us that they had come up with a solution to the “speed of light” problem, but we had to buy the book to get it. Codswallop.
The entire conference that year was like that. I sat while Ken told us that secularists and the teaching of evolution were responsible for the downfall of our society. Since good little Christian high school graduates often lose their faith when they go off to college. I figured going to college and learning you had been fed horseshit most of your life would be a traumatic experience. That’s when I decided I would never pass any of that bullshit on to my own children, or anyone else’s.
Steve—Yes! Probably the best thing about getting an education is getting the tools to help you decide not to propogate the “horseshit,” as you call it!
You know, I’m one of the naive people. When others proclaim what they believe, I believe they mean it. Now, I’m starting to think that even if someone like Ken Ham means it, he isn’t averse to making as much money off of his scam as possible. Which is why he has to sell books and point to website articles. And of course the (ehem!) inspiration of his Ark Encounter, a joke which pretends it is made like Noah’s ark but is composed of modern materials, as otherwise it would fall down into rubble.
Of course Ken Ham doesn’t believe in the sufficiency of Scripture. If he did (not that anybody should), he wouldn’t have all those dinosaurs in his Ark. The Bible never, not even once, mentions dinosaurs. But Ham needs them to attract tourists, so there they are.