Skeptic vs creationist: ‘The Great Genesis Debate’ of 2003

by Michael Matthews, AIG–US

23 March 2004

AiG does not usually participate in debates (our primary ministry is to arm and equip the church, challenging compromise and helping Christians to ‘give an answer’). But we decided to accept a public challenge by an outspoken evolutionist and ‘Skeptic of the Year’—science reporter and self-professed atheist, Dr Paul Willis.¹ Over 1,100 people turned out to hear what was billed as ‘The Great Debate.’

The debate

Debate topic: ‘That scientific evidence supports a literal Genesis.’

Sponsor: Northside Christian Church, Brisbane.  The moderator was Dr Robert Herschel.  See Summary of the debate arguments.

The debaters

Affirmative: Dr Carl Wieland, a former medical doctor, now the CEO of Answers in Genesis–Australia, joint CEO of AiG-International and founding editor of Creation magazine.

Negative: Dr Paul Willis, an evolutionary paleontologist, now a science reporter/broadcaster with the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC).

Feedback

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE	Listen to an audio portion of the debate.
The Genesis Debate 2003: Wieland vs Willis Dr Paul Willis, paleontologist and former winner of the Skeptic of the Year award, was keen to debate a creationist and ‘knock holes’ in creationary thinking. Hear how Answers in Genesis’ Dr Carl Wieland handled the ‘best evidence’ that this ‘champion’ of evolution could muster. ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY

Among those not already completely convinced of creation, a significant number said that they had moved towards being more creationist.  For an analysis of the audience questionnaires, see Reaction to the debate.

The feedback we received from our greatly encouraged supporters has been overwhelmingly positive.  Here’s a sample, which might give some idea of why it is AiG that is marketing the recordings of the debate, not the Australian Skeptics who backed Willis as their chosen ‘champion of evolution’.

‘Dear staff/team at AIG:
I just wanted to say how much I appreciated the “The Great Debate” of 24 August 2003. If Paul Willis represents the best “ammunition” evolutionary atheists can throw at AIG, then the Skeptic Society is in serious trouble indeed! There can be no doubt that Paul Willis was comprehensively thrashed in the debate … . Carl demolished every argument this so-called champion of evolution could throw at him.

‘To be frank—Willis’s performance was farcical; e.g. his citation of the Coconino Sandstone formation and the “fossilized forests” at Joggins, Nova Scotia as “proof” of an old earth. I was particularly impressed that Carl demolished the above two examples of Willis, since Willis has a doctorate in paleontology and one would expect that he would have made his strongest points around geological/fossil evidence. And yet, by EVOLUTIONISTS’ own admissions, the Coconino Sandstone formation is “yesterday’s geology”, and the Joggins forest example is precisely what we find in the Mount Saint Helens/Spirit Lake region (I am sure that evolutionists would love to date the geological data in the Mount Saint Helens/Spirit Lake region to ‘millions of years’, but I guess that even they are forced to accept that since this event was observed in 1980, it is not millions of years old).

‘Overall, Willis simply did not even TRY to rebut most of Carl’s points (I am sure much to the embarrassment of his fellow Skeptics in the audience); let alone refute them. On the other hand, Carl easily refuted most of Willis’s points (and the ones he didn’t refute were due to the sheer limited time factor).²

‘ … Willis claimed that the audience “had not heard one piece of evidence for a literal Genesis creation” … Carl pointed out, in reference to the helium in zircons (if significant amounts of helium are still in “ancient” granite zircons, then these crystals (and since this is Precambrian basement granite, by implication the whole earth) could not be older than between 4,000 and 14,000 years), if that is not evidence for a recent creation then I don’t know what is!

‘I would be most interested to know how the Skeptics reported on the outcome of this debate … they were humiliated by Carl and I personally doubt they will be coming back for another shot (at least in a public forum where both sides have the opportunity to present their cases) at AIG for a long time.

‘Congratulations to Carl and all the staff at AIG for putting the Skeptics firmly in their place!’

AiG is uncomfortable with self-promotion, but is happy if our efforts help people to defend their faith and uphold the Bible against the increasingly common attacks of our day.  Encouraged by such positive responses from many quarters, we’ve recently made the debate available worldwide in our bookstore. Listen to an audio portion of the debate.

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Recommended resources

• Creation magazine
• The Answers Book
• Scopes: Creation on Trial
• The Genesis Record
• Refuting Compromise
• Did God Use Evolution?

Notes

1. Willis had, by his own description, previously ‘crashed’ an AiG meeting in Sydney, Australia.  After publicly haranguing and abusing the speaker (and AiG/creationists in general) for using ‘lies’ and ‘deception’, he issued repeated challenges to debate.  Later, and quite independently, a large Brisbane church decided to hold a creation/evolution debate.  Paul Willis was put forward as someone keen to debate creationists, and accepted their invitation, which all happened before the church approached AiG. Return to text.
2. As the final speaker, Dr Willis raised issues in his summary that Dr Wieland could not address.  See Links to in-depth information on the issues raised during the debate. Return to text.

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