Oh, hi kids! I have an incredible message for you.

Hey, can someone take Germa back to the petting zoo?

Wow! That looks like fun.

Now, where was I? Oh, yes.

In 2014, kids 12 and under come free.

Hey! Shouldn't the comets be in the Planetarium?

For the entire year, kids 12 and under come free.

Hey, T-Rex! You better get back to the dinosaur den.

As you can see, it's a very exciting place.

Now tell your parents!

Kids 12 and under free in 2014 when accompanied by a paying adult.

We hope to see you soon!

Good evening. I'm pleased to welcome you to Legacy Hall

of the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky

in the metropolitan area of Cincinnati.

I'm Tom Foreman from CNN and I'm pleased to be tonight's

moderator for this Evolution versus Creation debate.

This is a very old question! Where did we come from?

My answer is from Washington this morning by airplane.

(laughter from audience)

But there is a much more profound, longer answer

that people have sought after for a long time.

So tonight's question to be debated is the following:

Is Creation a viable model of origins in today's modern, scientific era?

Our welcome extends to hundreds of thousands of people

who are watching on the internet at debatelive.org.

We're glad you have joined us.

Of course, you are auditory and here,

all the folks who've joined us as well.

We're joined by 70 media representatives from many

of the world's great news organizations.

We're glad to have them here as well.

And now let's welcome our debaters: Mr. Bill Nye and Mr. Ken Ham.

(audience applauds)

We had a coin toss earlier to determine

who would go first of these two men.

The only thing missing was Joe Namath in a fur coat.

But it went very well. Mr. Ham won the coin toss

and he opted to speak first. But first, let me tell you

a little bit about both of these gentlemen.

Mr. Nye's website describes him as a scientist,

engineer, comedian, author, and inventor.

Mr Nye, as you may know, produced a number of award-winning TV shows,

including a program he became so well-known for:

Bill Nye the Science Guy.

While working on the Science Guy show, Mr. Nye won

seven national Emmy awards for writing, performing,

and producing the show. Won 18 Emmys in five years!

In between creating the shows, he wrote five kids books about science,

including his latest title, <i>Bill Nye's Great Big Book of Tiny Germs</i>.

Billy Nye is the host of three television series:

his program, "The 100 Greatest Discoveries"--

it airs on the Science Channel. "The Eyes of Nye"--

airs on PBS stations across the country. He frequenly appears

on interview programs to discuss a variety of science topics.

Mr. Nye serves as Executive Director of the Planetary Society,

the world's largest space interest group.

He is a graduate of Cornell, with a Bachelors

of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Mr. Ken Ham is the president and co-founder of Answers of Genesis,

a bible-defending organization that upholds the authority

of the scriptures from the very first verse.

Mr. Ham is the man behind the popular, high-tech

Creation Museum, where we're holding this debate.

The museum has had 2 million visitors in six years

and has attracted much of the world's media.

The Answers in Genesis website, as well, trafficked

with 2 million visitors alone last month. Mr. Ham is also

a best-selling author, a much in-demand speaker,

and the host of a daily radio feature carried on 700 plus stations.

This is his second public debate on Evolution and Creation.

The first was at Harvard, in the 1990s.

Mr. Ham is a native of Australia. He earned

a Bachelors degree in Applied Science, with an emphasis in

Environmental Biology, from the Queensland's Institute of Technology,

as well as a Diploma of Education at the University

of Queensland in Brisbon, Australia.

And now...Mr. Ham, you opted to go first, so you will

be first with your five minute opening statement.

Well, good evening. I know that not everyone watching

this debate will necessarily agree with what I have to say,

but I'm an Aussie and live over here in America

and they tell me I have an accent and so it doesn't matter

what I say, some people tell me. We just like to hear you saying it.

So...um...I hope you enjoy me saying it anyway.

Well, the debate topic is this: Is Creation

a viable model of origins in today's modern scientific era?

You know, when this was first announced on the internet,

there were lots of statements-- like this one

from the Richard Dawkins Foundation.

"Scientists should not debate Creationists. Period."

And this one from one of the Discovery.com websites.

"Should Scientists Debate Creationists?"

You know, right here I believe there's a gross misrepresentation

in our culture. We're seeing people being indoctrinated

to believe that Creationists can't be Scientists.

I believe it's all a part of secularists hi-jacking the word "Science".

I want you to meet a modern-day scientist who's a Biblical Creationist.

My name is Stuart Burgess.

I'm a professor of Engineering Design at Bristol University in the U.K.

I have published over a 130 scientific papers on

the scientific design in Engineering and Biological systems.

From my research work, I find that the scientific evidence

fully supports Creationism as the best explanation to origins.

I've also designed major parts of space crafts,

launched by ESA and NASA.

So here's a biblical Creationist,

who's a scientist, who's also an inventor.

And I want young people to understand that.

You know, the problem, I believe, is this: we need to define terms correctly.

We need to define Creation/Evolution in regard to origins

and we need to define science. And in this opening statement,

I want to concentrate on dealing with the word "science".

I believe the word "science" has been hijacked by secularists.

Now, what is science?

Well, the origin of the word comes from the Classical Latin "scientia",

which means "to know". And if you look up a dictionary,

it'll say science means "the state of knowing, knowledge".

But there's different types of knowledge and I believe

this is where the confusion lies.

There's experimental or observational sciences, as we call it.

That's using the scientific method, observation,

measurement, experiment, testing. That's what produces

our technology, computers, space craft, jet planes,

smoke detectors, looking at DNA, antibiotics, medicines and vaccines.

You see, all scientists, whether Creationists or Evolutionists,

actually have the same observational or experimental science.

And it doesn't matter whether you're a Creationist or an Evolutionist,

you can be a great scientist.

For instance, he's an atheist, who is a great scientist--

Craig Venter, one of the first researchers to sequence the human genome.

Or Dr. Raymond Damadian. He is a man who invented

the MRI scan and revolutionized medicine. He's a biblical Creationist.

But I want us to also understand molecules-to-man

evolution belief has nothing to do with developing technology.

You see, when we're talking about origins, we're talking about the past.

We're talking about our origins. We weren't there.

We can't observe that, whether it's molecules-to-man evolution,

or whether it's a creation account.

I mean, you're talking about the past.

We'd like to call that Origins or Historical Science,

knowledge concerning the past. Here at the Creation Museum,

we make no apology about the fact that our Origins or Historical science

actually is based upon the biblical account of origins.

Now, when you research science textbooks being used

in public schools, what we found is this:

by and large, they are Origins or Historical Science

based upon man's ideas about the past--for instance, the ideas of Darwin.

And our research has found that public school textbooks

are using the same word "science" for Observational Science

and Historical Science. They arbitrarily define science

as naturalism and outlaw the supernatural.

They present molecules-to-man evolution as fact.

They are imposing, I believe, the religion

of naturalism or atheism on generations of students.

You see, I assert that the word "science" has been hijacked

by secularists in teaching evolution to force the religion

of naturalism on generations of kids.

Secular evolutionists teach that all life developed

by natural processes from some primordial form.

That man is just an evolved animal, which has great bearing

on how we view life and death.

For instance, as Bill states, "It's very hard to accept,

for many of us, that when you die, it's over."

But, you see, the Bible gives us a totally different account of origins,

of who we are, where we came from, the meaning of life, and our future.

That through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin.

But that God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.

Whoever believes in Him should not perish and have everlasting life.

So is creation a viable model of origins in today's modern scientific era?

I say the creation/evolution debate is a conflict

between two philosophical worldviews based on two different accounts

of origins or science beliefs and creation

is the only viable model of historical science confirmed

by observational science in today's modern scientific era.

And that is time. I had the unenviable job of being the time-keeper here.

So I'm like the referee of football they don't like,

but I will periodically, if either one of our debaters

runs over on anything, I will stop them in the name of keeping it fair for all.

Mr. Ham, thank you for your comments. Now it's Mr. Nye's

turn for a five minute opening statement. Mr. Nye.

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

I very much appreciate you including me in your facility here.

Now, looking around the room I think I see just one bow tie.

Is that right? Just one. I'm telling you, once you try it--

oh, there's two! That's great. I started wearing bow ties

when I was young, in high school.

My father showed me how. His father showed him.

And there's a story associated with this, which I find remarkable.

My grandfather was in the rotary, and he attended

a convention in Philadelphia, and even in those days,

at the turn of the last century, people rented tuxedos.

And the tuxedo came with a bow tie--untied bow tie.

So he didn't know how to tie it.

So...wasn't sure what to do, but he just took a chance.

He went to the hotel room next door, knocked on the door,

"Excuse me? Can you help me tie my tie?"

And the guy said, "Sure. Lie down on the bed."

So...my grandfather wanted to have the tie on,

wasn't sure what he was getting into, so he's said

to have lain on the bed and the guy tied a perfect bow tie knot and,

quite reasonably, my grandfather said,

"Thank you. Why'd I have to lie down on the bed?"

The guy said, "I'm an undertaker."

(audience laughs)

It's the only way I know how to do it.

Now that story was presented to me as a true story.

It may or may not be. But it gives you something to think about.

And it's certainly something to remember.

So, here tonight, we're gonna have two stories

and we can compare Mr. Ham's story to the story

from what I will call the outside, from mainstream science.

The question tonight is: Does Ken Ham's Creation Model hold up?

Is it "viable"?

So let me ask you: what would you be doing if you weren't here tonight?

That's right, you'd be home watching CSI.

CSI Petersburg. Is that coming--I think it's coming.

And on CSI, there is no distinction made between

historical science and observational science.

These are construct unique to Mr. Ham.

We don't normally have these anywhere in the world except here.

Natural laws that applied in the past apply now.

That's why they're natural laws. That's why we embrace them.

That's how we made all these discoveries

that enabled all this remarkable technology.

So CSI is a fictional show, but it's based absolutely

on real people doing real work.

When you go to a crime scene and find evidence,

you have clues about the past. And you trust those clues

and you embrace them and you move forward to convict somebody.

Mr. Ham and his followers have this remarkable view

of a worldwide flood that somehow influenced everything that we observe in nature.

A 500 foot wooden boat, eight zookeepers for 14,000 individual animals,

every land, plant in the world under water for a full year?

I ask us all: is that really reasonable?

You'll hear a lot about the Grand Canyon, I imagine, also,

which is a remarkable place and it has fossils.

And the fossils in the Grand Canyon are found in layers.

There's not a single place in the Grand Canyon

where the fossils of one type of animal cross over

into the fossils of another. In other words,

when there was a big flood on the earth, you would expect

drowning animals to swim up to a higher level.

Not any one of them did. Not a single one.

If you could find evidence of that, my friends, you could change the world.

Now, I just wanna remind us all:

there are billions of people in the world who are deeply religious,

who get enriched, who have a wonderful sense of community from their religion.

They worship together, they eat together, they live

in their communities and enjoy each others company. Billions of people.

But these same people do not embrace the extraordinary view

that the earth is somehow only 6,000 years old. That is unique.

And here's my concern: what keeps the United States ahead,

what makes the United States a world leader, is our technology,

our new ideas, our innovations. If we continue to eschew science,

eschew the process and try to divide science

into observational science and historic science,

we are not gonna move forward. We will not embrace natural laws.

We will not make discoveries. We will not invent and innovate and stay ahead.

So if you ask me if Ken Ham's Creation model is viable, I say no.

It is absolutely not viable. So stay with us over the next period

and you can compare my evidence to his. Thank you all very much.

(audience applauds)