Today the conference began with Ken Ham being given the Luther D. Sunderland Award before a packed house. He ended up speaking for about an hour-and-a-half, and, as usual, he was very engaging and direct, and he spoke on a number of issues facing the church.

His main thrust was on Biblical authority and the age of the earth, and trusting man over God. If the Bible is the infallible Word of God, then that should have greater authority than fallible humans. Ken demonstrated that science is often elevated to a god-like status. People often say that “science” has proven the age of the universe, evolution, and that man never lived with dinosaurs. But science doesn’t do any such thing. Dinosaur bones don’t come with a tag listing their age and other facts. Scientists must examine the evidence and draw conclusions about the past. True science is about obtaining knowledge, and it involves observing the evidence and experimentation. Ken made a distinction between observational science- which is what put men on the moon and gives us medical advances- and historical science, which involves making inferences and unprovable assumptions about the past. So why do people tend to accept whatever is said in the name of science, as if it couldn’t be wrong? It’s almost as if it can’t be questioned, and if someone does question it, they’re ridiculed.

Ken provided references for Christian leaders who deny a young earth, and even mock those who believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. They tell their audience that science has proven the earth is billions of years old, as if science was the final authority, rather than God’s Word. But he also pointed out that these same Christian leaders will disagree with anyone who denies that Jesus was raised from the dead or born of a virgin because the Bible says so, even though we could make the case that “science” has proven that people don’t rise from the dead and aren’t born of virgins. So why is it that these Christian leaders accept God’s Word for the resurrection of Christ and his virgin birth, but won’t accept God’s Word regarding the age of the earth and universe? These leaders often insist that the book of Genesis isn’t meant to be taken literally, or that the word “day” in Genesis doesn’t refer to an ordinary 24-hour day. But there’s plenty of evidence that Genesis is literal history, and that the days are ordinary 24-hour days. The rest of the Bible refers to Adam and Eve, six days of creation, Noah’s flood, dinosaurs, and the seventh day of rest, but these church leaders continue to support secular teaching over the Bible because they recognize that “science” has spoken and refuse to question it. They seem to recognize all science as truth, rather than Scripture. There’s no critical thinking as to whether or not things like carbon dating or radiometric dating could possibly be unreliable.

Ken explained that millions and billions of years is one of the problems the church is facing right now. Many young people in the church are leaving because they see that the Bible and billions of years can’t fit together, even though the church leaders claim that it can. In fact Richard Dawkins has indicated many times that it was his belief in billions of years and evolution that convinced him that the Bible wasn’t true. He saw that what he was taught in science wasn’t compatible with the Bible. But he never questioned whether or not what he was taught in science was even true.