by Susan Trollinger and William Trollinger

When Bill Nye (the Science Guy) debated Ken Ham (CEO of Answers in Genesis, parent organization of the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter), many commentators said that Ham won the debate just by being on stage with Bill Nye and looking like a good guy who wants to spread the Christian message.

According to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter, to be a good Christian one needs to read Genesis as an accurate historical account. That means believing that Adam and Eve were real, historic people; that the whole universe was created in six 24-hour days about 6,000 years ago; that dinosaurs walked the Earth with humans; and that Noah’s flood was a global catastrophe that accounts for all evidence for an old Earth.

But Noah’s flood doesn’t just explain away the evidence of an old Earth. According to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter, the global flood also provides instruction for salvation.

During the flood, the waters rose above every mountain top and remained that high for weeks. No land creature could survive that flood, unless they were on the Ark. But only eight people were on the Ark. And, according to a placard at Ark Encounter, there were as many as 20 billion people living on Earth when the flood waters started to rise.  

Why did only eight people survive?

According to Answers in Genesis, God saved Noah (and his family) because he was a righteous man. The rest of humanity was not. Not a single one—not one adult, youth, child, or infant—was worthy of God’s grace.

The message for us? We either get right with a God who saw fit to destroy 20 billion people or prepare for the consequences. In the end, this is Ken Ham’s Christian message.