by Randy Speck

A second unscheduled “debate” between Ken Ham, who built the new Ark Encounter at Williamstown, Kentucky, and Bill Nye “the Science Guy,” best known as the host of a children’s science show that ran on PBS from 1993 to 1998, occurred this past Friday, July 8, 2015 at The Ark Encounter in front of hundreds of people, including a group from Clear Fork Baptist Church in Albany.

The first unscheduled “debate” occurred at Ham’s previous project, the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, seven miles west of the Cincinnati airport, in November of 2014.

The Ark is part of a ministry that teaches Old Testament stories as true historical events. Nye had previously called The Ark “a danger to the nation’s science education” and had said he hoped it would never be built, because it would “indoctrinate children into this extraordinary and outlandish, unscientific point of view.” The Ark opened to the public last Thursday, July 7, 2016.

A few weeks ago, Ham had publicly invited Nye to tour the life-size Ark that opened July 7, and offered to personally show him through. Nye accepted.

Apparently Nye is the host of an upcoming science documentary and wanted to bring along a video crew as they walked through the Ark. It really turned into an almost two hour debate as they walked through all three decks of the Ark.

Both Ham and Nye agreed to video the entire discussion as they walked. Numerous children, teens and adults swarmed around them as they passionately interacted as the audience grew.

Like the previous day, which was opening day, there were thousands of visitors at The Ark Encounter on Friday and a large group of them had a unique opportunity they will never forget. Nye challenged Ham about the content of many of the exhibits, and Ham challenged Nye about what he claimed and what he believed. It was a clash of world views. At one point Ham asked Nye: “What would happen to you when you die?” He said “When you die “you’re done.” Ham then asked Nye why he was concerned about what is being taught at The Ark if when we die we’re “done.”

The Ark Encounter is four levels, including the ground floor. The exchange between Ham and Nye moved from level to level. It began on the third level where, coincidentally, a few from Clear Fork were at.

According to one member, Randy Speck, “Three of us stumbled upon the exchange minutes after it began in front of one of the exhibits. We were right there on it. We were checking it out when suddenly the crowd was being pushed away from the exhibit and into a more open area on the third level.”

As you can see in the photo, which was taken by Speck, he and a couple more people in his group were within arms reach of Nye and Ham and were able to both photograph and record what they saw and heard.

“We couldn’t believe our ears when we heard Nye actually say to Ham, ‘It’s not crazy to believe we descended from Martians,’ ” Speck said.

“Ham responded by asking Nye if it was ‘crazy to believe we descended from Adam and Eve.’ The interaction between Ham, Nye and the crowd lasted two hours,” Speck said. “Young people also came up and spoke with Nye and asked him questions, and challenged him. Specifically, we witnessed an exchange between Nye and a young lady from Iowa. One member of our group even asked Nye a couple of questions.”

Ham is also the founder of Answers in Genesis, an apologetics ministry dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. When Ham mentioned AiG’s PhD scientists, Nye said they were all incompetent, so Ham encouraged Nye to speak with them. Ham had opportunity to share the gospel with Nye a number of times as they strolled through The Ark.

As they made their way through the first floor in front of life-size models of Noah and his family who were depicted praying, Ham asked Nye if he would mind if he prayed, and could he pray for him. Nye responded that Ham could do whatever he wanted, that he couldn’t stop him. So while a large group of people were gathered around, Creation Museum and Ark Encounter creator, Ken Ham, publicly prayed for Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Ham asked Nye if they could be friends. Nye replied that they could be acquaintances with mutual respect, but not friends.

Ham later wrote that he never expected their meeting would turn into a two hour debate, but he said sometimes those spontaneous happenings can be very fruitful and exciting. Ham said it was so fitting that with the opening of The Ark Encounter, this massive ship, is being used to witness to such a well known personality. The meeting between Ham and Nye ended with a friendly handshake.

In a Washington Post article entitled, “A flagship for a biblical worldview,” written by Emily McFarlan Miller and published in July 8th, Ken Ham describes The Ark as being 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high, based on measurements God gave Noah, in cubits, in the biblical account of the great flood. More than 8,000 people got a first look inside the full-scale reproduction at The Ark Encounter on July 7th, the date The Ark and the 800-acre theme park officially opened to the public in Williamstown, 45 minutes from another Answers in Genesis attraction, the Creation Museum at Petersburg.

According to the Washington Post story, Ham called The Ark Encounter’s opening “a historic event in Christiandom” and predicted that it would become “One of the greatest Christian outreaches of this era of history.” The park’s centerpiece has three decks of exhibits explaining Answers in Genesis’s views of the biblical flood account and life-size figures depicting what an existence on the ark might have been like for Noah and his family – an extravaganza Ham described as “beyond Hollywood.” The park also has a two-story restaurant, aerial zip-line cables and the Ararat Ridge Zoo with goats, ponies, emus and other animals. The next phase of park construction is likely to include a walled city “That takes you back to Noah’s day” with shops, restaurants and street performers that visitors will walk through as they approach The Ark.

But the Ark Encounter is “not just for entertainment,” said Ham, president and chief executive of Answers in Genesis. It’s to “proclaim God’s word and the gospel,” he said. It’s meant to show – in keeping with the Answers in Genesis Ministry’s focus on such issues as creation, evolution, science and the age of Earth – that the biblical flood account is historic and that the Bible is historically and scientifically true. “When people say, ‘What are you really doing here? What statement are you making?’ well, you know, in a world that we see becoming very secularized before our eyes, it’s really time for Christians to do something of this size, of this quality, that competes with the Disneys and the Universals to get a message to the world,” he said.

The park’s opening day – July 7 or 7/7 – was chosen because Genesis 7:7 reads, “And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.” In 2014, the theme park was awarded, then denied, Kentucky tax incentives worth an estimated $18 million over 10 years. The incentives were lost because Answers in Genesis requires employees to sign a statement of belief, but in January, it won a lawsuit to have them restored. The first phase of construction at the park cost $100 million (total costs will reach more than $150 million), funded through bonds and $33 million in private donations, according to Ham. The Answers in Genesis president is adamant that no taxpayer funds were used for construction. Rather, he said, tax incentives will provide rebates on sales tax generated by the park now that it’s opened.

America’s Research Group estimated the park could attract as many as 2.2 million visitors in its first year. ARG’s research also indicates that more than 40 percent of those visitors may not even be Christians.

Bill Nye, “The Science Guy” , left, and Ken Ham, whose brainchild attraction, The Ark Encounter, opened last week, are shown above as they toured the new attraction in Williamstown, Kentucky. Several members of the local church congregation of Clear Fork Baptist Church, were also touring the new attraction last week when Nye and Ham were debating the principles behind The Ark Encounter attraction. Photo by Randy Speck

Members of the Clear Fork Baptist Church are shown in front of the lifesized replica of Noah’s Ark last week. The new attraction opened to the public last week after a long and often controversial building process near Williamstown, Kentucky.

Photo by Stacy Byers Smith