Ken Ham

Kenneth Alfred Ham(born 20 October 1951) is an AustralianChristian fundamentalist,young Earth creationist,apologistand former science teacher, living in the United States. He is the founder, CEO, and former president ofAnswers in Genesis(AiG), aChristian apologeticsorganisation that operates theCreation Museumand theArk Encounter.
Ham advocatesbiblical literalism, claiming that thecreation narrativein theBook of Genesisis historical fact and that the universe and the Earth were created together approximately 6,000 years ago,contrary to thescientific consensusthat theEarth is about 4.5 billion years oldand theuniverse is about 13.8 billion years old.
Ham was born 20 October 1951 inCairns, Queensland.His father, Mervyn, was a Christian educator who served as a school principal in several schools throughoutQueensland.
Ham earned abachelor's degree in applied science(with an emphasis onenvironmental biology) from theQueensland Institute of Technologyand holds a Diploma in Education from theUniversity of Queensland.While at university, he was influenced byJohn C. WhitcombandHenry M. Morris's 1961 bookThe Genesis Flood.Upon graduation in 1975, Ham began teaching science atDalby State High SchoolinDalby, Queensland.
In 1977, Ham began teaching at a high school inBrisbane, where he met John Mackay, another teacher who believed in young Earth creationism. According to Susan and William Trollinger, Ham was "appalled by the fact that some of his students assumed their textbooks that taught evolutionary science successfully proved the Bible to be untrue," and he said the experience "put a 'fire in my bones' to do something about the influence that evolutionary thinking was having on students and the public as a whole."In 1979, he resigned his teaching position and, with his wife, founded Creation Science Supplies and Creation Science Educational Media Services, which provided resources for the teaching of creationism in the public schools of Queensland, a practice allowed at the time.In 1980, the Hams and Mackay merged the two organisations withCarl Wieland's Creation Science Association to form theCreation Science Foundation (CSF).
As CSF's work expanded, Ham moved to the United States in January 1987 to engage in speaking tours with another young Earth creationist organisation, theInstitute for Creation Research(ICR).His "Back to Genesis" lecture series focused on three major themes – thatevolutionary theoryhad led to cultural decay, that a literal reading of the first eleven chapters of theBook of Genesiscontained the trueorigin of the universeand a pattern for society, and that Christians should engage in a culture war againstatheismandhumanism.With his popularity growing in the United States, Ham left ICR in 1994 and, with colleagues Mark Looy and Mike Zovath, founded Creation Science Ministries with the assistance of what is nowCreation Ministries International(Australia).In 1997, Ham's organisation changed its name toAnswers in Genesis.
From the time AiG was founded, Ham planned to open a museum and training centre near its headquarters inFlorence, Kentucky, telling anAustralian Broadcasting Corporationinterviewer in 2007, "Australia's not really the place to build such a facility if you're going to reach the world. Really, America is."In a separate interview withThe Sydney Morning Herald'sPaul Sheehan, Ham explained, "One of the main reasons [AiG] moved [to Florence] was because we are within one hour's flight of 69 percent of America's population."The 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m) museum, located inPetersburg, Kentucky, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of theCincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, opened 27 May 2007.
In February 2018, Ham was disinvited from theUniversity of Central Oklahoma, where he was scheduled to speak, after an LGBTQ student group objected.Later that month, UCO reinvited Ham to speak,and Ham spoke on March 5 as planned.
At the end of 2005, the AiG Confederation crumbled due to a disagreement between Ham and Carl Wieland over the "differences in philosophy and operation". This disagreement led to Ham effectively retaining the leadership of the UK and American branches while Wieland served as managing director of the Australian branch and the smaller offices in Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. This splitting into two groups led to the Australian branch renaming themselves Creation Ministries International (CMI). The AiG stayed with Ham and continued to expand its staff and work closely with the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). Young Earth creationistKurt Wisewas recruited by Ham as a consultant to help with the concluding phases of the museum project.
In May 2007,Creation Ministries International(CMI)filed a lawsuit against Ham and AiGin theSupreme Court of Queenslandseeking damages and accusing him of deceptive conduct in his dealings with the Australian organisation. Members of the group expressed "concern over Mr. Ham's domination of the groups, the amount of money being spent on his fellow executives and a shift away from delivering the creationist message to raising donations."Ham was accused of trying to send the Australian ministry intobankruptcy.According to the CMI website, this dispute was amicably settled in April 2009.In 2008, Ham appeared inBill Maher's comedy-documentaryReligulous.AiG criticised the movie for what it called Maher's "dishonesty last year in gaining access to theCreation Museumand AiG President Ken Ham."
In March 2011, the board of Great Homeschool Conventions, Inc. (GHC) voted to disinvite Ham and AiG from future conventions. Conference organiser Brennan Dean stated Ham had made "unnecessary, ungodly, and mean-spirited statements that are divisive at best and defamatory at worst". Dean stated further, "We believe Christian scholars should be heard without the fear ofostracismorad hominemattacks."The disinvitation occurred after Ham criticisedPeter EnnsofThe BioLogos Foundation, who advocated a symbolic, rather than literal, interpretation of the fall of Adam and Eve. Ham accused Enns of espousing "outright liberal theology that totally undermines the authority of the Word of God".
In February 2014, Ham debated with Americanscience educatorandengineerBill Nye(popularly known as "Bill Nye the Science Guy") on the topic of whether young Earth creationism is a viable model of origins in the contemporary scientific era.Critics expressed concern that the debate lent the appearance of scientific legitimacy to creationism while also stimulating Ham's fundraising.Nye said the debate was "an opportunity to expose the well-intending Ken Ham and the support he receives from his followers as being bad for Kentucky, bad for science education, bad for the U.S., and thereby bad for humankind."
Ham said that publicity generated by the debate helped stimulate construction of theArk Encountertheme park, which had been stalled for lack of funds.The Ark Encounter opened on 7 July 2016, a date (7/7) chosen to correspond with Genesis 7:7, the Bible verse that describes Noah entering the ark.The following day, Nye visited Ark Encounter, and he and Ham had an informal debate.
According to Ham, he was inspired by his father, also a young Earth creationist, to interpret the Book of Genesis as "literal history" and first rejected what he termed "molecules-to-man evolution" during high school.
As ayoung Earth creationistandbiblical inerrantist, Ham believes that theBook of Genesisis historical fact. Ham believes theage of the Universeto be about 6,000 years,and asserts thatNoah's floodoccurred about 4,400 years ago in approximately 2348 BC.Astrophysical measurements andradiometric datingshow that theage of the universeis about 13.8 billion years and theage of the Earthis about 4.5 billion years.Arguing that knowledge ofevolutionand theBig Bangrequireobservationrather thaninference, Ham urges asking scientists and science educators, "Were you there?"TheTalk.originsarchive responds that the evidence for evolution "was there", and that knowledge serves to determine what occurred in the past and when. "Were you there?" questions also invalidate creationism as science.Creationists argue that if the Bible is truly the word of God, creationism is not invalidated by this question, since God was there.
Ham claims that abortion, same-sex marriage, homosexuality, and being transgender "are all attacks on the true family God ordained in Scripture".He believes that Christians should "take back the rainbow", a popular symbol for theLGBT movement.As a condition for employment at the Ark Encounter, AiG, as directed by Ham, requires workers to sign a statement that they view homosexuality as asin.
Ham rejects thescientific consensus on climate change.
Chris Mooney, ofSlatemagazine, believes Ham's advocacy of young Earth creation will "underminescience educationand U.S.science literacy".But Andrew O'Hehir ofSalonargues that the "liberal intelligentsia" have grossly overstated the influence of Ken Ham and those espousing similar views because, while "religious ecstasy, however nonsensical, is powerful in a way reason and logic are not", advocates like Ham "represent amarginalisedconstituency with little power".
Ham has been awardedhonorarydegrees by six Christian colleges: Temple Baptist College (1997),Liberty University(2004),Tennessee Temple University(2010),Mid-Continent University(2012),Bryan College(2017),andMid-America Baptist Theological Seminary(2018).
On February 17, 2020,PBSaired a documentary about the Ark Encounter entitledWe Believe in Dinosaurs. Filmmakers Monica Long Ross and Clayton Brown followed the story line of a "religious organisation creating their ownalternative sciencein a legitimate looking museum."
Ham is married to Mally Ham; the couple have five children.