Creation in the Balance

Tonight something really interesting is going to happen.  Bill Nye, the Science Guy, fellow bowtie afficianado, is going to debate Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum about the origins of life on this planet.
You know that feeling that you used to get in grade school whenever there was a fight a brewin' between two kids in your class.  It's a mixture of excitement and fear.  I have that now.
Honestly, I'm rooting for the science guy, because I believe that the truth about God's creative power is much bigger than Creation Science wants to allow it to be.  I want science to go on being science so that we, created in the image of God, can always grow in our awareness of the wonder of creation.
Most of all though, I want it to be a fully realized dialogue and debate, I want the two men to be honorable in their rhetoric and consistent in their arguments, but I'm afraid it will degenerate into a simple spouting of dogma.  That's what gives me the fear.
When I say the phrase "spouting of dogma," I know you think I'm just talking about the religious guy, especially since I just basically endorsed Bill Nye as my personal rooting interest.  But I'm not, I am aware that so-called "scientific" positions are rather often as dogmatic as their religious foils.  Especially when it comes to evolution and other things where the body of knowledge that we have accumulated runs into the mystery of what we do not yet know.  When that border is encountered we often have to step out in faith in order to cross it.
There's a poignant scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first movie of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, there's this moment in a field in the Shire where Sam Gamgee pauses for a moment and reflects that with the next step he takes he will cross a line, a line that exists only in his heart.  With his next step, he will be farther from home than he has ever been.  Sam marks the moment with a bit of a pause for a moment of trepidation.  It's an appropriate thing really, to have a bit of reluctance about blind progress.  Science rarely takes those moments, which is why we need religion and ethics, because they do take those moments.  It's important though that Sam takes the step, progress continues.
I believe that science and religion need each other to keep our society in balance.  There must be something that pulls us forward and there must be something that gives us roots.  Visions of society where one element is lacking are ultimately dystopian.
My hope is that Nye can be respectful of that balance, even as his zeal for science powers a rational presentation of facts.  I also hope that Ham doesn't come across as too backwards and anti-intellectual, because he is representing the Body of Christ.  I'm conscious, as a Presbyterian, that I stand in a particular part of the Body, part that values education, and scientific inquiry as well as the mystery of God.  I am also conscious that many other parts of the body do not have the same perspective as I do, and as part of a connected whole, I should not despise them.
I don't so much want Ham to lose, as I want him to learn, to grow, to open his mind and his heart to a new thing.  I also would like him to engage Nye in a way that will show "The Science Guy" that God is not his adversary.  The worst thing that could happen for all of us is that the two of them would simple construct dogmatic fortresses and hurl insults over the wall.
I'm hoping it will be different, I'm hoping the debate itself may show some signs that the human species is not done evolving.
Here's to hope.