At the Ark Encounter, when Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis asked Bill Nye the Science Guy if they could be friends, the Science Guy respectfully said “No.”
It was perhaps the most surreal moment so far at the newly opened Ark Encounter, which has earned attention from media across the globe.
Ironically, there was no media present for this moment between Ham and Nye, who was invited to the ark by the AiG director. The exchange, however, was witnessed by Jim Helton, director of the Tri-State Freethinkers, which has earned its fair share of media attention as it tries to push back against AiG’s replica of Noah’s biblical ark in Williamston, Ky.
Ken Ham through a blog post also formally invited Helton and the Tri-State Freethinkers to the July 7 opening day ceremonies. Helton recently told CityBeat that the world is “laughing out loud” at the ark and its ignorance.
“Bill did tell Ken that if he were drowning, he would save him,” Helton says. “Bill basically said, ‘I can acknowledge you as an acquaintance.’ ”
As the rest of Nye’s tour of the ark continued, Helton says, “It basically turned into the Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate two.”
The polar opposites debated for the first time at AiG’s Creation Museum in 2014.
AiG spokesperson Melany Ethridge says Nye was a guest of Ham’s, but at the beginning of the tour the Science Guy “went into attack mode.”
“Rather than allowing Ken to summarize the contents of the Ark as they walked through,” says Ethridge, “Mr. Nye, with his own video crew in tow, had a different agenda: to debate Ken again and to put it in a future film. He did not want to hear Ken present what we believe. In that sense, he was not the best of guests.”
Nevertheless, the Tri-State Freethinkers said the ark was not completed by opening day. Ethridge insisted it was complete, but like all good museums, will never truly be finished.
Helton says during their protest on opening day they were followed by six documentary film crews. Besides them, Helton has given dozens of interviews to local, national and international media.
“This was our goal — we wanted to change the story,” he says. “Our main purpose was to draw media attention that this is not a tourist attraction but a church.”
One funded with millions of Kentucky taxpayer dollars, he adds.
AiG says the worldwide attention — even when critical — has indeed been extraordinary.
“AiG is very happy with the 30,000 guests who have turned out for the first six days of the opening,” Ethridge says. “Visitors are coming from all over the country and several nations. Group bookings beyond the summer are looking solid for the fall.”
