On Tuesday, Feb. 4, a debate was live streamed on YouTube. According to the organization holding the event, over 3 million people watched the highly anticipated discussion unfold.

The debate pitted Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” against leading creationist Ken Ham. Ham requested this debate with Nye after hearing Nye’s remarks about creation theories and how he doesn’t believe they should be taught to children.

Nye traveled to Kentucky, where the Creation Museum was being readied for one of the biggest events it is likely to ever house.

I was fortunate enough to catch nearly the entire debate live, and it was incredibly interesting. Being a fairly structured debate, each man was given a time limit to present their case and then to rebut and counter rebut. As much as this is needed for a fair debate, I was left wishing they would continue indefinitely, fleshing out each point in their arguments.

I also found the debate fairly easy to understand, and each debater cracked a few jokes, and the moderator, Tom Foreman from CNN, managed to keep the event lighthearted. This topic often incites heated arguments, but both men kept an attitude of professionalism and respect throughout the debate.

The results of the debate, according to the viewers, seemed pretty clear. Nye was definitely given more support, however, the debate didn’t exactly change too many minds. Nye’s views of evolution and origin are supported by a much larger group than Ham’s views, so Nye’s seemingly unanimous victory is not as extreme as one might first assume.

Both Nye and Ham faced criticism from their own side on the issue. Nye’s very involvement in the debate was criticized, some claimed it gave support to creation as a legitimate theory, and still more said that his involvement would attract attention and support for the opposing side.

Ham faced some criticism for straying away from the true topic and explaining some of the basic tenets of Christianity.

Even though I think Ham presented some very strong arguments that went uncontested, these details were not enough to overcome Nye’s strong central argument and his undeniably convincing arguments that he used to conclude his portion of the debate section of the event.

Creationism is simply a difficult view to argue for when the opposition does not accept the existence of an omnipotent God.

Whatever your views may be, the debate is definitely worth watching. The video is about two hours and 45 minutes long, but it really is interesting and compelling throughout.

Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kgvhG3AkI