Televangelist Pat Robertson has scolded Creation Museum founder Ken Ham and told him to stop insulting Christians by interpreting the Bible literally to explain how the Earth was formed.
Ham, the founding president and CEO of Answers in Genesis,
debated Bill Nye "The Science Guy" on Tuesday over creationism and evolution. The two-plus hour discussion pitted the evolutionary theory against the notion that God created the Earth and all its creatures in six days.
Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
Robertson called Ham's creationist notions "nonsense" on the Wednesday episode of his TV show "The 700 Club," taking issue with Ham's belief that the world is only 6,000 years old.
Robertson said that Ham was using incorrect information from Bishop James Ussher, who lived in the 16th and 17th centuries, and based his creation date on his "knowledge of the Bible, the ancient Persian, Greek, and Roman civilizations, astronomy, ancient calendars, and chronology,"
according to The Christian Post.
"There ain't no way that's possible," Robertson said. "To say that it all came about in 6,000 years is just nonsense and I think it's time we come off of that stuff and say this isn't possible. We've got to be realistic that the dating of Bishop Ussher just doesn't comport with anything that's found in science, and you can't just totally deny the geological formations that are out there."
"Let's be real. Let's not make a joke of ourselves," he added.
This isn't the first time that Robertson and Ham have disagreed. In 2012, Ham criticized Robertson for doubting the young-earth theory on his Facebook page, claiming the televangelist was spreading "destructive teachings within the church."
Robertson told The Christian Post that the evolutionary theory doesn't sway his opinions in there being a higher power.
"I don't believe in so-called evolution as non-theistic," he said. "I believe that God started it all and he's in charge of all of it. That doesn't hurt my faith at all."
Nye, Robertson, and Ham aside, the debate on the topic will likely continue.
A Pew Research Center poll released in December 2013 found that 33 percent of Americans do not believe in the theory of evolution.
Editor's Note: Do You Support Obamacare? Vote in Urgent National Poll