CBC: 'Science Guy' Bill Nye condemns teaching creationism

[pampango]

Bill Nye, host of television's Bill Nye The Science Guy, recently waded into the evolution debate
with an online video urging parents not to pass their religious-based doubts about evolution on to their children.

The man known to a generation of Americans as "The Science Guy" is condemning efforts by some Christian groups to cast doubts on evolution and lawmakers who want to bring the Bible into science classrooms. Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer and star of the popular 1990s TV show Bill Nye The Science Guy, has waded into the evolution debate with an online video that urges parents not to pass their religious-based doubts about evolution on to their children.

"The Earth is not 6,000 or 10,000 years old," Nye said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's not. And if that conflicts with your beliefs, I strongly feel you should question your beliefs." "If we raise a generation of students who don't believe in the process of science, who think everything that we've come to know about nature and the universe can be dismissed by a few sentences translated into English from some ancient text, you're not going to continue to innovate," Nye said in a wide-ranging telephone interview.

Ken Ham, a co-founder of Answers in Genesis, said dating methods used by scientists to measure the age of the earth are contradictory and many don't point to millions or billions of years of time. ... America is home to the world's biggest creationist following, Ham said, and the $27 million Creation Museum has averaged about 330,000 visitors a year since it opened just south of Cincinnati in 2007.

"We say the only dating method that is absolute is the Word of God," Ham said. "Time is the crucial factor for Bill Nye. Without the time of millions of years, you can't postulate evolution change."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/09/24/bill-nye-evolution-creationism.html

[Heather MC]

1. The Bible was written before the Study of Science existed.

It can't be a science book or a viable source for science. anyone who thinks it is, is stupid.

[modem77]

2. This is sad.

"a June Gallup poll that found 46 per cent of Americans believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago."

[Taverner]

3. "We say the only dating method that is absolute is the Word of God,"

Which God? Which method? Genesis 1 or Genesis 2?

Perfect example of the willful ignorance and ignoramus pride pushed by religion.

"God said it, I believe it and that settles it"

This reads "I am stupid and I plan to stay that way, despite everyone else's efforts"

[Bozita]

4. Three cheers for Bill Nye!

[yellowcanine]

5. Creation Museum has averaged about 330,000 visitors a year....

Of course at least some of those visitors are people just checking out what the nutjobs are saying.....

[exboyfil]

8. The Freak Show gets lots of visitors as well

If a fundie relative gave me a ticket, I would go but I would not buy anything (a picture of a niece or nephew riding a dinosaur would be cute).

[Solly Mack]

6. Ham is not kosher.

(I slay me)

[Lucy Goosey]

10. Hee!

[exboyfil]

7. Yes I think the debate is between

4.5Billion vs. 4.7Billion years ago right now. Lord Kelvin when he was sparing with Darwin was willing to concede millions (and that was before the discovery of radioactivity and what it does for continual heating of the core).

Believing 10,000 years is even more in denial than those who doubted Copernicus in the 19th century.

You would have to throw libraries of scientific facts away to accept 10,000 years. Heck you could not even find oil or other geological deposits (how do you think fossil hunters are so good at what they do - they piggyback on the drilling and mining industries who have a very good idea about the age of evey deposit - it is their livelihood).

I just read a great book, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. I highly recommend it for a quick read for someone not that familar with Darwin.

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. 10,000 years...

Isn't that about the time the Sumerians invented glue?


Read that somewhere

[Zoeisright]

9. Ham is a fucking idiot.

And he's getting rich off other fucking idiots.

If he's so convinced that the Bible is the fount of all wisdom, then he should disavow his house, air conditioning, pasteurization, antibiotics, medical care of all kinds, his car, airplanes, weather forecasts, and all of the other things made possible by science.

[Lucy Goosey]

11. Nye is right, and the article annoys me

The article annoys me because the writer refused to take a side, even though one side is clearly right. It's bias towards fairness, as opposed to objective truth. The correct frame for this issue is not "Bill Nye said a thing and Ken Ham said the opposite of that thing," it's "Nye is explaining scientific facts and Ham is not. Ham decided long ago that he will not let any evidence shake him of his belief that the universe is 8000 years old, AND THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF SCIENCE."

[stuntcat]

12. That this is necessary is the most horrible shame, to me.

My fellow citizens' denial of science terrifies me. It's why I'm glad to be 42, my years watching the decline are half over.

No matter what anyone says about people's greatness, how glorious a century our extra-special species will have!, I have seen enough from Humanity the last few years to know- the horrible outweigh the good, the mindless self-servers WAY outweigh those who'll make any sacrifice to help the future. What that man says about time is how most people feel, religious or not, they will not see the past few decades in the context of history (it is NOT same-ol'/same-ol' when our species explodes exponentially) and they will not consider the future and how their actions effect it.

"We say the only dating method that is absolute is the Word of God," Ham said. "Time is the crucial factor for Bill .." It is not just religious people who are in denial of TIME.