Bill Nye "The Science Guy" and Creation Museum founder Ken Ham carried their evolution/creationism debate onto CNN Tuesday night as Piers Morgan tried to bring global warming into the fray.
Nye and Ham debated Tuesday night at the Petersburg, Kentucky-based museum, then appeared jointly on
"Piers Morgan Live."
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Though Ham said that climate change was not a part of the debate, Morgan queried him, "Who is responsible for this massive snowstorm raging across America: God or science?"
Ham didn't answer directly, and Morgan asked whether he thinks it is alarming that the percentage of people who deny global warming is on the rise.
"I didn't even tell you what I believe about global warming," Ham responded.
"I was under the assumption that you don't believe in global warming as an entity," Morgan said.
"Well, no, I've never said that," Ham said. "Where have I said that?"
Ham said he believes that climates do change and that there should be investigation into what is happening and why.
"The Bible tells us that the world is running down," Ham said, "so we do have extremes in weather patterns today." Climate change has existed since "the flood of Noah's day," he told Morgan.
Nye said he is skeptical the world is winding down because of punishment from a deity and he does not believe a "great flood" occurred 4,000 years ago.
Morgan next asked Ham if he believes that dinosaurs and man co-existed, as is depicted in his museum. Ham said he does; his beliefs are based on the biblical account that all land animals were made on the sixth day of Creation.
"You don't find dinosaur bones with labels on them," Ham said, questioning how anyone could know a dinosaur bone is 70 million years old.
Morgan noted that Nye was looking at Ham "with a look of vague bafflement on your face."
Nye said the debate had been "very respectful" and both men gave it their best. He said he participated because he fears the next generation of scientists won't understand that scientific uncertainty isn't the same as scientific doubt.
Both scientists and people of faith were wary of the debate even being held. Scientists feared it would give creationism equal standing with evolutionary theory in the minds of the public. Christian groups worried that observers would think all people of faith reject science, making for an either/or proposition.
The Creation Museum said the event sold 800 tickets, and more than a million were expected to watch via a live Internet steam. The Associated Press reported that some of those in attendance wore "Bill Nye is my home boy" T-shirts, and that one fan wore a bow tie and Nye's signature lab coat.
Nye was host of the educational TV program "Bill Nye the Science Guy" in the 1990s.
"I just want to remind us all there are billions of people in the world who are deeply religious, who get enriched by the wonderful sense of community by their religion," Nye said during the debate. "But these same people do not embrace the extraordinary view that the Earth is somehow only 6,000 years old."
Nye has previously urged parents who doubt evolution not to pass those beliefs on to their children.
"Creation is the only viable model of historical science confirmed by observational science in today's modern scientific era," Ham told the debate audience. He also introduced scientists who he said were also creationists.
"I believe the word 'science' has been high-jacked by secularists," he said.