God of Evolution Founder Responds to Ken Ham; Tyler Francke Believes Early Genesis Teaches 'Theology' Not 'History or Science'

Tyler Francke

On Monday, BreatheCast posted an article about God of Evolution founder Tyler Francke appearing on the Bad Christian Podcast to explain how he believes the account depicted in Genesis is actually an allegory. Answers in Genesis founder Ken Ham wrote a long rebuttal to Francke on how the Bible is the infallible source of our existence - and now, Francke has responded.

In a blog post titled, "A Response and Open Invitation to Ken Ham," Francke addressed some of the points Ham made against him. These points are that Evolution and Creation completely contradict each other, and that Francke did not know the difference between observational and historical science, and could not follow up on these "theological problems."

"If any of the Bad Christian hosts had asked me to address these 'theological problems', I would have been happy to do so. It's actually quite simple: I believe the first few chapters in God's word were meant to teach theology, not history or science, therefore they do not and cannot conflict with what the evidence in God's creation indicates about history or science," Francke responded in his post.

(Photo : Wikipedia)
Photo of Answers in Genesis Founder Ken Ham

Ham said of Francke and people who believe in evolution "Observational science is the kind of science that we can test, observe, and repeat"”its what gives us space shuttles and medical advancements. Historical science deals with the past and cannot be tested, repeated, or observed. Because of this, your starting point will determine how you see the evidence."

He continued, "We both have the same evidence"”we just have different starting points. My starting point is God's infallible Word; Francke's starting point (in this area at least) is man's opinions. Therefore we are both going to interpret the evidence very differently."

To this point Francke said that God creating the universe is the only reason humanity can do science. "God created a law-governed, rational universe, but we can't trust the evidence of the past, because God may have ignored and completely contradicted the laws that govern the universe when he was designing and creating the universe."

"Ham is obfuscating the real issue. It is not simply a question of 'whose authority you're going to accept'" he wrote. "It is a question of whether you're going to believe the creation accounts are - like all of Christ's parables, and much of Psalms, Proverbs and the books of the prophets, including Revelation - theologically and morally true stories cloaked in allegory and metaphor, or the only time in all literature that a talking animal (whose ability to speak is not explicitly described as a miracle) and trees with magical powers were indicative of a historical account rather than a symbolic one."

Francke also claims that Ham twists some of what he says to put things in his favor. In doing so, he is swaying his audience to agree with him rather than take an objectionable stance on the matter and think for themselves.

An example of this is how Ham agrees with Francke that our origin story is not necessarily a means of determining our salvation, but then suggests if you believe it "you're a compromising Christian" who is on the road to "atheism."

"These are guilt-laden, emotionally charged arguments. Essentially, they are saying, 'I mean, you can be a Christian and believe in evolution, you're just not a very good Christian'," said Francke.

The God of Evolution closed his rebuttal asking Ham to meet him for a dialogue about "evolution, creation, the gospel, and the proper interpretation of Genesis."

Read Francke's full post here.

Read Ken Ham's blog post that sparked this article here.

To hear the episode with Tyler Francke, click here.