And that is precisely my point. Im not sure how Ham will react, but I think I would be able to build bridges with his audience.
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ROFL, no. Ken Ham will show up with a script and he will simply follow it. He will spew a list of claims that’s supposed to show evolution can’t be true and that the Earth is young, and if in return Swamidass wastes his time trying to be conversational instead of providing evidence of his own, and strong rebuttals, it will simply leave the impression that the evolution side had nothing to offer so were trying to change the subject.
Debates are theatrics, and the people who show up to them approach it like a boxing match. They want to see “their guy” win by knockout. And with the mindset you’re demonstrating here above, you’ll get completely annihilated. They’ll be selling the tape with the title “Watch theistic evolutionist try to change the subject and fail to answer any points, this is the best they have to offer”.
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Maybe. But I’m not sure you understand my strategy 
.
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In my (admittedly limited) experience it seems that many TE types who debate YECs tend to focus on the scientific details and be somewhat reticent in proclaiming their faith or engaging with Scripture other than Genesis 1-11. Often the impression tends to be “despite all of these things about evolution and science that I believe, I am also still a Christian!” which can be unconvincing to a staunchly YEC audience. However, I think this is not the case with Josh. He will probably start with talking about Jesus, the Resurrection and 1 Corinthians 15. That’s why it remains interesting to see what would happen if he were to converse with some of these hard-nosed YECs.
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It seemed to discombobulate Ann Gauger.
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Don’t forget, we have the dialogue with Behe coming up really soon, February 20th.
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Honestly, @swamidass , if you don’t prepare for his personality style by watching his videos extensively, you’re too nice a guy to make much progress “against” the king of smarminess (I say that with as much charity as I can muster for this Christian brother of ours).
He will throw out one false litmus test after another, and you’d better be ready for each and every one of them.
You’d be better off giving a testimony of your journey from YEC to… whatever you want to call yourself now. I know you’re up to the challenge, but I’m not sure you’ve calculated how meager the results are likely to be. Better to start out with a more reasonable, less smarmy, YEC notable, first. I do not say this because Ham is formidable, but because he’s intractable, and frankly, barely evidences the fruit of the Spirit as I know it. My two cents!
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Did you watch the Nye-Ham debate? Ham came up with a few arguments, rather standard ones. Nye refuted Ham’s points fairly well. Ham paid no attention to that, and just concentrated on repeating that this was what the Bible said, and therefore it was what happened. Nye won on points, I would say, but it was a hands-down victory for Ham, because he was appealing to his base, begging them for money, and they came through, massively. The blaze of publicity helped establish Ham as a YEC superstar.
So what would happen if you asked Ham to discuss the logic of his arguments about what the Bible says? Same thing, he would reject your arguments out of hand (or perhaps “out of Ham”) and just keep hammering away on his themes. No matter how illogical you showed him to be, he would not be fazed by that at all. However the blaze of publicity would be much less, as you are much less well-known than Nye. So as several people here have suggested, Ham would not agree to do this, and certainly not as a “discussion” that is not a debate.
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You are probably right. I myself suggested that he would not likely do this.
I would be interested in seeing a Ken Ham v. Todd Wood debate. Wood is also a YEC, but he is much more honest when it comes to the evidence. It would be interesting to see one YEC correct another when it comes to many of the common YEC tropes.
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That would be very interesting.
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That would definitely deserve top-billing as a Pay-Per-View event.
Of course, Ken Ham would never want his constituents to know that someone like Todd Wood exists—let alone have opportunity to hear what he says.
I’ve always felt sad for Dr. Wood in how he has had to struggle to be heard within the YEC community. He lost his position at Bryan College due to budget cutbacks and he’s had to work hard to survive in his own struggling, small ministry niche.
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I don’t think it will happen, but I think it would not be interesting. Todd Wood honestly admits that the scientific evidence is against him, but he does declare belief in more or less the same things Ken Ham does. So once he said that, Ken Ham could just say that the matter was settled and go back to Ham-mering away at his usual preachings. The last thing Ham would ever engage in would be an honest consideration of the evidence against him. There Todd Wood would indeed be interesting, but Ken Ham would never give him the chance to go there.
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Probably not, and definitely not if Ham gets to choose the venue, audience, and control the rights to re-use.
Somewhere on the Internets is a recollection of Duane Gish losing a debate to a scientist. Instead of trying to rebut the Gish Gallop, the debater declared that science speaks for itself and doesn’t need defense, then went on to attack the … unsound … theories of Flood Geology. Gish was unprepared to play defense and lost. Gish must have come up with a backup plan, because this loss didn’t end his career.
I’ve seen Ham speak, and nothing he says about his Creation Science withstands even casual scrutiny, but his audience eats it up. It would be difficult to engage him where he wouldn’t just speak past you to his supporters.
Oh! You want @AllenWitmerMiller!! 
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Whoever the ideal opponent may be, we already know what Ham will say about them - that they have “compromised” the Bible - and Ham will then discount anything they might have to say. Countering this might need more than a few gut-punches, and Ham could claim they are just a hateful atheist AND compromised.
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Sure, but my impression is that Josh’s focus on the Resurrection and Jesus really undercuts this argument by a lot. You can’t just keep insisting someone is an atheist when they confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is why Josh has been allowed to speak to YEC youth camps. Even fundamentalist YEC evangelicals seem to know, deep down, that these two ideas are more important to their faith than the age of the Earth or even evolution. Josh is a living proof that someone who believes in evolution can also fervently believe in the works and person of Jesus and the need to spread the gospel.
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Yes, battles are not won on the ground of the opponent’s choosing.
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I agree, and Ham will attack Joshua harshly to try to discredit him in the eyes of his followers.
If past behavior is any indication, that is exactly what Ham will do. 
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Will attack me or will he ignore me?