Ken Ham

Ken Ham on Revelation TV

Details of Ham's background as a professional creationist appear on several sections of our wiki. Most notably these are the sections on his past associate, John Mackay, his former personal secretary Margaret Buchanan and Creation Ministries International.

Ken Ham, Chief Executive of the American-based Answers in Genesis, a Christian fundamentalist movement, appeared on Revelation TV on 26th April 2006, In a one hour interview with presenter and station manager/owner Howard Conder, Ham discussed his views on religion and science and answered a number of live questions from the station's viewers.

Revelation TV is a British Christian Evangelical TV channel noted for its adherence to dispensationalist and creationist (YEC) views (1).

Unfortunately, technical problems with the transmission of the programme, World in Focus, meant it was basically unwatchable, Indeed, the show had to switch to another channel, r music TV (also controlled by Revelation TV).

Your correspondent eventually saw the programme in full the following day when it was retransmitted on Revelation TV. Ironically, Revelation TV also interviewed another YECer earlier in the day of the 26th April. This was Vance Nelson, a Canadian who is involved in the controversial tour of the UK by Australian creationist John Mackay. However, I was not aware of this at the time and therefore missed it.

I assume that the Nelson appearance was done at short notice, possibly in connection with apparently substantial problems arising on the Mackay tour.

Revelation TV is well know for its support of the YEC viewpoint and, not surprisingly, Conder gave Ham an easy time. Indeed, Ham only faced one, slightly adversarial, telephone call and that was from a man (they were all men) in Northern Ireland who wanted his views on Intelligent Design.

Ham's basic proposition became very evident as the show continued. Armed with a bible, Ham repeatedly insisted that this was the source of all truth and that anything that contradicted it was wrong. It was very clear than Ham believed in an absolute literal interpretation of the bible.

Ham also repeatedly rubbished anyone who believed in the Theory of Evolution. Not only was Ham shooting the message (that there is lots of evidence for Evolutionary Theory) but also, repeatedly, the messenger.

He attacked the current Archbishop of Canterbury; he attacked the 19th Century Anglican clergy for accepting the the world was millions of years old and he argued that the clergy had hijacked the idea for their own purposes.

He accused Australian state schools and the media of brainwashing Australian children about the Theory of Evolution, although, as is so often the case with those that make this extravagant claim, he failed to show who did the brainwashing, how and when (it takes a lot of preparation, effort and skills to brainwash a person). Moreover, there is no known case ever of someone being brainwashed to believe in Evolutionary Theory anywhere in the world, ever.

Ham also accused the schools of indoctrinating children with the Theory of Evolution, again, without showing evidence. Indoctrination is an extremely strong, emotive, word and Ham clearly knows how to use it to advance his case.

However, the institutional attacks didn't stop there – they extended to the Natural History, the Geological and Science Museums in South Kensington in London. (Ham seemed to be confused which was which – the Geological Museum is (now) part of the Natural History Museum, not the Science Museum).

Ham rubbished the Geological Museum's Darwin exhibition and accused the Natural History Museum of being fraudulent. It is indoctrinating the public, he claimed.

Note the technique, time and time again, of demonising decent people who can't answer back. It may be good rhetorical skill to advance “the cause”, honest and decent it is not.

Ham argued that the general public had been “misled” over Evolutionary Theory. Again, behind such rhetoric is the underlying claim that those who do not subscribe to Ham's religious views are either stupid or frauds.

It is clear in Ham's world that the public are easily duped by “experts” and he knows better, even though his scientific credentials are pretty slim. He was originally a school teacher by profession.

Ham is also certain that what he calls “Evolutionists” do not want people to believe in the bible because this would undermine their position. Such astonishing and unfounded claims are easily stated and unchallenged when you have a presenter like Conder who is both onside with Ham, and by his own admission, almost completely ignorant about science.

Ham also managed to get in ad hominem attacks on Professor Steve Jones (who he tried to make a fool of) and Professor Richard Dawkins, who he described as an atheist (so what?) and whose understanding of the Theory of Evolution was contemptuously dismissed as “blind faith”.

Having heard him speak, I concluded that he didn't demonstrate any such evidence at all. Basically his rhetoric chopped and changed between stating that the scientists were wrong and that the bible had it all right and couldn't possibly be wrong.

Underneath Ham is playing a very simple minded game: the only valid science is that which proves his personal religious opinions are right. Anything or anyone that contradicts his religious views must therefore be wrong.

That includes most religious people, virtually all scientists and all believers in Intelligent Design.

All of Ham's “scientific” arguments can be found on the Answers in Genesis web site (http://www.answersingenesis.org) and are all fully debunked at http://www.talkorigins.org and elsewhere, ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

Ham clearly has as his target audience the scientifically illiterate; that his own arguments are just wrong all of the time doesn't register with such an audience. It doesn't matter, therefore, that they don't stack up or aren't even in agreement with other creationists.

He was seated during the programme so I could not judge how tall he is. However, Ham has a beard, looks to be relatively thin for his age but doesn't appear to have any dress sense for a public figure. His shirt was a darkish green and his trousers a khaki colour. The tie was black/grey (no colour, in other words).

Ham kept picking up the bible; I would normally take this as a stage prop for someone long experienced in public performance and presentations but, in this case, it looked almost like an emotional prop – the prop of a man who presents personal certainty to the world but, underneath, is covering something up (knowingly or otherwise). It just didn't feel or look right.

In style, Ham has a quick answer or response for everything (he's clearly a skilled performer).

Areas not Addressed by Conder: My view is that Conder deliberately gave Ham an easy time. Indeed, Ham was able to plug the recent Swanwick fundamentalist conference in which he was actively involved, claiming that 400 people turned up (in what appeared to be footage of the event, there were, indeed, a lot of people there). (2)

However, Conder asked no questions at all about the huge rifts in Answers in Genesis which has resulted in the split from its parent organisation in Australia. Nor did Conder ask about the competition in the UK from John Mackay's Creation Research movement, even though Mackay and Ham had started out together.

Notes: John Mackay is due to appear on revelation TV's World in Focus programme at 9.00pm on 28th June 2006. Mackay is a past colleague of Ham but, nowadays, runs his own YEC operation called Creation Research.

(1) YEC is the acronym for Young Earth Creationist(s). These are extreme Christian fundamentalists who take a strict, literal, interpretation of the bible and believe that the world was created between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. They also believe in the story of Noah's Ark and a global flood as absolute fact. As the Theory of Evolution contradicts their religious beliefs, they both dismiss it and have an alternative “scientific” explanation which is, they argue, in accordance with their religious views. Almost all scientists and many mainstream clergymen consider YECs to be dangerous. About 45% of the population of the United States are YECs.

(2) The three day conference was called “Creation Without Compromise” and was held on 21st-23rd April 2006 at a fundamentalist conference centre at Swanwick in Derbyshire. Presumably Ham was able to appear on Revelation TV because he was in the UK to speak at this conference.

© Roger Stanyard, 2006