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Bill Nye the Science Guy says creationism not good for kids
Reuters ^ | August 28, 2012 | Lily Kuo

Posted on 08/28/2012 3:39:34 AM PDT by rickmichaels

Scientist and children’s television personality Bill Nye, in a newly released online video, panned biblical creationism and implored American parents who reject the scientific theory of evolution not to teach their beliefs to their youngsters.

“I say to the grownups, ’If you want to deny evolution and live in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we’ve observed in the universe that’s fine. But don’t make your kids do it,’” said Nye, best known as host of the educational TV series “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”

The video, titled “Creationism Is Not Appropriate for Children,” was posted on Thursday by the online knowledge forum Big Think to YouTube and had netted more than 1.3 million views as of Monday.

In it Nye said widespread public doubt in the scientific concept of evolution — which holds that human beings and all other forms of life developed from a process of random genetic mutation and natural selection — would hinder a country long renowned for its innovation, intellectual capital and a general grasp of science.

“When you have a portion of the population that doesn’t believe in (evolution) it holds everybody back, really,” he said.

According to a Gallup poll that surveyed 1,012 adults in May, 46 percent of Americans can be described as creationists for believing that God created humans in their present form at some point within the last 10,000 years.

Education advocates have argued for decades over what children should be taught in public schools in regard to the formation of the universe, life and humans.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that requiring biblical creation to be taught in public schools alongside evolution was unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment separation between church and state.

In April, a law was passed that protects teachers in Tennessee who wish to critique or analyze what they view as the scientific weaknesses of evolution, making it the second state, after Louisiana, to enable teachers to more easily espouse alternatives to evolution in the classroom.

Nye said that while many adults may believe in creationism, children should be taught evolution in order to understand science. Absent a grasp of evolution, he said, “You’re just not going to get the right answers.” And he called evolution the “fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology.”

Teaching children the building blocks of science is essential for the country’s future, he added, saying, “We need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future.”

Nye’s popular show, produced by Disney’s Buena Vista Television, aired from September 1993 to June 1998 on PBS and was also syndicated to local television stations.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: alreuters
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To: tacticalogic
Not at all. Evidently you are taking this personally.

For example, I deplore abortion but I do hate the people I know - family and friends - who do not share my view. And I do not hate the women who have had abortions. Indeed, I pray for them for if they eventually realize that they willfully and often for personal convenience, ended a life, they will be inconsolable.

241 posted on 09/09/2012 9:09:44 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: Alamo-Girl
Not at all. Evidently you are taking this personally.

I just took the statements at face value.

242 posted on 09/09/2012 10:02:46 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: betty boop; Fichori; tpanther; Gordon Greene; Ethan Clive Osgoode; Alamo-Girl; YHAOS; ...
IOW, God cannot ever be seen "directly," but only through His effects.... But the "humanists" evidently refuse to look.

Likewise, evolution has never been seen directly but (allegedly, according to the evos/humanists) through it's effects. All based on circumstantial and forensic evidence and extrapolation.

Interesting that the so-called objective scientists are willing to use one method themselves and yet condemn others for using the exact same method.

There's a word for that.......

243 posted on 09/10/2012 4:54:31 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: tacticalogic; betty boop
You make it sound as if a theory being unchallenged for 150 years is an historic anamoly.

The ToE has not been unchallenged for 150. the evo supporters just wish it were so and therefore claim it leading the gullible to believe that is the case.

The problem is that ToE supporters blow off any challenge as being unscientific by default. The challenges are dismissed off hand.

However, their considering that there is no valid scientific challenge to the ToE does not make it so.

244 posted on 09/10/2012 6:09:50 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: tacticalogic; Alamo-Girl
Biologists had already defined what life was well before ToE.

Really? And that would be what?

I've challenged evos plenty of times to define life and had no takers.

Perhaps you could take the challenge.

245 posted on 09/10/2012 6:11:43 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: metmom

Mostly, we learned not to listen to creo fools


246 posted on 09/10/2012 6:12:17 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Present failure and impending death yield irrational action))
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To: metmom
The ToE has not been unchallenged for 150. the evo supporters just wish it were so and therefore claim it leading the gullible to believe that is the case.

Telepathy?

247 posted on 09/10/2012 6:15:19 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: metmom

I’m glad you’re feeling better.


248 posted on 09/10/2012 6:18:29 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: whattajoke; tacticalogic; Agamemnon
And here I ignorantly thought that since there hasn’t been scientific debate about the fact of evolution for 160 years .....

And therein lies your problem. You think that the ToE has remained unchallenged for 160 years.

It has not and your failure to recognize or acknowledge it IS due to ignorance.

249 posted on 09/10/2012 6:20:19 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: tacticalogic; Alamo-Girl
Why so negative? That they give it a name means they aknowlege that it exists.

Do you believe in Bigfoot, too?

250 posted on 09/10/2012 6:28:07 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: metmom
Do you believe in Bigfoot, too?

I'm glad you're feeling better.

251 posted on 09/10/2012 6:31:39 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: metmom
Do you believe in Bigfoot, too?

I'm glad you're feeling better.

252 posted on 09/10/2012 6:31:44 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: bert

Neither do they listen to the physicists, who have a much better handle on hard science than biologists do.


253 posted on 09/10/2012 6:36:02 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: metmom
And therein lies your problem. You think that the ToE has remained unchallenged for 160 years.

All hypotheses are "challenged." All scientific theories are "challenged." Do you think that when Wallace and Darwin independently recognized the basics tenets of evolution and began publishing their findings that they weren't "challenged?!"

Of COURSE they were! And that's the most ironic part about the lunacy of creationists. This stuff has been "challenged" on many grounds for 160 years and yet it still survives as the single most elegant and persuasive explanation for the diversity of life anyone has ever put forth.

Heck, I have to laugh everytime a new creationist meme is dreamt up - because all that comes of it is further study of that meme and often a paper results. Things that didn't have a rich field of study before creationists latched on to them now do: Evolution of sight, echolocation, vitamin C in primates, avain-reptilian shared ancestry, etc. It's always exciting when creationists find another "gap" for the actual scientists to close.

So in that sense, sure it's "challenged." The theory of relativity has been challenged repeatedly (and updated accordingly). The FACT of evolution has never been credibly challenged. The THEORY of how it works (ie, the mechanisms) has. Innumerable times. Which is a GOOD thing.

YOUR brand of "challenging," from an anti-science "Goddidit" puddle, however, hardly provides anything worth exploring.

It has not and your failure to recognize or acknowledge it IS due to ignorance.

So we're good now?
254 posted on 09/10/2012 7:55:39 AM PDT by whattajoke (Let's keep Conservatism real.)
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To: whattajoke

If you’re happy being ignorant, who am I to argue?


255 posted on 09/10/2012 9:07:56 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: metmom
If you’re happy being ignorant, who am I to argue?

Fascinating dissonance.
256 posted on 09/10/2012 9:17:56 AM PDT by whattajoke (Let's keep Conservatism real.)
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To: metmom

not only that metmom- but htese scientists have to REJECT direct evidence that shows that evolution is a biological mathematical, chemical and time sensitive impossibility- and put all their faith in a process that simply defies logic- they have to wave their hands and state ‘well we don’t have to discuss the abiogenisis’ as though that isn’t a crucial step in their allegations that life began from chemicals? Dirty chemicals at that- Their ‘Will if this had happened, then this could have happened provided so and so was inplace first, and provided nature suppressed such and such’ is the epitome of hypocrisy when they then turn aroudn and claim Christians beleive in fairy tales because they beleive in an intelligent designer


257 posted on 09/10/2012 10:10:49 AM PDT by CottShop (Scientific belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge)
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To: metmom; betty boop; Fichori; tpanther; Gordon Greene; Ethan Clive Osgoode; Alamo-Girl
Interesting

Has Mr. Nye yet proposed that the children of Christians (especially the so-called "Crevos") be removed from their homes if they are not taught by their parents that Evoluton "proves" that God does not exist?

258 posted on 09/10/2012 10:25:02 AM PDT by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: YHAOS

bill nye so weird not even disney wanted him.


259 posted on 09/10/2012 10:27:38 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: CottShop

What’s a “dirty chemical?”


260 posted on 09/10/2012 10:28:42 AM PDT by whattajoke (Let's keep Conservatism real.)
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