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.
Absolutely. There isn't much harm in a small number of individuals who believe the metaphorical creation stories of Genesis are literal accounts from 6,000 years ago--but when there are enough such people that they can force laws to be passed mandating teaching religion in lieu of science in science classrooms, there is a problem. We cannot keep our scientific edge when people are not only scientifically illiterate, but cling tooth and nail to that illiteracy.
So, you think the world is the center of the universe and the sun revolves around it instead of the other way around? Galileo said that the earth revolves around the sun and that is correct. Galileo was correct and the church imprisoned him for it.
Bill must be pushing for a job at the re-education camp.
I don't personally know anyone like that but they usually end up being some of the most powerful advocates of God and are really good at spreading the Word - our God can withstand scrutiny and does not require us to go on jihad to protect His good name - He's not one of those pitiful Gods...
Time for Bill D Nye to get a real job rather than Nationalist Socialist TV. Hey Bill, where’s your proof?
Pray for America
There are many such life stories out there.
It seems that their militant atheism simply comes from a childish rebellion, though they claim it to be based on “reason”.
However, when they actually engage in the intellectual exercise of investigation into “disproving” God and His Word, they end up finding rationally irrefutable evidence that either it is true, or nothing is true.
Schaefer referred to this thinking as “sociological science”, in that, when “choosing” which explanation fits the evidence, the chooser puts more emphasis on the sociological impacts than on the evidence.
We’re living the sociological impacts, today, of rejecting Creationism (man is a special creation made in God’s image and is inherently worthy of respect), vs Evolution (humans are an accident of mutation, time, and environment, and are no more special than any other creature on the planet).
I point out the sociological impacts of evolution only to show those like Nye who claim a sociological superiority of evolutionary thinking that they are responsible for the social mess that we are in.
Pope Urban VI asked some very reasonable questions about the treatment of tides in manuscript of Dialogue. Galileo told him he would clear it up in the print edition. Galileo put the Pope's question in the mouth of the doltish character Simplico, only to have them swatted aside dismissively by the the wise interlocutor, Salvati. It is embarassment to Galileo's supporters that he exhibits absolutely no understanding of the mechanism of tides, the Pope's question was reasonable, Galileo's answer was not.
Galileo was something of a hot head and a contraversalist. When his enemies accused him of heresy he might have counted on support from the Pope, but the Pope let the trial go on.
A further embarassment is that Galileo did not understand the details of either Copernican nor Ptolemaic astronomy. As Owen Gingerich points out ("The Eye of God" - read it) Copernican astronomy does not represent any improvement over Ptolemaic as a scientific theory. In a sense it is somewhat retrograde: Its appeal lies in the fact that Copernicus could obey the Aristolean dictum that planetary motion must be resolved into uniform circular motions. Copernicus achieved this, but only at a cost of greater complexity and, at best, no more accuracy.
Koestler ("The Sleepwalkers") thinks that heliocentricist in the Vatican (and he believes Jesuits were overwhelmingly heliocentricist) were alarmed by Galileo's hamfisted and half cocked advocacy of heliocentricism. Sort of like the way a pro-lifer might be alarmed by the pronouncements of Rep. Akins.
It’s nice to know the I am not scientifically literate after undergrad degrees in biology and general science, a doctorate, and 3 years of post grad education. Now if I only bought into the poorly supported and falling apart theory of evolution I could have saved all that time and expense and immediately qualified as a scientist. Who knew?
Guess I better not help college daughter with her organic chemistry any more being as I’m not scientifically literate and all. Maybe she can find a first grader who was taught the TOE to help her
Bill Nye has observed macro-evolution? You’d think with that kind of proof, he wouldn’t have to do schtick for Disneyworld rides.....
Oh, wait...he HASN’T observed a species turn into another species? Well. No wonder he still has to do bow tie crap.
I believe this garbage is being introduced the week of the Republican convention on purpose....these questions have NOTHING to do with the state of the economy and Obamugabe’s mismanagement thereof....
But look at CBS News right now...at 8:45 am, that pathetic network has Bill Nye on LIVE pushing his pro-evolution point of view. What a shock.
Well Bill, I’ve worked in aerospace for 40 years, and most of the best and brightest were either educated in Catholic schools, or in a Jewish household.
Having their formative years, steeped in a belief in creation did not stifle their scientific curiosity.
It does, however, ground them in the concepts of purpose and consequence.
However, I’ll bet Bill Nye is just fine with allowing Muslims to teach their children that all non-Muslims are infidels and need to be destroyed.
Galileo got imprisoned for being a smart ass to the pope. He wasn’t very “politic” and it got him into trouble. I’ve read that the church officials at the time weren’t necessarily against Galileo’s notion, but he challenged the church’s authority and the leadership’s reputations. In the end it was Galileo’s pride verses the pope’s pride and in the end all of the people at the time lost!
“When you have a portion of the population that doesn’t believe in (God) it holds everybody back, really.”
I am a scientist and a devout Christian.
It is interesting to look at the distribution of believers among scientists. The harder the science, the more likely the belief in God. Those in the social “sciences” are the least likely to believe in God. They are also the least likely to be considered real scientists.
I wonder what right answers Nye might be concerned about? Are these to questions concerning human behavior and accountability. We've tried the evolutionary answers for the better part of the past century and all we have to show for these right answers are moral apathy, confusion, cultural rot and a potpourri of half-baked belief systems.
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.
Oh sure. We’d never have invented stuff like the steam engine, the telephone, and the light bulb if we had all believed that God created living things like the Bible says.
Say, Bill, what's your view on AGW and the 'scientific method' used to develop the models?
Agree.
I’m sad to hear this because I thought he had an excellent TV show. I hope he opens his heart and mind to faith.
I’ve been told by several atheists that they are confident there is no such thing as God because they cannot see, hear, taste, smell, or touch Him. I ask them if by the same reasoning they believe there is no such thing as love.
I would bet, that as a whole, children who are taught Creationism are also taught the theory of evolution.
It would be interesting to see the test scores [relative to the theory of evolution] of children with a knowledge of Creationism vs. those without.
I read your words. They are one sided. The angelic church and the hot headed ignorant Galileo. Hmmmm. The facts are Galileo was right. The church was wrong. Those are the facts and no matter how you/church wish to manipulate them, they remain. It is/was immoral what the church did to that man. The pope did not show the mercy, love or patience of Christ. He showed what he truly was and that was a prideful spiteful man.
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