Skip to main content
Sojourners
faith in action for social justice
Sojourners
About
About SojournersEventsOur TeamWork With UsMediaWays to GiveInvite a SpeakerContact Us
SojoAction
OverviewTake ActionIssue AreasResourcesFaith-Rooted AdvocatesChurch Engagement
Magazine
Current IssueArchivesManage My SubscriptionWrite for Sojourners
Sections
LatestPoliticsColumnsLiving FaithArts & CultureGlobalPodcastsVideoPreaching The Word
Subscribe
MagazineRenewPreaching the WordCustomer ServiceNewsletters
Donate
Login / Register

The Gospel According to Young-Earth Creationist Ken Ham

By Tyler Francke
Bill Nye and Ken Ham debate
Bill Nye and Ken Ham debate
Feb 10, 2014
Share

There was a moment during last week’s “debate” between Bill Nye the Science Guy and young-earth creationist Ken Ham that I think was more telling than any other.

During the Q&A session, Ham was asked what seemed to me to be a very simple question: “Hypothetically, if evidence existed that caused you to admit that the universe is older than 10,000 years and creation did not occur in six days, would you still believe in God, and the historical Jesus of Nazareth, and that Jesus was the son of God?”

What was most telling was not really what Ham said, as much as what he didn’t say, which was “Yes.”

In my mind, this question was a softball pitch. It couldn’t possibly be easier. And Ham was given two minutes to answer the thing? His response should have taken all of two seconds: “Yes.”

Instead, Ham used the lion’s share of his rather generous allotment, trying to explain, again, why he believes the universe was created more recently than the invention of beer by the Mesopotamians, and how it’s impossible to use science to analyze the evidence of the distant past (because, well … because it just is).

But that’s not what the moderator, Tom Foreman, asked. He didn’t ask if Ham believes the universe is young. By that point, no one in the audience could have been unaware of how old Ham thinks the universe is. The question was, if you were to — hypothetically — set those beliefs aside for just a moment, would you still be a Christian?

As a Christian — an apologist, no less — Ham’s answer should have been a single word, offered definitively and without hesitation. Answering, “Yes,” would not have meant Ham was abandoning his belief in a young earth; it simply would have meant that his Christian faith is not based in that belief.

The fact that he, apparently, could not answer, “Yes,” to such a straightforward question seems to say a lot about what his faith is based in.

On the one hand, if someone like Ken Ham wants something that is so plainly contradicted by the scientific evidence to be the basis for his faith, that’s fine. He’s a grown man, and he’s entitled to believe in things that are demonstrably false if he really wants to.

But on the other hand, when he was sitting on that stage, he presented himself — and I’m sure, was perceived by most viewers — as a representative of Christianity. And, as a Christian myself, I can’t help but be bothered seeing Ham teach people that young-earthism and a literal view of Genesis are foundational to Christianity, since, you know, those are both things that the Bible never once describes as foundational to Christianity.

Ham said something else that night that he’s fond of saying: that his calling is to teach that “the history” (based on his literal interpretation of Genesis 1-11) “is true; that’s why the gospel based on that history is true.”

This is just another instance where Ham’s views run far afield from what the Bible actually says. Scripture is painfully clear on this. We don’t need to find pieces of Noah’s ark to know the gospel is true; we know the gospel is true because Jesus (remember him, Mr. Ham?) is risen and he lives in us.

The problem with both of these positions is that they tell the world that all it takes to invalidate the entire Christian faith is to show that the universe is more than 10,000 years old.

I, for one, think the gospel is a very important message, and I think Ham’s beliefs about evolution and the age of the earth are utter nonsense. I don’t think the two should be bound together at the hip, and I daresay most Christians would agree.

So, let’s disentangle them, shall we? Let Ken Ham have his young-earthism, and let him go down with it to the footnotes of history after it has gone the way of the flat earth and geocentrism.

Only, for the love of God, don’t let him drag the gospel down with him.

Tyler Francke is a print journalist and freelance writer in the Pacific Northwest. He is the founder and lead contributor of God of Evolution — a blog promoting the harmony of biblical Christianity and mainstream science — and author of Reoriented, a novel due to be released in 2014 by TouchPoint Press.

Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!

Tell Us What You Think!

We value your feedback on the articles we post. Please fill out the form below, and a member of our online publication team will receive your message. By submitting this form, you consent to your comment being featured in our Letters section. 

Please do not include any non-text characters, such as emojis or other non-standard content, into your submission.  It may cause errors in submitting the form.  Thanks!

Don't Miss a Story!

Sojourners is committed to faith and justice even in polarized times. Will you join us on the journey?
Confirm Your Email Address.
By entering your email we'll send you our newsletter each Thursday. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Bill Nye and Ken Ham debate
Search Sojourners

Subscribe

Magazine Newsletters Preaching The Word
Follow on Facebook Follow on Bluesky Follow on Instagram Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Sojourners
Donate Products Editorial Policies Privacy Policy

Media

Advertising Press

Opportunities

Careers Fellowship Program

Contact

Office
408 C St. NE
Washington DC, 20002
Phone 202-328-8842
Fax 202-328-8757
Email sojourners@sojo.net
Unless otherwise noted, all material © Sojourners 2025