Mucho sentimiento ❤

Finally watched this today - two highly intelligent men who love God and care deeply about science. I'm afraid I found it somewhat chaotic, focused (if that's even the word I'm after) on minutiae rather than the big picture. I would like to have seen you two establish some solid common ground at the outset - affirmation of the non-negotiables (the basic doctrines and creeds of Xianity, the inspiration of Scripture, rejection of a materialist view, etc.) As C. S. Lewis says at the beginning of his reply to J.B.S. Haldane, "Let us put them out of the room before we begin." Certain believing scientists who disagree on evolution (i.e., Dr Hugh Ross and Dr Francis Collins) are able to agree on, say, a very old Universe, whose observable qualities proclaim God's glory while affirming mainstream science, which itself brings Him glory, IMHO. Since Young Earth cosmology is among the more easily refutable errors of YECism, it could have been addressed prior to a dive into genetics, mutations, etc. It is no accident that Dr Ross and Dr Collins are friends. I confess to having my doubts as to whether watching this debate might have the effect of moving anyone off the fence and toward God. My strongest objection to YECism isn't even specifically scientific - it is rather that it is very often presented as a prerequisite to Christian belief, and it is only grudgingly admitted that the issue is ultimately non-salvific (and then only when the subject comes up.) I recently attended an evangelical men's breakfast at which a man who met a young paleontology student enthusiastically told us of having recommended Ken Ham's resources to said student. To me this is a catastrophic error, honestly committed but absolutely tone-deaf with regards to the Gospel, which is God's way of reconciling us to Himself. It is NOT the age of the Universe, or the pros and cons of mutation. If we listen to the seeker or unbeliever prior to sharing our message and carefully, prayerfully contextualize the Gospel for our listener, we will often find it unnecessary to engage in the sort of "apologetics" that may well cause them to reject the core of our message. I was just in England a year ago, and it's quite small compared to our vast country. Suppose the two of you have your next tête-à-tête in the same room, with a nice cuppa? Granted, your little island is rather nasty this time of year. Never been there in summer....

Edit to add: When I was talking about the Internet/Bible illustration, I got distracted by an orange light flashing on my router - and neglected to finish the point, which was that the Internet has a collective bottom-up intelligence behind it, making it perhaps the best living example of evolutionary emergence of complexity and order spontaneously created in a decentralised fashion without a designer, whereas the Bible is the ultimate top-down/bottom-up combination work in nature with its own hyperlink-type of connectivity that is too deeply and complexly interconnected and thematically integrated to have been created by the people of the time without Divine choreography.

May God bless you for this message

Very touching moment. May God bless you and your father. Cheers from Brazil.