That's all very nice and dandy but it excludes the general public from having any of this explained to them in a way that they can understand and with both parties present so that they can see which side gives the most plausible answers to life's big questions.
The problem with this is that the general public is extremely ill-served by such a debate. It does not help
them get answers to get peppered with disparate facts from various parties sniping at each other. Rewatch the Nye/Ham debate and tell me - did you actually gain any significant knowledge about evolution or creationism? Maybe bits and pieces, but nothing resembling an actual
education in either field.
And that's what the general populace needs. An
education. We need to figure out what the right answer is, and actually
educate them on it. Offer them a comprehensive education in an environment where all the educating parties are clear on what the facts are and what the goal is. Like, I dunno, a biology class. And the debate to figure out what the right answer is before the education happens should not be done for the entertainment of the layperson. It should be done
for the sake of improving our understanding of the world. And that should take place within the scientific literature, between trained professionals who understand what they're talking about and aren't going to muddy the waters with obvious, stupid mistakes (like claiming that heavy snowfall in one area disproves ice core dating).
Most people haven't got the time or the expertise to wade through masses of technical literature and then try to evaluate who is closer to the truth, so most people either don't bother to think about it, blindly accept what few facts they are given or just remain sitting on the fence, unable to come to any decision at all. These are the fundamentals of our very existence and everyone who is able should be encouraged to get involved, for until we know for sure where we came from, we can't know where we are going.
I have no understanding of modern physics. None. Nada. Zip. I don't get it. I don't think I ever
will get it. It's fundamental to how every aspect of reality works, but I just don't get it at all. With that in mind, do you think that my involvement will in any way further our understanding of physics? Or do you think I'll just waste some expert's time who has to point out where the flaws in my (horrendously naive, uneducated) research is?
So why is evolution somehow different?
Look, there's a reason scientific debate always has and always will take place in the arena of peer review rather than the arena of popular review. It's because it is
necessary. You think people should learn about these things? Okay, let's figure out which is
correct (we have, it's evolution, and if it weren't for the political machinations of the religious right it wouldn't even be a debate worth having any more), and then teach that to children in school. That's how we deal with these issues - we teach the understood, established scientific facts in public schooling. That's how we educate the populace. Not with some bogus debate where on one hand you have a scientist explaining facts that most likely go over most of the audience's head, and on the other you have a creationist repeating PRATT and lying about what the science really says.