Posted on 08/28/2012 3:39:34 AM PDT by rickmichaels
Scientist and childrens 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 thats completely inconsistent with everything weve observed in the universe thats fine. But dont 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 doesnt 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, Youre 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 countrys future, he added, saying, We need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future.
Nyes popular show, produced by Disneys Buena Vista Television, aired from September 1993 to June 1998 on PBS and was also syndicated to local television stations.
LOL!!!
My kids were all taught about evolution because it's out there and they would encounter it.
And they're all creationists and this is out of an engineer and two physics majors. And they have a really good handle scientifically on WHY evolution cannot work.
Then keep evolution out. Why should one parties creation account have precedence over any others?
Well, sure, MrB. Dontcha know what a mess this country was until the atheistic liberals came along at the end of the last century to straighten out the mess the Founding Fathers made of the US?
You didn't really just say that, did you?
God help us if there are more people like you in positions of power in this country. We're in worse shape than I thought if that's the case.
Why not?
What about the “scientifically literate” people that reject evolution and - gasp! - believe in creationism?
Oh, yes. I remember now. They lose their teaching or research jobs and prestige schools try to revoke their credentials. I guess creationism must be like a disease that the herd must be isolated from or it will spread.
Yes. Ignorant people like you ought to be locked up and kept away from the enlightened masses pouring from the public education system where truth is taught daily and in great detail. Our present society owes a great deal to clear thinking evolutionary thought and we can all look forward to a brighter tomorrow once folks like you are culled from the herd.
BINGO!
BTW, I congratulate you on producing such fine scientific illiterates.
Um, no. Neither were Galilean mathematics. Galileo made it point to belittle and insult his indulgent patron over about a matter which he clearly did not understand. Galileo was not a mathematical astronomer. I truly believe that without the Vatican trial, Galileo would be a minor figure in the history of science, inferior probably to Edmund Halley or even Robert Hook.
If its true that belief in creationism hinders scientific advance and progress, then any scientific progress should not have even been possible before Darwin proposed his theory.
The fact that it did gives lie to the claim they make that creationism harms scientific advance and will send us back into the Dark Ages.
You know perfectly well that it is highly unlikely that I'm going to embrace any anti-science, no matter how strongly some people feel that to accept the scientific view is to reject Jesus and the promise of redemption. So why do you ping me to this?
As to the "greatest scientific progress" made in this country, I think that's a matter of opinion. Personally, I think the greatest advances have been in medicine, where people live longer, healthier lives than ever before. Women no longer commonly die from childbirth; people no longer have to have ten children in the hopes that a couple will live to adulthood. None of these medical advances would have been possible without the theoretical framework of evolution showing us how all life is related, so that we can do the research. Darwin, of course, did not invent evolution; he was, like many others, an observer of it. He didn't even formulate the first or only theory to try to explain evolution; his theory was the best one at the time, in that it allowed for scientists to make testable predictions that were borne out experimentally.
A person who believes that the stories in Genesis are literal accounts simply cannot be a scientist. The only way someone can maintain their belief that the earth is flat, the sun orbits the earth, the stars are fixed in some sort of solid shell, and that plants and animals sprang forth from the dirt fully formed is by closing their eyes and mind to anything that contradicts the Biblical description. That person is simply incapable of embracing science in any form. That does not mean that people who reject the literal interpretation of Genesis are all atheists; they are not. But they understand that the message of the Bible is metaphorical and, indeed, is meant to be understood as metaphorical.
Truly you have lifted my spirits today.
May God ever bless you! [And me. And all who read these lines.]
No matter how many political ballots were burned to select him, the Pope had no more business issuing edicts on natural matters like celestial mechanics than the politician-appointed SCOTUS had in declaring CO2 a pollutant. Both were acting outside their respective spheres of expertise and authority.
The Pope never issued an edict on celestial mechanics and as I stated previously, the Vatican, probably lead by the Jesuits who were crytpoheliocentrists, explicitly avoided the controversy. There were forces in the Vatican working to reconcile Catholic doctrine with heliocentricism. They saw Galileo as bull in a china shop. They knew the arguments and mathematics of heliocentricism better than he did, but they wanted to advance the ideas without creating any unnecessary confrontations and without confusing the laity. Martin Luther was on the record as condemning heliocentricism as sinful heresy, while the Vatican never spoke on the issue.
Galileo just had a way of making enemies and playing martyr for science. I suppose by forcing the issue he did manage to embarrass the Church for going on half a millennium. The Church never really requited his bile. He was treaty humanely while in house arrest and the Vatican has since cleared him. What he did may be seen as suffering for advancement of Truth and Science, but others see it as rank egotism and arrogance, which harmed an institution and individuals that had treated him very well.
I yield to your better-researched (or indoctrinated) grasp of the matter...
[ Oh, my dear brother in Christ May I give you a GREAT BIG HUG???!!! ]
Sure come on over here.. hold my cigar and beer..
(((( HUG )))) -—> I promise not to touch, you know, “anything”..
[ This physical chemist is one of those scientists. ]
This Software Engineer is too...
Nothing from nothing leaves nothing is axiomatic..
Oh my betty, you really dont know me, nor what or how much I know about the subject matter at hand. Ironically, you sound much like Bill Nye there. My kids are fine, more than fine, but thanks for the concern. God bless you.
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