Ken Ham of Creation Museum Slams Robertson for Dismissing Young Earth Theory
Pat Robertson has been accused by evangelical Christian and creationism proponent Ken Ham of "destructive teaching," after the televangelist stated that the existence of dinosaurs is evidence that Young Earth Creationists are wrong about the planet being 6,000 years old.
Christian Broadcasting Network spokesman Chris Roslan told The Christian Post on Friday, however, that "Dr. Robertson stands by his comments."
The controversy arose earlier this week when Robertson, co-hosting his "The 700 Club" program on CBN, dismissed the theory that the earth is only 6,000 years old, which Ken Ham, CEO and founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum, took offense to.
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"Not only do we have to work hard to not let our kids be led astray by the anti-God teaching of the secularists, we have to work hard to not let them be led astray by compromising church leaders like Pat Robertson," Ham said Wednesday in a post on Facebook.
"Pat Robertson gives more fodder to the secularists. We don't need enemies from without the church when we have such destructive teaching within the church," Ham added in the statement shared with those following his non-profit Christian apologetics ministry on Facebook.
Ham took offense to comments Robertson made earlier this week on his show, when responding to a viewer's question about what to tell children about dinosaurs and the Bible.
"I know people will probably lynch me for this, but Bishop (James) Ussher, God bless him, wasn't inspired by the Lord when he said it all took 6,000 years. It just didn't," Robertson said, referring to the 17th century Irish clergyman who first argued that the earth was created in 4004 B.C.
"You go back in time, you have carbon dating, all these things, and you have the carcasses of dinosaurs frozen in time." Robertson continued. "They are out there. And so there was a time when these giant raptors were on the earth and it was before the time of the Bible. So don't try to cover it up and make like everything was 6,000 years, that's not the Bible."
Ham added in another social media post on Friday that secularists have "loved" Robertson for his comments, which according to the creationist, "undermine God's Word."
"I still shake my head at the number of church leaders who want to appease the secularists and accept their anti-God religion of millions of years and even molecules to man evolution," Ham wrote. "Such leaders (including Pat Robertson) have a lot to answer to the Lord for one day. Such leaders are guilty of putting stumbling blocks in the way of kids and adults in regards to believing God's Word and the gospel."
A debate on creationism and evolution was stirred up earlier this year after scientist Bill Nye released a video titled "Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children", where he argued that it is dangerous to believe the earth is only 6,000 or 10,000 years old.
Answers in Genesis responded by defending the conservative position on creation, however, which states that dinosaurs were created on the same day as Adam and Eve.
"Dinosaurs are used more than almost anything else to indoctrinate children and adults in the idea of millions of years of earth history," Ham writes in article titled "What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?". "However, the Bible gives us a framework for explaining dinosaurs in terms of thousands of years of history, including the mystery of when they lived and what happened to them. Two key texts are Genesis 1:24–25 and Job 40:15–24."
CBN spokesman Roslan pointed CP to the work of Dr. William Lane Craig, a leading theologian, philosopher and founder of ReasonableFaith.org, where he defends Biblical Christianity and argues against the Young Earth Creation theory.
Christians believe in various theories regarding creation, which are outlined in a chart composed by OriginScience.com. Only the Young Earth Creation theory, however, maintains that Earth is 6,000 years old – while others agree with most scientific estimates that put the planet's age closer to 4.5 billion years.
