Bill Nye The Science Guy: Parents, do not teach creationism
Bill Nye The Science Guy has created a two-minute You Tube video for online knowledge group Big Think in which he defends evolution and ask parents not to raise creationist kids. Nye hosted a popular kids science show in the 1990s.
From NBC News via Channel 11’s website:
“Denial of evolution is unique to the United States,” Nye says in the video. After praising the U.S. as the world’s most advanced technological society, he credits that ranking to “intellectual capital we have, the general understanding of science. When you have a portion of the population that doesn’t believe in that, it holds everybody back, really.”
Nye goes on to say that he asks those who don’t believe in evolution to explain to him why they feel that way, and that “your world just becomes fantastically complicated when you don’t believe in evolution…”
“And I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine,” Nye says. “But don’t make your kids do it because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need people that can – we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems.”
What do you think of Bill Nye asking parents not to teach creationism? What are you teaching at home? Do you have a hard time bringing together your faith and evolution? Does Nye’s argument sway you? Is this just an issue in the South?
(This is a hot-button issue. Please try to use your best manners on the blog.)
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216 comments Add your comment
jpm5243
September 1st, 2012
3:30 am
How have China and India outperformed the US in scientific innovation or achievement? Specifically, please.
Good Faith
September 1st, 2012
4:34 am
It continues to amaze me that although scientist have been wrong throughout all history yet people still continue to believe theory after theory. People have questioned the bible since its creation, but no one til this day has been able to prove its words untrue, and I strongly believe no one will. I give thanks to the people who still try to raise they’re kids on the lessons of the bible. Because many of our ancestors were raised on the idea of creation and one all loving God. You wonder why our grandparents and great grandparents had less adulters, divorces, and murders. It’s because they were raised on the godly teachings of the bible and they knew better. But with the loss of religion comes these terrible events we see before us now
Joe Wagner
September 1st, 2012
8:23 am
In Defense of Bill Nye and the Teaching of Creation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXyS2xEMHCw&feature=plcp
PoliTecs
September 2nd, 2012
12:45 am
Your a science guy!? Your a quack that’s obviously getting lots of government subsidies. Before evolution can occur there must be a beginning AKA creation. The spark. The big bang… call it what you want. And how do you explain volcanic explosions with the fallout of new soils and minerals to create new life as in the Hawaiian Islands? The two are not mutually exclusive.
Alex
September 2nd, 2012
3:50 am
Cricket, you said leeh1 was the fool God was talking about. So we know leeh1 exists. All you have to do now is show us God exists.
P.S. please don’t say “God exists because it says in the Bible etc…”
Don Turner
September 2nd, 2012
8:11 am
Well,
Bill may not have meant to say what he said, he was just following the croanies way of donig things for the moment. Better to go along with a bad idea and survive this administration than admit the truth and, go down first. He is wrong of course. Teaching that there is a God, that he is real, that creation happened, is true and the right thing to do. At the same time, not teaching your children that the theory of evolution exists and, that even though there is no shred of proof to it, was in fact, a piece taken from a grieving mans diary of his dying daughter Emily and his explanation of why she did not survive, well, that is what we should teach. Our society should know the truth and, we should all be aware of the truth, not wrapped up in how we feel about creationism or the theory of evolution or Darwin or even Bill Nye or Alan Leshner, bless his heart. If we really want to know that truth, we must admit the failings. There were 2200 people that trasnlated the Bible and, they all did it exactly the same except two young people inexperienced at the time. The theory of evolution will always be just that, a theory. Lehninger said it best when he said, in his biochemistry book that 650 million years is not enough time to even put the stars in place, even by accident. So the next print had 2 billion years, the newest has 5.4 billion. Scientists should have measured the universe first, then printed the book. The universe, if all the stars stopped on a dime from the big bang, in perfect harmonty, would take 22 billion years roughly to put in motion. Put in motion, that is another idea we need to deal with. All of it is winding down so, if we can’t put it as a constant it had to happen all at once…sure hate it for that theory, just lost a lot of credit….maybe it is creation. Wait, nope, can’t be because that is not what we want it to be. Well, sure hate it for the ones wanting to bend the results however, the proof is in and it is a landslide on the creation side. Really wanted to believe the theory, especially about the survival of species because, that would give us the right to kill off the old, the weak, the crazy people and use them for experiments and/or for food. Guess the flag of freedom doesn’t fly on both sides of the flagpole any more huh? Wonder what would have happened if we said in the end of the civl war, we don’t want to hear from the blacks, they are getting in the way of the pure thoughts, so we will have their vocals chords removed so they can’t speak. Sound atrocious doesn’t it? Let’s all remember we are humans first, but when it comes to this country, it was founded on Godly principles, which is why it has been blessed. Take that away, and we are just another nation of people, headed for the same level of issues that the rest of the world has, only worse, since we knew better at one time…psalms 14:1
josh shetler
September 2nd, 2012
10:33 am
this sounds similar to what men like Voltaire have been saying for centuries- But Gods truth keeps marching on
jpm5243
September 2nd, 2012
4:44 pm
When I look at a building, I don’t have to see the man who built it to know he exists.
Eduardo
September 3rd, 2012
2:16 pm
I think the title does not do justice to Bill Nye’s plea. He is not asking parents to stop teaching creationism to their children. He is simply asking them to allow their children to decide what they want to believe, rather than forcing them to believe what they are teaching. He wants children to have the opportunity to learn both the religious ideas and scientific ideas. They can then decide what they would rather believe.
I am no longer religious, but when I was younger I learned religion at Sunday school. And I learned science at public school. My parents and teachers never forced either way of thinking on me. I was presented with opportunity to choose, and I chose science. However, many of my friends chose religion. Either way, all of us are informed. “Scientifically literate” does not mean you have to chose science over religion.
This is what Bill Nye was asking for.
Luke
September 3rd, 2012
11:09 pm
Science disproves science on this one. We know from Francesco Redi’s fruit fly and larva experiment, which is FUNDAMENTAL to scientific theory, that something CANNOT come from nothing. Let’s say the Big Bang occurred, let’s say everything we know and see and all of it’s beauty and intelligence fell into place like a trillion piece puzzle falling together perfectly out of the box, the question remains, WHERE DID THOSE ELEMENTS AND GASES COME FROM BILL NYE?
xjustos
September 4th, 2012
4:05 am
5000 whining atheists vs the Great Prophet
how the divine pen of Michel N. crushed the international atheist movement
skepticforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18660
youtube.com/watch?v=s3lwG4MytSI
one applicant right here…
get the POINT, Randi….
for lies on top of lies
youtube.com/watch?v=bbmXpNEFipE
do you think you can threaten my right to FREE SPEECH?
what if I told you that I am not who you think I am….
Not Dennis Markuze – but a FAN!
youtube.com/watch?v=nvatDdOWcLw&lc
you’re not the center of the universe!
youtube.com/watch?v=3yRpSNIOwA4
a dishonest liar
____
youtube.com/watch?v=ruQFh_TkPto
WHINE WHINE WHINE
——-
BRING IT ON!
xjustos
September 4th, 2012
4:13 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU
which WORLD-VIEW will not exist, sh*thead?
Rob
September 4th, 2012
2:36 pm
Come on guys… Bill is getting older. Sometimes people start to get a touch of dementia at this point. We should cut him a little slack.
The real problem is that he no longer has to think any deeper than what his supporting sponsors tell him to. So he doesn’t.
He’s a bought-off political/establishment hack. We all know it. I’m just gonna say it. Why can’t people start thinking for themselves for a change.
Nancy Palmer
September 4th, 2012
5:25 pm
Evolution can occur within a species. For example, a bacteria can evolve to become resistant to an antibiotic. In this example the bacteria changes yet still remains 100% a bacteria. It doesn’t become even a smidgin a virus or anything else. This type of evolution is called microevolution and is provable science.
Evolution where one species changes into another species is called macroevolution. This type of evolution has no examples or proof, yet we’re told this is real science that we must believe in. In reality, with no examples or proof, macroevolution has to be believed in through faith. Therefore, macroevolution is a religion that Bill Nye, and so many others lie about when they promote it as science.
Rick Lilly
September 4th, 2012
9:31 pm
That’s sad that Bill thinks like this. Where there is a creation there is a creator. To think that we came from monkeys is laughable. Anyone that doesn’t believe in God and that Jesus is the Savior of the world will one day split hell wide open. As long as you have breath you still have a chance to see the light. I hope everyone who reads this will get saved and escape hell.
Science Sense
September 5th, 2012
2:18 am
One of the primary tenants of darwinian evolution is that mankind evolved from lower level animal forms, and this theory is taught as if it is a proven fact in high school and college science curicullums. This, and other major tenets of the theory of evolution have never been proven through the experimental process — one of the necessary key elements of the scientific method.
“To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry MUST BE BASED ON EMPIRICAL AND MEASURABLE EVIDENCE subject to the specific principles of reasoning (emphasis added).” Moreover, four essential elements of a scientific method are required in order to prove a scientific theory is a scientific fact. These essential elements of a scientific method are orderings of: (1) characterizations; (2) hypotheses; (3) predictions; and (4) experiments.
While some pro-evolutionary theory supporters claim that the experimental process has been used to verify the theory of evolution, I know of no experiments that have been undertaken to verify any of the major tenants of evolutionary theory. If you know of any, please let me know the names and dates of those experiments. For example, once a claimed missing link, transitional human specimen, has been found, an experiment on a sample of the DNA of that specimen would have to be undertaken to prove the DNA of that claimed human missing link specimen was transitioning over from a monkey to a human. No experiment, that I know of, has scientifically proven that a missing link, transitional human specimen, has ever been found; and the same goes for claimed transitional fossil records of lower level life forms. I think many confused pro-evolutionary theory persons have confused unproven evolutionary hypotheses and predictions with experiments. In conclusion, evolution is just another unproven scientific theory and when “true believers” of this theory claim, otherwise, they exhibit blind faith in the false religion of atheistic evolutionary darwinism.