The showdown between Bill Nye and Ken Ham over the validity of Creationism in schools occurred last week in a southern U.S. location not far from a dinosaur with a saddle(yes, that actually exist). I encourage everyone to watch it on YouTube to hear their specific arguments. Their dichotomies were fairly straight forward Nye presented a Discovery/Authority dichotomy to Hams Authority/Ignorance view. Notice Authority is on the negative spectrum for Nye and the opposite for Ham, displaying how the same concept can have differing values.
Discovery/Authority:
Nye described a great many positive attributes to scientific discovery that is directly stifled by the authoritarian view of Creationism. Once an answer is found in science, no matter who discovered it, that view can be modified, built upon and even disregarded upon new repeatable evidence. The top down authoritarian view, places borders around discovery, confining it to a small insular view that will retard our progress and stagnate our nation.
Authority/Ignorance:
Ham views the height of virtue and truth is Authority (his is the Christian god and scripture). Without that base of assumed truth, discovery has value but only for issues and information that has not been eternally fixed by his authoritarian. This simplifies his view of the world and shrinks his perceived ignorance with this assumption. When Nye admits ignorance on a question, Ham is quick to quote or equivocate his unfalsifiable authoritarian. To Ham, ignorance is not acceptable when convenient truths are fixed and unchanging.
Conclusion :
The absence of predictive value and evidence forces me to disregard the authoritarian view, by creationist, that is required to follow their logic. I believe creationist are being logical in their view but it involves to many assumptions to be an objective view, especially promoted in our school systems. Science had once been in a similar state of authoritarianism, to other scientist in the past, and had to overcome that failing to become a (mostly) objective discipline. Unfortunately Creationism is bordered by dogma where it will perpetually stagnate.
Dichotomy Blog
Bill Nye/Ken Ham Debate Dichotomies
The showdown between Bill Nye and Ken Ham over the validity of Creationism in schools occurred last week in a southern U.S. location not far from a dinosaur with a saddle(yes, that actually exist). I encourage everyone to watch it on YouTube to hear their specific arguments. Their dichotomies were fairly straight forward Nye presented a Discovery/Authority dichotomy to Hams Authority/Ignorance view. Notice Authority is on the negative spectrum for Nye and the opposite for Ham, displaying how the same concept can have differing values.
Discovery/Authority:
Nye described a great many positive attributes to scientific discovery that is directly stifled by the authoritarian view of Creationism. Once an answer is found in science, no matter who discovered it, that view can be modified, built upon and even disregarded upon new repeatable evidence. The top down authoritarian view, places borders around discovery, confining it to a small insular view that will retard our progress and stagnate our nation.
Authority/Ignorance:
Ham views the height of virtue and truth is Authority (his is the Christian god and scripture). Without that base of assumed truth, discovery has value but only for issues and information that has not been eternally fixed by his authoritarian. This simplifies his view of the world and shrinks his perceived ignorance with this assumption. When Nye admits ignorance on a question, Ham is quick to quote or equivocate his unfalsifiable authoritarian. To Ham, ignorance is not acceptable when convenient truths are fixed and unchanging.
Conclusion :
The absence of predictive value and evidence forces me to disregard the authoritarian view, by creationist, that is required to follow their logic. I believe creationist are being logical in their view but it involves to many assumptions to be an objective view, especially promoted in our school systems. Science had once been in a similar state of authoritarianism, to other scientist in the past, and had to overcome that failing to become a (mostly) objective discipline. Unfortunately Creationism is bordered by dogma where it will perpetually stagnate.
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Leave a comment | tags: creationism, debate, dichotomy, Ham, Nye, science | posted in Opinion, Religious/Atheist, Social Commentary