Ken Ham
Ham in 2012
Born	(1951-10-20)20 October 1951 (age 73) Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Education	Queensland Institute of Technology (B.AS.) University of Queensland (DipEd)
Occupation(s)	Christian apologist, Evangelist
Organisation	Answers in Genesis
Title	Founder,CEO
Spouse	Mally Ham
Children	5
Website	www.answersingenesis.org

Kenneth Alfred Ham (born 20 October 1951) is an AustralianChristian fundamentalist,young Earth creationist,apologist and former science teacher, living in the United States. He is the founder, CEO, and former president ofAnswers in Genesis (AiG), aChristian apologetics organisation that operates theCreation Museum and theArk Encounter.

Ham advocatesbiblical literalism, claiming that thecreation narrative in theBook of Genesis is historical fact and that the universe and the Earth were created together approximately 6,000 years ago,^{[n 1]} contrary to thescientific consensus that theEarth is about 4.5 billion years old and theuniverse is about 13.8 billion years old.^[2][3][4]

Ham was born 20 October 1951 inCairns, Queensland.^[5] His father, Mervyn, was a Christian educator who served as a school principal in several schools throughoutQueensland.^[6][7]

Ham earned abachelor's degree in applied science (with an emphasis onenvironmental biology) from theQueensland Institute of Technology and holds a Diploma in Education from theUniversity of Queensland.^[8][9] While at university, he was influenced byJohn C. Whitcomb andHenry M. Morris's 1961 bookThe Genesis Flood.^[6] Upon graduation in 1975, Ham began teaching science atDalby State High School inDalby, Queensland.^[7][10]

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."^[7] 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.^[11] In 1980, the Hams and Mackay merged the two organisations withCarl Wieland's Creation Science Association to form theCreation Science Foundation (CSF).^[12]

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).^[7][13] His "Back to Genesis" lecture series focused on three major themes – thatevolutionary theory had led to cultural decay, that a literal reading of the first eleven chapters of theBook of Genesis contained the trueorigin of the universe and a pattern for society, and that Christians should engage in a culture war againstatheism andhumanism.^[14] 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).^[14][15][16] In 1997, Ham's organisation changed its name toAnswers in Genesis.^[14]

From the time AiG was founded, Ham planned to open a museum and training centre near its headquarters inFlorence, Kentucky, telling anAustralian Broadcasting Corporation interviewer in 2007, "Australia's not really the place to build such a facility if you're going to reach the world. Really, America is."^[17][18] 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."^[19] The 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m²) museum, located inPetersburg, Kentucky, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of theCincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, opened 27 May 2007.^[20]

In February 2018, Ham was disinvited from theUniversity of Central Oklahoma, where he was scheduled to speak, after an LGBTQ student group objected.^[21][22][23] Later that month, UCO reinvited Ham to speak,^[24][25][26] and Ham spoke on March 5 as planned.^[27][28]

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 Wise was recruited by Ham as a consultant to help with the concluding phases of the museum project.^[29]

In May 2007,Creation Ministries International (CMI)filed a lawsuit against Ham and AiG in theSupreme Court of Queensland seeking 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."^[30] Ham was accused of trying to send the Australian ministry intobankruptcy.^[31] According to the CMI website, this dispute was amicably settled in April 2009.^[32] In 2008, Ham appeared inBill Maher's comedy-documentaryReligulous.^[33] AiG criticised the movie for what it called Maher's "dishonesty last year in gaining access to theCreation Museum and AiG President Ken Ham."^[34]

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 ofostracism orad hominem attacks."^[35] The disinvitation occurred after Ham criticisedPeter Enns ofThe 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".^[36]

In February 2014, Ham debated with Americanscience educator andengineerBill 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.^[37] Critics expressed concern that the debate lent the appearance of scientific legitimacy to creationism while also stimulating Ham's fundraising.^[38][39] 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."^[40]

Ham said that publicity generated by the debate helped stimulate construction of theArk Encounter theme park, which had been stalled for lack of funds.^[41] 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.^[42] The following day, Nye visited Ark Encounter, and he and Ham had an informal debate.^[43]

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.^[6]

As ayoung Earth creationist andbiblical inerrantist, Ham believes that theBook of Genesis is historical fact. Ham believes theage of the Universe to be about 6,000 years,^{[n 1]} and asserts thatNoah's flood occurred about 4,400 years ago in approximately 2348 BC.^[44] Astrophysical measurements andradiometric dating show that theage of the universe is about 13.8 billion years and theage of the Earth is about 4.5 billion years.^[2] Arguing that knowledge ofevolution and theBig Bang requireobservation rather thaninference, Ham urges asking scientists and science educators, "Were you there?"^[45][46] TheTalk.origins archive 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.^[47][48] Creationists argue that if the Bible is truly the word of God, creationism is not invalidated by this question, since God was there.^[49]

Ham claims that abortion, same-sex marriage, homosexuality, and being transgender "are all attacks on the true family God ordained in Scripture".^[50] He believes that Christians should "take back the rainbow", a popular symbol for theLGBT movement.^[51] 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.^[52][53]

Ham rejects thescientific consensus on climate change.^[54]

Chris Mooney, ofSlate magazine, believes Ham's advocacy of young Earth creation will "underminescience education and U.S.science literacy".^[55] But Andrew O'Hehir ofSalon argues 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 amarginalised constituency with little power".^[56]

Ham has been awardedhonorary degrees by six Christian colleges: Temple Baptist College (1997),^[57]Liberty University (2004),^[58]Tennessee Temple University (2010),^[59]Mid-Continent University (2012),^[60]Bryan College (2017),^[61] andMid-America Baptist Theological Seminary (2018).^[62]

On February 17, 2020,PBS aired 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 science in a legitimate looking museum."^[63]

Ham is married to Mally Ham; the couple have five children.^[64]

• Ham, Ken (1987).The Lie: Evolution. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 0-89051-158-6.
• Ham, Ken (1999).Creation Evangelism for the New Millennium. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 0-89051-247-7.
• Ham, Ken; Batten, Don & Wieland, Carl (2000).One Blood: The Biblical Answer to Racism. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 0-89051-276-0.
• Ham, Ken (2002).Why Won't They Listen?. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 0-89051-378-3.
• Ham, Ken (2007).How Could a Loving God...?. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-0-89051-504-4.
• Ham, Ken & Ware, Charles (2007).Darwin's Plantation: Evolution's Racist Roots. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-0-89051-497-9.
• Ham, Ken (2008).Raising Godly Children in an Ungodly World. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-0-89051-542-6.
• Ham, Ken; Beemer, Britt & Hillard, Todd (2009).Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do To Stop It. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-0-89051-529-7.
• Ham, Ken & Ware, Charles (2010).One Race One Blood. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-0-89051-601-0.
• Ham, Ken; Hall, Greg & Hillard, Todd (2011).Already Compromised. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-0-89051-607-2.
• Ham, Ken (2013).Six Days: The Age of the Earth and the Decline of the Church. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-0-89051-789-5.
• Ham, Ken & Kinley, Jeff (2015).Ready to Return: Bringing Back the Church's Lost Generation. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-0-89051-836-6.
• Ham, Ken; Hodge, Bodie (2016).A Flood of Evidence: 40 Reasons Noah and the Ark Still Matter. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-0-89051-978-3.
• Ham, Ken; Ross, Hugh; Haarsma, Deborah & Mdyer, Stephen (2017).Four Views on Creation, Evolution and Intelligent Design. Zondervan Academic.ISBN 978-0-310-08097-8.
• Ham, Ken (2018).Gospel Reset: Salvation Made Relevant. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-1-68344-114-4.
• Ham, Ken; Hodge, Bodie (2019).Glass House: Shattering the Myth of Evolution. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-1-68344-156-4.
• Ham, Ken (2020).Will They Stand: Parenting Kids to Face the Giants. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-1-68344-256-1.
• Ham, Ken (2021).Divided Nation: Cultures in Chaos & A Conflicted Church. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-1-68344-283-7.
• Ham, Ken (2021).Creation to Babel. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-1-68344-290-5.
• Ham, Ken (2023).Divine Dilemma: Wrestling With the Question of a Loving God in a Fallen World. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-1-68344-355-1.
• Ham, Ken (2024).The Lie: Unraveling the Myth of Evolution/Millions of Years. Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books.ISBN 978-1-68344-391-9.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toKen Ham.

Wikiquote has quotations related toKen Ham.

• Archived atGhostarchive and theWayback Machine:Nye, Bill & Ham, Ken (4 February 2014)."Bill Nye Debates Ken Ham (video - 165:32)".YouTube.
• Nye, Bill & Ham, Ken (13 March 2017)."Nye/Ham: The Second Debate Premiere (video - 117:04)".YouTube.

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