Were you there?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\nSurely the only truths that we can have confidence in, in the science of theology, are those which do not stem from the past, which none of us was there to observe, but only those which can be directly observed today.<\/p>\n
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And so we should expect Ken Ham, were he consistent, to ignore matters like the figure of Jesus, or Noah\u2019s ark. Those are matters which cannot be observed and depend entirely on one\u2019s presuppositions. And so surely he ought to be focused on using observational theology <\/em>to discuss how one gets their presuppositions to begin with.<\/p>\nHam can make the stories come alive through animatronics if he so chooses. But since historical theology is a dubious enterprise, then only observational theology is legitimate.<\/p>\n
And so, if he were consistent, Ken Ham would perhaps be like a modern-day David Hume, offering Dialogues in Observational Religion<\/em>, rather than building an Ark Park.<\/p>\nSo why do we not see that? Because his attempt to distinguish between historical and observational science is bogus. He is seeking to dismiss evidence about the past when it is convenient for him to do so, while uncritically embracing claims about the past when it suits him.<\/p>\n
It is time to say a firm \u201cNo\u201d in response to such inconsistency. By all means reject our ability to know about the past based on present evidence. But do it consistently, recognizing that that approach leads to agnosticism about the historicity of things described in the Bible. Or accept that we can know about the past through deduction based on evidence available today \u2013 in biology and geology as well as \u2013 indeed, even more so than \u2013 in history.<\/p>\n
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Ken Ham has tried to make a distinction between historical and observational science. He ought, therefore, to accept that we must make the same distinction in theology, if he is to be consistent, don\u2019t you think? And yet we find he himself quoting the Bible as though it can simply be assumed to provide evidence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":21996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[4646,6131,8299,10886,12508,13651],"class_list":["post-21951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-young-earth-creationism","tag-historical","tag-ken-ham","tag-observational","tag-science","tag-theology","tag-were-you-there"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Ken Ham has tried to make a distinction between historical and observational science. He ought, therefore, to accept that we must make the same distinction in theology, if he is to be consistent, don\u2019t you think?<\/p>\n