Is Denying Evolution Just an American Thing?

In an interview with NewsMax, Bill Nye “The Science Guy” claimed that denying evolution is something that is unique to the United States and that the controversy is not a “problem anywhere else.” Now, he said this probably because America has access to more apologetics resources to support the biblical creation position than any other place in the world. Also, Answers in Genesis and our Creation Museum, the largest apologetics ministry in the world, are based out of the US. Due to the availability of resources, Americans are generally the best informed about apologetics issues, so we would expect more people to understand the issues correctly, thus it’s no surprise that Nye is saying this. But is evolution and an old earth really just being challenged in America? Not at all! If Nye was thinking of the Answers in Genesis ministry when he said this, I wonder if he realizes that I actually began the ministry in Australia (my homeland). And now AiG and many other creation ministries are working to get out creation resources all around the world.

Biblical creation is being taught all over the globe by our own Answers in Genesis Worldwide division and by many other creation ministries. According to a list kept by the Creation Research Society, there are registered young-earth creation ministries in 21 countries! This list includes countries such as Canada, Belgium, Brazil, Japan, Norway, and the Philippines. Some of these creation ministries are ones we’ve worked with or featured on our website in the past, such as John Mackay and Creation Research or Johan Huibers with his Ark in the Netherlands. According to Creation History Project, 25 countries around the world are home to young earth creation organizations and seven countries around the world house creation museums and science centers.

Answers in Genesis Worldwide is constantly involved in international outreach, boldly proclaiming the message of biblical authority, creation according to Genesis, and the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world. Recently, we’ve held several conferences in Latin America, all of which have been enthusiastically welcomed, and we’ve seen much fruit produced from these efforts. The Lord has graciously given us a partnership with the Rawlings Foundation to be able to hold these conferences at their camps, and we’ve seen a tremendous response. This past February, Joe Owen, manager of Latin/Hispanic ministry for AiG Worldwide, and I ministered to 700 students in the Dominican Republic, and recently Joe and my brother Steve taught at a conference attended by 900 young people in Mexico!

We’ve also been able to team up with Canopy Ministries in Peru to spread the message of biblical authority and the gospel in South America. We conducted creation outreach in Italy earlier this year and in 2011 we were part of an All-Asian Creation Conference in Malaysia. We also have a branch of AiG in the UK, which works to continually proclaim a message of biblical authority and creation throughout Britain. And this past September Answers in Genesis–UK hosted a very well attended Mega Conference in Darwin’s own homeland of England. We’ve also been able to team up with the Slavic Gospel Association and Children’s Hunger Fund to proclaim the gospel, beginning in Genesis, with tracts in five different languages.

We’ve also been involved in ongoing translation ministry. AiG currently has materials translated into 11 languages available in our online store, including Chinese, German, Russian, and Spanish. We also have free articles and other materials in 13 languages. These resources help us to reach even more people internationally. And the demand for more resources in more languages only continues to increase!

We receive thousands of questions and comments each year, and a good chunk of these emails and letters come internationally, from places as diverse as France, the Philippines, Madagascar, Canada, and South Africa. (A family from South Africa toured our museum today.) People all around the world are hungry for answers!

The message of creation, beginning in Genesis, is certainly not confined to America. Through the work of dedicated individuals around the world, people in many countries are having their eyes opened to the truth of God’s Word and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I encourage you to use the many resources available to be equipped to answer the skeptical questions of this age with solid answers from God’s Word. And please be sure to direct non-English speakers to the translated materials on our website so that they can receive answers to their questions in their own language!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.