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Video Highlight: Gish-Ross-Scott Debate on Creation and Evolution

Many people have asked me if Reasons to Believe would feature on its website some videos that show the scholars in action, particularly in debate contexts. These inquirers have said that such resources would be helpful not only for anticipating and responding to objections to our position but also for modeling behavior. I am pleased to announce that we can now make available such a resource (divided into five clips), including the video series described here.

This unique three-way debate took place in 2001 at Santa Clara First Baptist Church before a standing-room-only audience. Duane Gish, vice-president of the Institute for Creation Research, defended the young-earth creationist model; Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, defended the naturalistic (nontheistic) evolutionary model; and I defended Reasons to Believe’s old-earth creation model.

The debate, entitled God, Darwin, or…Both? Science and Christianity in the 21st Century, was hosted by the church’s senior pastor, Richard Reaves, and moderated by Robert Smithson. After the debate, attendees filled out cards indicating the position they held on God, science, creation, and evolution and whether or not their position had changed as a result of the debate. We later learned those cards indicated some significant movement toward what many said was a “new to them” position, old-earth creation.

For the past 10 years, Reasons to Believe has made this debate available, including the Q&A session, as a 2-CD audio set. Now, thanks to the National Center for Science Education, we can provide the links to a video recording of the debate.