I loved Brad Warner’s discussion of the Bill Nye and Ken Ham “Creationism vs Evolution” debate. Especially this section:

But for me the crux of the debate came at around 2:03:25. After over two hours of back-and-forth that was largely just plain silly sounding to me (Nye made sense, Ham spewed nonsense) my ears pricked up when Ham said, “I have a mystery. You (Bill Nye) talk about the joy of discovery. But you also say that when you die it’s over and that’s the end of it. But if when you die it’s over and you don’t even remember you were here, what’s the point of the joy of discovery anyway? I mean ultimately. You won’t ever know you were here and no one who ever knew you will know you were here ultimately, so what’s the point anyway?”

To me, that was the heart of the debate on the theological side. I fully comprehend exactly what Ham is saying here. After making no sense at all for a solid two hours, he finally said something that revealed what was actually going on for him, and for most of those who fight against science. This says all you need to know about why there is a Creation Science Museum at all, why some people don’t want evolution in school text books, why the attacks on September 11, 2001 happened, why the Tokyo subway gas attacks happened, why there are UFO cults, why religious people all over the world seem to be going bananas at the moment.

We are all afraid of death. We all want someone to tell us we’re not really going to die. Many of us will throw out all other logic in an effort to believe we will live forever. We will attack those who threaten that belief. And there may be completely logical reasons to do so, or at least it can seem that way.