The evolutionist and the creationist debated for more than two hours here Tuesday night.

The debate was civil and conducted with the decorum fitting creatures at the top of the evolutionary scale.

Or, fitting humans endowed with the gifts given to them by their creator.

They didn’t provide all of the answers of how we got here and why we are here, but if the question was whether Dothan would support something like this, that question was answered overwhelmingly.

Yes.

An overflow crowd packed the Dothan Opera House to watch Rick Pierson defend evolution and Dr. Robert Carter attack it. Many, including a late-arriving group from Tallahassee, had to be turned away. But as to the question of whether the Dothan crowd comprehended many of the arguments spoken, possibly not.

Pseudogenes, Haldane’s Dilemma, transposons, exons, entrons, phyrangeal slits and all manner of other terms were used to either prove evolution or disprove it. Often, the debate ascended above the heads of normal, everyday people. It was an Etch-a-Sketch crowd, but the debate was mostly Rembrandt.

Occasionally, the debaters did descend from the Ph.D.-level talk to defend their positions in plain English. Rick Pierson, a local computer programmer with a degree in biology, said a eureka moment occurred in him when he learned one pair of human chromosomes was actually the fusion of two pair of ape chromosomes, bolstering the argument that man evolved from apes. Along with that, he cited the vast similarities in the DNA makeup of man and ape, and the similarities between human embryos and the embryos of several other species. The body of the evidence, Pierson said, leads him to believe that evolution is the only assumption for how life came to be on this earth.

Carter, who holds a doctorate in marine biology and is the lead speaker for the advocacy group Creation Ministries International, said evolution — when taken to its logical conclusion — fails by its own assumptions.

“I fully feel that evolutionary theory disproves itself,” Carter said.

The debate was held on the premise of proving or disproving evolution. While Carter advocates creation, his arguments dealt with problem areas in evolutionary theory, including massive gaps of transitional species in the fossil record, the lack of an explanation as to how the first molecule came to exist and the astronomical mathematical odds of random mutation resulting in complex, functioning organisms.

While the debate held to script for the most part, there were spontaneous moments. When Pierson’s powerpoint display failed to operate during his opening statement, Pierson — a computer programmer — said “I guess this is where you say Windows Vista was not intelligently designed.”

Later, during the cross-examination section of the debate, Carter appeared to stump Pierson with a question dealing with the number of generations it should have taken to correct some genetic mutations, according to the evolutionary theory.

Pierson paused in mid-answer.

“It’s very hard to answer these off the top of your head,” he said.

After pausing another moment, he said, “This looks bad, doesn’t it?”

There wasn’t much philosophy in the arguments, either. Carter did, however, say that evolution created an “amoral” society. He added that, under the evolutionary theory, Genghis Khan acted completely rationally in murdering hundreds or thousands of men and impregnating their wives to propagate the species.

Pierson rejected the argument.

“Evolution says what is, not what ought,” Pierson said.

The event was sponsored by HIS Radio 94.3 FM and Harvest Church, as well as Georgia-based American Vision, a non-profit group advocating a Biblical world view. Group president Gary Demar said he was overwhelmingly pleased with the attendance, which would encourage the group to hold more debates in towns like Dothan.