 |
|
|
|
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 » |
  About this blog
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.  |
|
|
|
First of all the jewish definintion of a day when the bible was written means a thousand years...not a literal 24 hour period, research it instead of listening to what others tell you to think. Second of all for those of you science people who don't believe a god magically appeared a created everything i pose this question to you....where did the atom that origianlley split and spewed out the everexpanding cosmos come from? Which is more believable...a creator who is constantly at work expanding our universe or a 1- in lord knows how many chance that an atom mysteriously appeared and exploded causing all the material to form planets, stars etc? If you have an opinion about something make it your own and understand it instead of being a sheep and regurgitating someone elses views.
We don't know how the universe was created. We don't even have good, testable theories. I'm OK with that. Intelligent minds can harbor doubts. We do, however, have very good testable theories about how living creatures change, diversify, form different species, and go extinct. These theories are supported by many independent sources of evidence from geology, paleontology, genetics, physiology, animal behavior, etc., etc. These theories have such powerful ability to explain and predict that they have become the foundation for all of modern biological sciences. If the "Theory of Evolution" were "false" most of biological science would be equally "false".
Please, can I have your opinion on the origin of God?
It is unbelievable that so many people believe in something with 0 evidence, there is no god, never was. Or maybe Thor really exists too because Thor = God. Religion has always been at the edges of our knowledge and as we as a species progress and learn more and more religion gets further and further away. God's used to live at the top of Mount Olympus till we went up there and there were no gods, then they lived in the clouds..till we went there..they don't exist..in space..nope..still no gods. Guess now they live somewhere past Pluto..
Yet those same folks who don't believe in evolution are the same ones who use science every day to make their lives easier.
People like you are why I consider Athiesm dumb. It is every bit of voluntary ignornace practaced by strict 6,000 year-old-earth creationists – except they at least admit their voluntary ignorance. Yes, the evidence offered by theists is almost all anicdotal, and yes, what is not anicdotal is open to great interpretation. Funny thing is though, all observations must be interpreted to find truth in the interpretation. The Abrimic account, however does not deny evolution, nor does it specify a day as 24 hours – mearly as an oscelation between light and dark. Further, the Abrimic idea of God is not "in the clouds" or anywhere else for that matter – more omnipresence. Learn something about those you criticize before you criticize. To do otherwise is narrow minded, and offensive to all who love knowledge.
@Drew Curtis: I'm not ignorant of God's word. I just see it differently. If God was so litteral, how come Jesus taught in parables? God can say it like that if he wants. He's God.
Funny – had an argument with kids the other day. If Adam and Eve were the first humans, where did females (considering Eve was supposedly the ONLY female at the time) come from b/c the bible teaches that Eve ONLY HAD SONS! Now unless Eve was messing around with her sons too... hmmmmm makes one think, doesn't it. We evolved, they show mammals evolving around the current climate, etc. The strong survive and the weak – well you get it.
The great flood – if you think about when the bible was actually written – it only dealt with that location – it wasn't a world wide flood. It was a flood in that area. Hmmm.
Someone please build a time machine that works and go back in time and prove all these idiots wrong. Sure you believe in something else, everyone always has, but how about believe in yourself and connect with whoever you believe in. No need to go through someone else to get to that higher power!
This is like arguing how Elrond was able to reforge the shards of Narsil, did he just piece them back together or did he have to melt them down completely to make the sword regain it's former strength...
Adam and Eve are fiction, so debating which came first is pointless, although I think one can only conclude that it was likely Adam who then promptly rolled over and went to sleep...
"...the bible teaches that Eve ONLY HAD SONS!"
That's incorrect. Cain, Abel and Seth are the only children of Adam and Eve written about by name in the Bible, but both sons and daughters are mentioned. You don't even have to look far to find it—Gen. 5:4.
That makes it much better, Amy. So then who procreated with who? Adam with his daughters, Eve with her sons, plus the brothers and sisters? That really would explain the trouble with the human race. We're just a little inbred.
"sam
That makes it much better, Amy. So then who procreated with who? Adam with his daughters, Eve with her sons, plus the brothers and sisters? That really would explain the trouble with the human race. We're just a little inbred"
Have to agree with Sam on this. It would mean everyone was inbred.
Creationism is a joke for fools who try to pedal their religous views as facts in the absense of evidence, Evolution on the other hand is supported by evidence
Blessed are the blasphemers.
6 Days to create EVERYTHING , HA ! you poeple think your soooo smart ! IT's called ALLEGORY ! and remember THE BIBLE IS A CAUCASIAN CREATION ! Dispute THE Pyramids with Those precise measurements pointing to The former HOME that the decendants quested to get back to BY SPIRITUAL MEANS..... MERKAHBAH...... STOP SAYIN 6 DAYS TO CREATE that's BS from YOUR BOOK. CHRISTIANS ARE STUPID ! THE GNOSTICS GOT THERE NUMBER. HOW DID THE DOGON KNOW ABOUT SIRIUS B WHEN YOU ONLY RECENTLY GOT THE TECHNOLOGY TO SEE IT FOR YOURSELVES. AND WHAT OF THE MYTH THAT TELLS OF IT's CREATION. Face it YOU ARE USING OUR ANCIENT MYTH TO PAVE THE WAY FOR YOUR SCIENCE ! ALL THE MATH YOU USE WAS ALREADY IN USE BY THE ANCIENTS.... WE HAVE THE PROOF. AND YOU CAN NEVER EXPLAIN GOD BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE A SOUL TO CONNECT.
Truth, I hear ya'!!! Also, If God didn't create the earth, the sun and the moon until Day 4, as the Bible purports, then how in heaven's name could a day have been 24-hours long? The notion of blind acceptance on the part of the 50% of Americans that Nye reports makes me want to update my Passport again.
This is a common misconception.
Like the meanings of which is lost in translations. For instance, the word "day" translated from its Hebrew meanings, does not mean a specific 24-hour period. The actual meaning listed in the untranslated version basically means a length of time. An era, for instance.
It does not specifically boil down to 24 hour days of which was meerely created society.
Please understand what you are trying to discuss, before trying to come across as correct.
Thanks again.
Seriously, can someone please answer, 'Where did God come from?' No sarcasm please.
God comes from the human anxiety brought on be the realization of the certainty of our death.
Human minds. Afraid of the dark, and each other.
People made God up. Fear of death is why there's a heaven and hell according to Christian folks.
god came from the human mind.
C'mon Creationists, all I'm hearing from you is crickets.
God is the living, personified embodyment of ignorance.
He comes from someone asking a question like where did everything come from. The answer SHOULD be we do not know...instead we do not know becomes it MUST be a god.
I do not know= god
god is the answer people use rather than accept we do not know, in other words we are ignorant so there must be a god, or gods.
where did GOD come from ? you ask . GOD HAS ALWAYS EXISTED . THE BIBLE says from everlasting to everlasting thou art GOD. i cant nor can any other human being comprehend that but i still believe it.
A more correct theological question would be: "Why does God exist". God does not need to come from anywhere. To say God come from something, limits the quality of God. Lets say, with some speculation, that God created time. God then would not have a creator because there is no time in God's existence that would allow for something to come before Him. God exists because He does. I cannot satisfy your curiosity, unfortunately.
What evolution is Bill Nye referring to? Evolution within a species is a proven fact. However, evolution between species is not. It's ignorant for Bill Nye to not specify what he's talking about. I don't know anyone who denies evolution within a species. It's the evolution from apes to humans that is still a theory, Bill.
Uhh, there is proof that modern-day apes and humans shared a common ancestor. No we did not come from chimpanzees, but we both came (not that long ago) from a species that shared characteristics of us both. We are finding more and more fossils to close these gaps and make more connections. There's a wealth of information out there if you actually bothered to look.
You have been falsely taught that there is a difference between micro and macro evolution. The only difference is time. You then go on to trot out that ridiculous parsing of the word "theory". It does not mean in science what it means in everyday speech, and I suspect you know this.
The whole "micro vs. macro" evolution schtick is an attempt at obfuscation by Creationists who found themselves unable to deny the demontrated evidence.
But speciation has been observed in the laboratory.
Recent work by Richard Lenski has even shown new bacterial species evolving in the laboratory. Lenski and his student Zachary Blount note that "E. coli cells cannot grow on citrate under oxic conditions, and that inability has long been viewed as a defining characteristic of this important, diverse, and widespread species." They then exposed several identical populations of E. coli to an environment high in citrate and low in other energy sources. "For more than 30,000 generations, none of them evolved the capacity to use the citrate. … [O]ne population eventually evolved the Cit+ function [a gene that could metabolize citrate], whereas all of the others remain Cit− [unable to metabolize citrate] after more than 40,000 generations." Given that the Cit- trait is a defining feature of E. coli, the population that gained Cit+ are considered a new species.
@Doc
Your argument is a load of crap!
I think that what Nye and others are speaking of is that Evolution makes more sense than simply waving a magic wand and, poof, it all just appears out of thin air. Also, to say that people do not evolve is ridiculous. Jesus himself was known to be only about 4 foot tall like everyone else in those days. My son, who is 17 is now 6'4" tall.So is most of his friends and everyone else in school.
@Chip
How so?
Do you care to refute to laboratory findings?
I'm waiting.....
@Chip
@Doc
"Your argument is a load of crap!"
The way I see it Chip is Doc is claiming something but you aren't coming back to debunk it with evidence. Sounds like a Christian to me, just sayin'!
Creationism was born when a bunch of rednecks failed middle school science class, scratched their heads and went "Wait a minute, this don't make no sense! But the Bible sure do have a nice story..."
There really isn't a choice–if someone denies scientific proof, then they are idiots. People in the US like being "Number 1" when in fact, their limited worldview slips the US to the back of countries with more scientific sophistication. Brains that can solve more and more complex puzzles, who aren't afraid of tacking diverse biological questions. The choice is clear: prepare kids to take the cloak of knowledge and run with it, or keep them in the fast food world without any kind of chance. Seriously, we do and will need a good amount of service personnel, so keeping their level of knowledge below the belt of a fine scientific education is okay, too,
Rather than inculcating our children with the primary-color simple Sunday school legends and myths most people do, might I suggest the following ten comandments to enable them to think for themselves.
1. DO NOT automatically believe something just because a parent, priest, rabbi or minister tells you that you must.
2. DO NOT think that claims about magic and the supernatural are more likely true because they are written in old books. That makes them less likely true.
3. DO analyze claims about religion with the same critical eye that you would claims about money, political positions or social issues.
4. DO NOT accept it when religious leaders tell you it is wrong to question, doubt or think for yourself. It never is. Only those selling junk cars get frightened when you want to "look under the hood".
5. DO decouple morality from a belief in the supernatural, in any of its formulations (Christianity, Judaism, Islam etc.). One can be moral without believing in gods, ghosts and goblins and believing in any of them does not make one moral.
6. DO a bit of independent research into whatever book you were brought up to believe in. Who are its authors and why should I believe them in what they say? How many translations has it gone through? Do we have originals, or only edited copies of copies of copies– the latter is certainly true for every single book in the Bible.
7. DO realize that you are only a Christian (or Hindu or Jew) because of where you were born. Were you lucky enough to be born in the one part of the World that “got it right”?
8. DO NOT be an apologist or accept the explanation “your mind is too small to understand the greatness of god” or “god moves in mysterious ways” when you come upon logical inconsistencies in your belief. A retreat to mysticism is the first refuge of the cornered wrong.
9. DO understand where your religion came from and how it evolved from earlier beliefs to the point you were taught it. Are you lucky enough to be living at that one point in history where we “got it right”?
10. DO educate yourself on the natural Universe, human history and the history of life on Earth, so as to be able to properly evaluate claims that a benevolent, mind-reading god is behind the whole thing.
I sometimes think that, if we first taught our children these simple guidelines, any religion or other supernatural belief would be quickly dismissed by them as quaint nostalgia from a bygone era. I hope we get there as a species.
11. Don't believe everything you read in a science book. They update them all the time and most of it will change at some point.
your post gives me hope that there are others out there who believe as I do. You put my thoughts into words! And I'm working on these principles with my kids.
Gosh Curt you're so clever! I know it's super hard for you to understand that when new evidence is found, that how we see the world can change! But keep trying buddy!
Tomorrow we'll work on colors, and shapes!
Hey Curt: remind us, please, just how many upgrades there have been about the bible. Dozens of different versions and scenarios out there. To top it all off, most people and churches have dropped the old testament (except the R/W nutbag evangelicals). Too much violence and hate I believe?
Three Lock Box.
I cant wait untill this silly primate species we are all so lucky to be apart of puts this absurd argument behind us.
Is it 97% DNA we share with chimps?
@pat
I believe it's more like 98% and that would be the Bonobos, a very loving and se*xually active species, and oh, by the way, they do exhibit same se*x preference in certain cases. Oddly like we do.
Ok Bill Nye, answer this;
If God doesn't exist, then who has Glenn Beck been talking to?
"who has Glenn Beck been talking to" Ignorant people out in flyover, of course.
Someone dies from a mosquito bite. Does life come from Intelligent design or evolution?
While science is useful even though it is an incomplete work in progress, I think it is best for kids to learn the truth before they learn about evolution.
your version of truth no doubt
"The truth?" What is that exactly?
Truth is truth. There are not different versions of it.
Uh huh. Right. Everyone seems to have their own special version of it.
If it wasn't for science azzhole, kids would be dying with all kinds of diseases that your God created, there's your truth.
There are facts. The truth is subjective. Also, god didn't make those diseases. They evolved as well.
Curt I respectfully disagree. Children should be taught to evaluate life based upon facts that can be proven, not beliefs which cannot. They can develop abstract thinking at a later age and make their own decisions about god/faith/religion at that point. This abstract thinking applies at many levels – I am not singling out faith-based aspects, but I find myself agreeing with Nye that building a person up from a young age based on non-fact-based anything is a bad idea.
Truth? Yours, mine, the Pope's, or Osama bin Laden's? Sarah Palin's "truth?" Hitler's "truth?" A small child's 'truth' is that mom and dad are taking care of the big stuff. Curt, why don't you just let us take care of the big stuff, and you go on out to the playground?
Mitt Romneys version of the truth is different from most. Will you convert to his truth? The LDS?
The Christians who literally interpret the word "day" in the Genesis account give the rest of Christianity a bad name. What you must realize is that English is not the original language of the Bible, and there is alot that gets lost in translation, especially since English and Hebrew are not even remotely related. The original Hebrew word that was translated as "day" in English does not refer to a 24 hour period. The word and context in the original Hebrew mean "extended period" or "age." The Bible, then, is consistent with scientific discovery in regard to an "old earth."
While the Bible can be interpreted in a way that is consistent with science I don't think it is necessary. Science is extremely incomplete and I think once they fill in the holes they will figure out the Bible was right all along.
Why would we have an inferior translation to the words of a "supreme being." Can't he get anything right?
You certainly seem to have all the answers. I bow in reverence and acquiescence to the light of your brilliance. NOT!!! In truth, you’re an arrogant, self-important, puffed up worthless jerk who thinks he knows it all and who would do more harm than good with your arrogant assertions that basically say, “yall listen to me because I’m the greatest… I was there when the world was created so bow down to me!!!” YOU JERK!!!
Absolutely. The Bible was right about an entire sea parting. About a man living inside of a whale. About slavery being a-okay. About how it's okay to beat your slaves, just not too much. About not eating shellfish. About a rapist having to marry his victim.
Obviously the Bible is misunderstood.
But it's nore than an "interpretation." We are talking about understanding precisely what was written and why.
@ Pat- Because the "supreme being" has fallible tools. And you are also assuming that the "supreme being" had anything to do with the translation process.
EXCELLENT answer. As a matter of fact, the Sun and Moon were created on the 4th day... So technically speaking up until that day, what kind of time existed till then? Or even after then? Evolution goes hand in hand with the bible.
@ AlyssaJ- How about "love thy neighbor as thyself." Did it get that one right? Seems there are plenty who are willing to take that one and run with it, even though it was a radical idea that took a couple thousand years to catch on.
@ Robert- Acutally, if you believe some branchs of Christianity, you WERE there when the world was created.
NO!!!!! Bill Nye has uttered the words of Satan! Every SINGLE contributer to sience has been a Christian or Jew and has believed in creationism.
1. Sir Issac Newton: The pioneer in physics and inventor of calculus. Wrote more papers on theology than he did on physics.
2. Blaise Pascal: The originator of the theory of the weight of air said, "in each man's heart is a God-shaped vaccuum that only God can fill.
3. Madam Currie
4. Max Plank
5. Albert Einstein
6. Robert Oppenheimer
7. Ray Damidian, the inventor of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) device
And not just science, but arts and even government.
1. J.S. Bach, signed all of his music, "to the glory of God."
2. John Jay, first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court was also the President of the American Bible Society.
I can go on and on. So, NO to Bill Nye the science fool.
" Every SINGLE contributer to sience has been a Christian or Jew and has believed in creationism."
What a load of crap. You list 7 people as evidence that every "contributer" to science has believed in creationism? I can prove you wrong with one statement. I am a scientist (aka "contributer to science") and do not believe in creationism.
Leave me out of this, nutjob.
You should have to wear a helmet everywhere if you believe in "pure" creationism.
Watson and Crick would be astounded to discover they're theists!
@doc vestibull sh it
nope
How can people ignore the mountains of evidence in support of evolution, and at the same time take the bible's word that it is true despite no other evidence?
what evidence?
To Timmy:
Where are the mountains of evidence supporting only evolution? If there were such info then not too many people would believe in creationism because of the evidence staring them in the face. Also how is it that EVERY MAJOR RELIGION IN THE WORLD BELIEVES IN AN AFTERLIFE but you are the one person who is right and there is no afterlife? If you believe there is an afterlife therefore by extention you believe in a higher power and if you believe in a higher power why isn't it possible that GOD created the world? There is no way in Hell (which there is one) you can convince any logical thinking person(myself included) that my ancestors crawled out of the ocean and somehow magically grew arms and legs from nothing and decided to live on land just "because". That is what evolution is based upon, we came from the sea and other microbial substances. Yea thats so much more believeable and feasable than a one almighty being (which is believed in by most of the planet by the way) creating the heavens and Earth. Wow you convinced me! Ignorant much