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August 27th, 2012
11:31 AM ET
Bill Nye slams creationismBy Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN)–Famed TV scientist Bill Nye is slamming creationism in a new online video for Big Think titled "Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children." "Denial of evolution is unique to the United States," Nye begins in a YouTube video posted on Thursday. The video quickly picked up steam over the weekend and as of Monday morning had been viewed more than 1,100,000 times. Nye - a mechanical engineer and television personality best known for his program, "Bill Nye the Science Guy" - said the United States has great capital in scientific knowledge and "when you have a portion of the population that doesn't believe in it, it holds everyone back." "Your world becomes fantastically complicated if you don't believe in evolution," Nye said in the Web video. Creationists are a vast and varied group in the United States. Most creationists believe in the account of the origins of the world as told in the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories In the creation account, God creates Adam and Eve, the world, and everything in it in six days. For Christians who read the Genesis account literally, or authoritatively as they would say, the six days in the account are literal 24-hour periods and leave no room for evolution. Young Earth creationists use this construct and biblical genealogies to determine the age of the Earth, and typically come up with 6,000 to 10,000 years. Your Take: 5 reactions to Bill Nye's creationism critique The Gallup Poll has been tracking Americans' views on creation and evolution for the past 30 years. In June it released its latest findings, which showed 46% of Americans believed in creationism, 32% believed in evolution guided by God, and 15% believed in atheistic evolution. During the 30 years Gallup has conducted the survey, creationism has remained far and away the most popular answer, with 40% to 47% of Americans surveyed saying they believed that God created humans in their present form at one point within the past 10,000 years. Survey: Nearly half of Americans subscribe to creationist view of human origins "The idea of deep time of billions of years explains so much of the world around us. If you try to ignore that, your worldview becomes crazy, untenable, itself inconsistent," Nye said in the video. "I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, that's completely inconsistent with the world we observe, that's fine. But don't make your kids do it. Because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems," he said. Creationists' beliefs about the origins of the Earth are often a narrow focus, based in large part on religious beliefs, and while they reject evolution as "just one theory," they often embrace other fields of science and technology. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter In "The Genesis Flood," the 1961 book that in many ways help launch the Young Earth creationism movement in the United States, the authors write: “Our conclusions must unavoidably be colored by our Biblical presuppositions, and this we plainly acknowledge." Their goal for the book was to harmonize the scientific evidence with the accounts in Genesis of creation and the flood. The idea of creationism has been scorned by the mainstream scientific community since shortly after Darwin introduced "The Origin of Species" in 1859. By 1880, The American Naturalists, a science journal, reported nearly every major university in America was teaching evolution. "In another couple centuries I'm sure that worldview won't even exist. There's no evidence for it. So..." Nye ends his video. soundoff (14,640 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 Next » |
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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I strongly object to my evil twin brother's heretical comments.
The idea of the existence of God and the ideas of science don't necessarily have to be at odds with each other. Only if you insist on a strict LITERAL interpretation of the Bible does the conflict arise. It's quite possible that Bill Nye believes in God, as did the great scientist and SF writer, Isaac Asimov.
I think its safe to assume he does not believe in god.
Actually, Isaac Asimov was, and shall always be, an atheist. Most SF authors, most scientists tend to be atheists in general, because their work is often the result of critical thinking skills, which religion doesn't offer. Religion throws out ALL logic, and can't deal with the true enormity of the universe. What are people going to do when we make contact with alien life, who certainly won't look anything like our most prevalent images of a god? That section of a bible will be thrown out the windows.
It's imperative that this world learn to examine everything, not try to succeed on the basis of a book written by many different authors over the space of a couple of millennia. Nothing like that can possibly be "inerrant" because it is as filled with bunk as a fairy tale book.
Okay, Bill Nye. If everything evolved out of the slime, then nothing in this life matters. There is not a difference between a baby being born or a shooting in a Colorado movie theater. For this life to have meaning, there must be a God and there must be an afterlife.
Says who?
Why?
Nope. On the contrary. Those things would rob life of all its meaning. Fortunately, they are not there, so no worries.
Upon death, all joys and sorrows, triumphs and defeats, and love and hate cease to exist. Why would anything matter when it will cease to exist upon death?
Why does life have to have a meaning?
What difference does it make? If there's no afterlife to look forward to, all of this is pointless?
Special Snowflake Syndrome.
So one thing is more comfortable for you to believe in so you choose that path instead of where all facts lie? "Meaning" is a human construct. We create it. We destroy it. We are the gods.
Grow Up... See.. we dont want our Children to be soo closed minded like you are.. Living in a fairy tail
Everybody needs to be told one day that Santa isnt real
Basketcase, are you suggesting that you're content with living for several years without knowing how we got here and why we got here?
People, I long for you to know the Gospel. We all stink; Jesus is greater, though.
> Why would anything matter when it will cease to exist upon death?
Because it matters during life. Life - the only venue of heaven and hell.
leslie,
We know the gospels and the Bible, it's statistically proven that Atheists and Agnostics know more about religion and the Bible then the religious do. It's all made-up for control, I mean, look at you, you bought into this and you really, really believe it.
" If everything evolved out of the slime, then nothing in this life matters." Wow, I bet you are a lot of fun to be around. I can give you examples, though: my son will live after me, and I want him to have a great life. I am devoted to my lovely wife, and I am with her as often as life allows. I have friends, relatives, and countrymen; I create things that may survive my death. Why do you assume that because YOU find life bleak and meaningless, we all do? Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. Life itself is worthwhile.
Bill Nye Taught over a million children about science in a fun and educational way... and as such as he taught science, he is also one of the few adults in the world to not lie to children.
Have fun with this one Creationists.. All you have is a 2000 year old book and the word of a few thousand Evangelists who are notorious for making crap up.
Creationism is a theory or origins. The theory of evolution is not. No Christian or other religious person can argue that evolution happens on a small scale. There is absolutely no way to test evolution as an explanation for origins. Trying to extrapolate observed phenomenon from the past several thousand years out past millions of years is just plain bad science anyway you cut it. The theory of evolution as an explanation of origins is not science and is not fact.
LOLOLOL
Uh, no... you are absolutely incorrect.
Go back to basic science and learn what the word "theory" means.
I know exactly what a theory is, and I agree evolution is a theory. It is based on facts and has been tested time and time again over several decades. That does not mean that extrapolating this theory over several million years is valid or scientific. This is and has always been bad science in every discipline.
In science, a theory is a possible (most of the time likely) explanation for something known to occur. That evolution happens is indisputable, because it can be, and has been, observed in the field. You can argue against possible ideas that come from that such as whether humans really descended from ape-like creatures (despite the evidence supporting that they did), but stating that the concept of evolution itself is a myth makes no more sense than maintaining the sky is not blue, or there is no such thing as gravity.
"No Christian or other religious person can argue that evolution happens on a small scale" and yet you have to be immunized over and over against evolving strains of influenza. Yes, DO learn some basic science.
He looks creepy in that picture
I hope that maybe some open minded non-believer will read the simple article on this website:
http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html
Just a little food for thought to make room for the possible existence of God. You must admit. If you can't disprove it, it is possible. I actually have a life so, back to work.
That's not how it works. You can't disprove that you're god. Do you run around thinking it's possible that you're god? If so you might wanna get that checked out. If you can prove it, than it is. That's the only sane way to handle it.
So because you can't DISPROVE it, it's possible. But eveolutions HAS been proven and everyone turns there heads as scream "LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU."
"You must admit. If you can't disprove it, it is possible. " I'm going to go out on a limb and say you weren't on the debate team. That's an absolutely childish statement. Do you want a rebuttal, or a lollipop?
It's shameful that you have to have courage in this country to stand up for what is scientifically proven, for fear of being attacked by religious fanatics. We should be better than Iran. This is America.
Right on.
I once had a Christian argue that the dinosaur bones were created and placed on earth by God to 'test' the faith of people. Dinosaurs never actually exsisted because the earth hasn't been around that long... but God created them to trick the doubters to Hell (I guess) sounds kinda' mean, but he used to be in the old testament.
At Brent Harris... lay a peice of bread on the counter and observe... no mold. Leave bread their for several days and the mold will begin to appear and eventually cover the whole piece of bread.
This is magic that I created through the power of the all mighty God... now send me money. 🙂 No really... it goes right along with your silly scoffing at evolution.
...typical comment of someone who knows nothing about the Word of God....
...typical comment of someone who knows nothing about science ....
Only someone who has suffered severe mental abuse in the form of catholic school and fundamentalist parents would think thus way.
@SoS – ouch...but I do know the compounds in the human body are the same ones found in the earth. ...from the dust makes sense....I also know that man is not a gibbering ape or a mimmicking parrot. We have words to communicate – with each other? – No, my friend – so we can communicate with our – your – God!!! Try it sometime and you'll get all the evidence you need.
Hello all you God loving people, isn't it just possible that God really is a man made creation? Isn't it possible that science has progressed through knowledge gained over the last two thousand years that has been answering many of the questions that perplexed those who wrote the bible? God didn't write it, men did. The same men who thought lightning was God's anger, the earth was flat and fire breathing dragans lived in the cave that people were too afraid to visit? Isn't it just possible that science has consistently helped Darwins theory of Evolution along? I'm not saying we have the answers for everything but isn't it just possible that God is a man made creation?
....typical comments from someone that is completely ignorant of the Word of God....
Or Drew perhaps I have evolved past believing in the best selling science fiction novel of all time? See you in hell, right next to all of your sick priests.
drew: and you sound like someone who can't distinguish between words of iron age sheep mounters and that of god
@smart and sam: you must realize you have no sensible retorts which leads to infantile criticism....that's all science gives you?
"I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, that's completely inconsistent with the world we observe, that's fine. But don't make your kids do it. Because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems," he said.
So what he is saying is that people who believe in creationism have nothing of value to offer to the scientific and engineering communities. Untrue Bill Nye.
Creationism has nothing to offer to those communities.
If you cannot accept simple truth how can you add anything to complex sciences or engineering...
So there is no debate. Debating Noah's Arc as real is a ridiculous as debating if gravity exist. Is America going backwards? So he sailed to Australia and dropped off their animals, then nipped over to Patagonia, then popped by Alaska, then sailed around South America and skooted up to Newfoundland...please. No one at Nasa, MIT, Google or Apple believe this story but the welcome to Walmart crowd...nuff said. Where do you want your children to work?
The assertion that you cannot be a creationist and still be able to "build stuff, solve problems..." is absolutely absurd. I am a creationist. I am also a Technology Manager, husband, father, and musical artist. I do all those things Nye believes creationists are incapable of and I do them very well, thank you- and since I can function perfectly well in society with my beliefs intact, why do they really matter to Nye so much? Because haters are gonna hate.
Scott
If you can do all these things you either don't really believe or you haven't ever really examined what you believe.
Isn't it amazing thinking, physics and mechanics work, but there is no design, just random happenstance... Takes more faith to believe in evolution than that God actually created the world we know.
and, of course, who created God?
A few questions should help shed light on the relationship between religion and rational thought.
The completely absurd theory that all 7,000,000,000 human beings are simultaneously being supervised 24 hours a day, every day of their lives by an immortal, invisible being for the purposes of reward or punishment in the “afterlife” comes from the field of:
(a) Astronomy;
(b) Medicine;
(c) Economics; or
(d) Christianity
You are about 70% likely to believe the entire Universe began less than 10,000 years ago with only one man, one woman and a talking snake if you are a:
(a) historian;
(b) geologist;
(c) NASA astronomer; or
(d) Christian
I have convinced myself that gay $ex is a choice and not genetic, but then have no explanation as to why only gay people have ho.mo$exual urges. I am
(a) A gifted psychologist
(b) A well respected geneticist
(c) A highly educated sociologist
(d) A Christian with the remarkable ability to ignore inconvenient facts.
I honestly believe that, when I think silent thoughts like, “please god, help me pass my exam tomorrow,” some invisible being is reading my mind and will intervene and alter what would otherwise be the course of history in small ways to help me. I am
(a) a delusional schizophrenic;
(b) a naïve child, too young to know that that is silly
(c) an ignorant farmer from Sudan who never had the benefit of even a fifth grade education; or
(d) your average Christian
Millions and millions of Catholics believe that bread and wine turns into the actual flesh and blood of a dead Jew from 2,000 years ago because:
(a) there are obvious visible changes in the condiments after the Catholic priest does his hocus pocus;
(b) tests have confirmed a divine presence in the bread and wine;
(c) now and then their god shows up and confirms this story; or
(d) their religious convictions tell them to blindly accept this completely fvcking absurd nonsense.
I believe that an all powerful being, capable of creating the entire cosmos watches me have $ex to make sure I don't do anything "naughty". I am
(a) A victim of child molestation
(b) A r.ape victim trying to recover
(c) A mental patient with paranoid delusions
(d) A Christian
The only discipline known to often cause people to kill others they have never met and/or to commit suicide in its furtherance is:
(a) Architecture;
(b) Philosophy;
(c) Archeology; or
(d) Religion
What is it that most differentiates science and all other intellectual disciplines from religion:
(a) Religion tells people not only what they should believe, but what they are morally obliged to believe on pain of divine retribution, whereas science, economics, medicine etc. has no “sacred cows” in terms of doctrine and go where the evidence leads them;
(b) Religion can make a statement, such as “there is a composite god comprised of God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit”, and be totally immune from experimentation and challenge, whereas science can only make factual assertions when supported by considerable evidence;
(c) Science and the scientific method is universal and consistent all over the World whereas religion is regional and a person’s religious conviction, no matter how deeply held, is clearly nothing more than an accident of birth; or
(d) All of the above.
If I am found wandering the streets flagellating myself, wading into a filth river, mutilating my child’s genitals or kneeling down in a church believing that a being is somehow reading my inner thoughts and prayers, I am likely driven by:
(a) a deep psychiatric issue;
(b) an irrational fear or phobia;
(c) a severe mental degeneration caused by years of drug abuse; or
(d) my religious belief.
Who am I? I don’t pay any taxes. I never have. Any money my organization earns is tax free and my own salary is also tax free, at the federal, state and local level. Despite contributing nothing to society, but still enjoying all its benefits, I feel I have the right to tell others what to do. I am
(a) A sleazy Wall Street banker
(b) A mafia boss
(c) A drug pusher; or
(d) A Catholic Priest, Protestant Minister or Jewish Rabbi.
What do the following authors all have in common – Jean Paul Sartre, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Victor Hugo, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, René Descartes, Francis Bacon, John Milton, John Locke, and Blaise Pascal:
(a) They are among the most gifted writers the World has known;
(b) They concentrated on opposing dogma and opening the human mind and spirit to the wonders of free thought and intellectual freedom;
(c) They were intimidated by the Catholic Church and put on the Church’s list of prohibited authors; or
(d) All of the above.
The AIDS epidemic will kill tens of millions in poor African and South American countries before we defeat it. Condoms are an effective way to curtail its spread. As the Pope still has significant influence over the less educated masses in these parts of the World, he has exercised this power by:
(a) Using some of the Vatican’s incomprehensible wealth to educate these vulnerable people on health family planning and condom use;
(b) Supporting government programs that distribute condoms to high risk groups;
(c) Using its myriad of churches in these regions to distribute condoms; or
(d) Scaring people into NOT using condoms, based upon his disdainful and aloof view that it is better that a person die than go against the Vatican’s position on contraceptive use.
Well written Dose of Reality. If there was even a shred of evidence of a God, there are many supposedly, then most of the people backing him up in these posts would have been struck down along with the rest of us. It was terrifying to find out that Santa Claus wasn't stopping by every house on Christmas eve too. I'm still not over that truth.
pat, why does someone have to have created God? Part of the foundation of the Big Bang theory is that, because matter can't be created or destroyed, it always existed. The matter that became more dense was always there. Why is it so easy to believe unintelligent mass can exist without a beginning but not an intelligent being?
@buster. Why would it need a middleman?
@A Dose of Reallity. Great post. Disturbingly true, but still amusing somehow...
Reminder To The Anti-Evolution Crowd:
Evolution does not deal with the Big-Bang, it does not deal with the initial emergence of life, it only deals the what happened after wards and continues to happen today.
But then you all already knew this because you are all educated, right?
No, it sure doesn't and that's why it can't account for something appearing from nothing....keep gettin' educated...
@drew. But your theory has an equivalent – god came from nothing and created the rest. I say cut out the middleman.
..,.except the Bible does not teach that God came from nothing....you know nothing about the Word of God so don't explain what you think It may or may not mean – you have no inclination whatsoever .
So where did your god come from?
Lying to children is wrong. The issue here is the parents and teachers don't know they are lying. The comments here are very depressing. I avoid arguments with creationist because it is never fruitful. All I can say is please read some secular information on evolution and you will easily inform yourself it is quite real. Maybe when Darwin was around there wasn't significant evidence but now there is loads of it. To most educated people denying evolution will just make you look foolish.
Faith is the belief in something you know is not true.
Incorrect pat, if you're at school, and you think the bus will pick you up this afternoon after school, that "thought" is faith. Believing something you know not to be true is ignorance - maybe you should evaluate
Nye says: We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems," he said.
I'm not sure why you can't be a good engineer, architect or tax paying citizen if you believe in creation. I don't think believing in creation or evolution has anything to do with being good at something, even being an engineer. Seems a silly statement to me.
I would go a step further and say we need educated scientist, engineers and physicist as politicians instead of bloodsucking lawyers.
Evolution is a scientific theory, creationism is not.
A scientific theory is "a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment."
That is why evolution should be the only one taught.
Seems all the scientific community love to talk and explain about how much they know or think they know. They love to get government grants to do more and more research – they are ALWAYS underfunded. Love to get papers peer reviewed. Love to address crowds in forums. Love to "publish" their findings. Let’s face it, they all love themselves. They believe that they can prove anything (believe in themselves), well, because they are scientists. The thought that they are not master of their own life outrages them. And they do more and more research and studying b/c they can't understand life. It seems they don't know or can't figure out "WHY" they are here. They just want to know "HOW" they got here at this moment with all these pieces put together to make a functioning human or any other organism. I guess their "WHY" is to figure out the "HOW". So, we know scientists are self absorbed, but what about creationists. Pretty simple I guess. They believe in a GOD who created everything. It all had to come from somewhere right? Where did all those "building blocks" come from? I suppose they just "existed" in some void form/pool. Or they were all already inside the “star” that exploded and created the universe? And a rock (planet earth) just so happened to land in the spot it is in within the solar system to get the proper environment (light, heat, water, atmosphere) to grow simple organisms that eventually became what we see in the world around us? I’m supposed to believe that? Prokaryotic cells “combined” to create eukaryotic cells. (possibly Adam and Eve eh, we won’t go there). On to Miller-Urey experiment. Everything in a lab is a controlled test. You can't create an uncontrolled experiment and I would be willing to say that life can’t arise from where there is no life. You can't put fats, carbs, nucleotides, and amino acids together and not expect something to happen b/c, I suppose according to the science community, they are the "building blocks" of life. But, WHERE did those blocks come from? Oh, from that star or pool o’ “stuff”… Magically appeared I guess? Scientists don't know the answer (of course they claim b/c science is young). And I’m sure there are countless other experiments that that lead scientists to believe in non-creationism. I don’t care to keep up with those. Creationists believe the answer and scientists ‘believe’ creationists are crazy for “believing”. It’s not a fact if a scientist can’t see it or prove it. Once again, they are self absorbed. I suppose we are all here “just because”. There is really no meaning to our life. That is what I think a non-creationist scientist believes. If that is so, then they must live a pretty lonely and sorry life. No meaning. If you want meaning, turn your life over to GOD. Listen to what your body and soul can tell you when you put science aside. There are some things you can’t explain and I’ve had many doctors tell me that. Don’t argue over who is right b/c in the end GOD is right. Everything belongs to GOD, even the building blocks. So, the question is can scientists prove GOD does not exist? (this ad is supported by a believer who is not a religious “crazy”, who does not go to church every Sunday, but also does not believe in “non-belief” and is also not a scientific physicist or whatever kind of scientist who dreams of mimicking creation of man someday). Also, ready for ridicule from all the liberal scientists who actually get on liberal CNN’s website b/c you all would be the majority on here. TELL ME THE SCIENTIFIC ANSWER.
Without even reading your post, I can tell you are a creationist because your post is so long.
Quit trying to convert people on CNN boards.
Its sad and desperate.
You sound quite pitiful.
You chose a good handle.
@pat: I can tell you're an evolution person because your reading comprehension is so short...
...very well said....rfr
We can't explain anything with religion and yet religion claims to have ALL the answers to the unknowns of the universe (god did it). Religion has no evidence to back up its claims and yet science REQUIRES evidence to take an idea seriously. Science will change its theories with better information, when religion changes its mind it is completely arbitrary.
And you are claiming science is arrogant? Try again.
herp a derp
Science is about observation. Nothing more. Nothing less.
We OBSERVE that species inherit genetic traits from their parents.
We OBSERVE that species produce FAR more offspring than can possibly survive
We OBSERVE that some traits are good for survival, and some aren't.
But really, what you're looking for, is an explanation to EVERYTHING. But, you're failing to even understand the basics.
So, start with what I've explained, which is actually Natural Selection, a theory proposed by Darwin to explain Evolution. Accept it. Then come back and ask the next question, and so on. Each time, TEST your observations. See if they are reproducible. When they are, just like natural selection, mutation, genetic shift, and other causes of Evolution, congratulations, you've used science.
Most likely, you'll never get the answers you're looking for. But that doesn't mean the answers you have are false.
Where did god come from? If (s)he can just exist, why not the universe. Also science has way better answers than you're giving credit for.
You sound like a crazy person. Blah, blah, blah, blah, bilble, creation, blah. Your not the stupidest person alive, your mom is when she gave birth to you in a toilet at Arby's.
"The thought that they are not master of their own life outrages them."
Actually, the thought that you and your God are not my master is what outrages you. There's very little to no outrage from the scientific community about who is or isn't the master of the universe, as many grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons and they all know that refers to He-Man and his God's that give him "The Power!!"...