I watched the whole thing from when it started. It was absolutely fascinating, but it was clear that Ken Ham couldn't hold a candle to Nye-- and that was to be expected.

Of course Bill is correct in what he's stating, and of course Ken is an extremely literalist Christian, but it was an important thing to see because, while he's completely wrong, Ham's view is gaining a lot of traction everywhere. He couldn't carry himself though. He dodged many questions, and even after Nye called him out, he continued to ignore them.

His logic was unbelievably circular more times than I could believe. I thought he'd at least have oratory skills or pull at pathos (which he did in the latter to some degree, that's where most of this is built: on comfort in the believes he's espousing instead of the vastness of science), but it felt like a very close-minded man speaking out of his league. I'd imagine people on the fence that have the any semblance of critical thought found what he said to be extremely unsatisfactory, while opposite him you had a very lively and informative Bill Nye. I found him to be fun and fascinating much like I did when I was a child, and I learned a great deal of new information tonight. I absolutely adored his little asides about fun facts, or quotes, or some history, or just little jokes (I burst out laughing at work at his joke about his boss towards the end.)

This seemed to me, before the event and up until the rebuttal phase, to simply be a publicity grab for Ham. No matter what would happen, he'd be getting exposure at a very public event with a very public figure, and people who already share his view or near his view will easily be swayed to what he believes, but Nye was so charismatic I think it wholely failed to do that. He looked absolutely beaten and rattled towards the end and even my cold, black, cynical heart felt like if I was someone wary of science or evolution or anything around that whole side of the debate, even if I had a religious background, I would be persuaded by Nye. He was that well spoken throughout this.