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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've never really cared much for Bill Nye. But he went up several notches in my estimation today.
It's about time we stopped having a trickle amount of athiests control everything. Let the majority that love the word of God have our rights back again .
Paranoid? Trust me, if atheists were in control, America would be a very different place.
There is no god.
As in you want your theocracy back? Which one of the thousands of flavors of the Christian cult should we go with?
*farts* HMM hmm I can smell the gates of heaven!
No cause then you sheep will be running all over the pasture including the places where the poisonous root vegetables grow.
My goodness. mama kindless
Majority?!?! What are you talking about? Even if we knew there was one religion that was true, by the rules of probability, you would have to assume you got it wrong...
upload.wikimedia [dot] org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/World_religions_pie_chart.png
Doc.....prove it.
Not going to happen, the minds of men wil see how ridiculous all religions are and sooner or later mankind will be free of all gods; if we do not destroy ourselves first.
Imagine....John Lennon
What exactly is it that you want to control? The natural world?
No one is preventing you from loving God.
If the way the world was made is too difficult for me to grasp, then I reject it and instead conclude that a wizard must have done it.
donna
Right, if we were all meek little believers in dogma things would be a whole lot smoother. Sorry to disappoint.
**Believe what you will. You are going to anyhow. Like I said ~ be careful for that what you wish.
How do you know what I wish for? Did you get your mental telepathy from god or evolution?
32% believed in evolution guided by God
This is what the majority of seminaries teach.
On another note:
All you need to do it look in a telescope and you quickly realize that the universe is very old. In just my small back yard telescope you can clearly see the Andromeda Galaxy which is over 2 million light years away. That means it took over 2 million years for the light to get from there to here for us to see.
The age of the earth is not what my faith is based upon. It is based upon the person of Jesus Christ.
This illustrates why Christianity has been able to survive for as long as it has. As each of its bronze age misconceptions is debunked, it quietly assimilates the contemporary view. Then it claims to have known all along.
Sort of right, but more like we say, God knew it all along, and we were just schmucks.
Of all the ideas that cripple our society is the reliance on faith and belief over science and math. Where will we end up in this world if we continue on this path? Surely common sense should dictate that these arcane notions, that two thousand years ago where "fact" to un- educated and illiterate tribes people to explain our natural world,should have long since vanished.
That was a nice couplet.
Where will we end up? Probably something akin to Saudi Arabia...
I believe in the absolute authority of the Word of God. It's the source of all knowledge. "In the Beginning God Created the Heaven and the Earth." Case closed. Evolution debunked.
Unicorns and talking animals.
Case closed.
You believe everything you read I suppose. So just because it was in a fantasy book, you believe it. Unbelievable!
Wonderful Logic!!!
That book of yours also states the world is flat, and it's the center of the universe. Also, the Earth is 10,000 years old. Also, you should kill your children if they misbehave, and you deserve a lifetime of hell if you eat some shellfish. /caseclosed....
There are no unicorns in the bible.
Thank you graceministries. I really needed a good laugh! That was roll on the floor funny.
Actually, the bible states the earth is round (sphere) hanging in space. It's in Job and Isaiah. If you're referencing the four corners thing that's in Revelation and has nothing to do about the physical shape of the planet.
Babs,
Read the Bible sometime.
– Isaiah 34:7 "And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.” [KJV]
– Job 39:9-10 “Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?”
– Numbers 23:22 “God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.”
Babs,
A circle is TWO-dimensional.
A sphere is THREE-dimensional.
Basic stuff.
In the beginning, a group of semiliterate men plagiarised myth and other bronze age religions.
Observer, something is whackadoodle. You readin' the Mormon Bible?
It's "wild ox" home slice.
Babs,
I quoted from the King James version of the Bible. Ever heard of it?
You need some commentary help Observer...
The strength of a unicorn – ראם reem and ראים reim. It is generally allowed that there is no such beast in nature as the unicorn; i. e., a creature of the horse kind, with one long rich curled horn in the forehead. The creature painted from fancy is represented as one of the supporters of the royal arms of Great Britain. It is difficult to say what kind of beast is intended by the original word. The Septuagint translate the word μονοκερως, the unicorn, or one-horned animal; the Vulgate, sometimes, unicornus; and in the text rhinocerotis, by which the rhinoceros, a creature which has its name from the horn on its nose, is supposed to be meant. That no single-horned animal can be intended by the reem of Moses, is sufficiently evident from this, that Moses, speaking of Joseph, says, "he has the Horns of A unicorn," or reem, where the horns are spoken of in the plural, the animal in the singular. The creature referred to is either the rhinoceros, some varieties of which have two horns on the nose, or the wild bull, urus, or buffalo; though some think the beast intended is a species of goat; but the rhinoceros seems the most likely. There is literally a monoceros, or unicorn, with one large curled ivory horn growing horizontally out of his snout; but this is not a land animal, it is the modiodan or nurwal, a marine animal of the whale kind, a horn of which is now before me, measuring seven feet four inches; but I believe the rhinoceros is that intended by the sacred writers.
Babs,
Actually, this is what the ancient Hebrews thought the Earth and surrounds looked like:
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/images/genesisearth.jpg
They had a distinct word for "sphere" or "ball" - they did not use it in their description.
Babs,
– Isaiah 34:7 “And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness"
That's from the KING JAMES VERSION of the Bible.
Ever heard of it?
Last I checked the earth is 3-dimensional?
No brah I only read thh NKJV....
Babs,
The Bible says the earth is a circle. It is not. It is a sphere.
Know the difference?
Imagine if the big religions such as Christianity and Islam did not exist, and in 2012 a few guys started telling people about their stories from the Bible and Koran, what the hell do you think people would do, laugh in their face.
Faith is fine if your scared of death, but the facts are religion does more harm than good. Read a history book.
What good has organized reilgion ever done on a global scale for anybody? except use fear tactics, persecute people who used their brains, and condone genocide as long as it wasnt their own being slaughtered.
Scientology.
The unbeliever shall have his place "in the lake of fire" so I trust you enjoy warm weather. Actually, it is sad you feel that way. Remember, GOD ALLOWS U-TURNS! BTW, who is Bill Nye? His opinions are no more important than mine.
I love the we evolved from Animals... so guess what we have thugs who act like an animal... Takes more faith in evolution than a creator.. last I checked were not evolving...except back wards.. you believe in a god.. yourself.. big bang would be like a 747 crashing and then mysteriously be put back together.. I say Nye is a sty in my God created eye!
CLIFF... uninformed opinions are not important
Cliff: supporting your opinion on evolution with passages from the Bible is the same as supporting an opinion on evolution with excerpts from the TV Guide. Both are stories authored by many people and neither contain any credible facts.
May I just point out that Stalin alone has (in terms of raw slaughter) done as much as the biggest 5 religious wars put together? Furthermore in most of those "religious" wars the religion was simply a tacked on point to justify it in the slightest.
Within the many schools of thought that co-exist within Judaism there rational point of view that understands Genesis somewhat literally that poses no threat to the scientific definition of creation. I find it interesting that scientists seems more threatened by creationists than the other way around. For Bill Nye, a person that I actually admire(d), to make such comments goes against the the natural order and man's ability to choose what he believes. It goes against the inalienable rights granted through man's unending fight for freedom.
If someone else making reasoned arguments backed up by more than a century of observation and discovery is an infringement of your inalienable rights, you might be a Republican.
The reason Bill Nye and scientist like myself are concerned is due specifically to legislation to teach "the controversary" like the governor of my state Rick Parry. It is disturbing that these men are trying to undermine science with fluff called creationism.... Science is not based in FAITH OR BELIEVE or FREEDOM!
Yes – you have every right to be stupid and ignore scientific fact if you want to !
Maybe there was a misunderstanding on your part about Bill Nye, but he has never ever ever ever tried to teach or even imply that belief had any impact on scientific issues.
I should say "processes," "issues" was the wrong word choice.
Ask yourself how many people dedicate themselves to proving that Santa Claus does not exist? Answer: Zero, because there is no Santa Claus............
Atheists work so hard to prove there is no God, because they do not want to answer to a holy and righteous God.
Many don't believe in God BECAUSE they have read the Bible.
People don't push iron age laws by Santa in the government do they?
Holey as in full of gaping holes ?
Not nearly as many people who dedicate themselves to proving god exists.
I have to say that this is the silliest argument so far in these comments. It's so frustrating to have Santa Claus so callously disregarded when he clearly is real. Who ate the cookies I baked if not for Santa? Whose snowy footprints did grace my living room floor if not those of the One True Claus? Repent or you'll only get coal in your stocking for all eternity.
I wonder why god made Adam and eve from dirt and a rib, and why it took six days.
I would think that being magic and all powerful, he could just just wave his magic wand and BADDA BING !, there it is!
You were born of dust and to the dust you shall return.
mydogbill / just sayin / HeavenSent / james / Peter / Atheism is not healthy / ! / captain america / truth be told / observer
wrote more rubbish
but Observer with an upper-case O is not HeavenSent to be clear
The comments on here are a testament to the appalling lack of education in the sciences and makes it less shocking that the U.S. doesn't even rank in the top 10 in global academic achievement.
Only the fool says in his heart "there is no God."
Psalm 14
Yep. "Non-fools" believe in unicorns and talking animals.
wiseman says it in his brain
One thing that creationists mistake about evolution is that they think it has some sort of goal. The theory of evolution proclaims no direction of evolution, it is just a series of mutations and genetic abnormalities that either thrive or die off. To insist that our creator (in the terminology of creationists) is moral is also incorrect, for morals are created by mankind and exist nowhere in the universe. If there is a divine force that started the spark (big bang) or developed mankind, it certainly isn't with moral consciousness. Christians need to realize that they are one of the only religions left who doesn't have a creator/destroyer archetype. This is a humbling balance that makes a lot more sense to someone who lives in this world with their eyes fully open.
You might want to read Revelation
mydogbill said – "You might want to read Revelation"
Revelation??? Everyone knows some fool crashed his camel in a field of burning poppies to come up with that mess. My goodness.
mama kindless
bill, you are nigh to death, as all we are, take care that you believe correctly
"We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems." Indicating that one has to believe in creationism to be an engineer that builds stuff and solves problems? Eff off, Mr. Nye. I just lost a great deal of respect for you...
The difficulty people get into is when they make the assumption that evolution excludes the existence of God. It doesn't. It excludes *one narrative* of the existence of God - i.e., that the Old Testament creation story is literally true.
All of the sectarian nonsense could be minimized if we didn't have people on one side shouting "Your god is a silly myth!", and people on the other side shouting, "You're all going to Hell!"
OK – I won't yell god is a silly myth.
But all religion – anything written down or any lore attempting to describe god is a silly myth.
Um, I'm not sure you understood the nature of my objection there ...
It's just my opinion, but my observation is that some people who believe God as creator and controller of all that transpires often use him as the excuse for how things turn out rather then the logic of responsibility due to behavior, good or bad.
WHY BELIEVE IN GOD ?
ANSWER: He has revealed Himself to me through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus claimed to be God in human flesh (John 8:58). Now this is an astounding claim, but He supported the claim by His matchless personal character, His fulfillment of predictive prophecy, by His influence on human history, but most significantly, by His historical resurrection from the dead. Now, if you are looking for God — you need look no further than Jesus Christ Himself. He was either a liar, a lunatic, a legend, or He was, in fact, Lord. Now I think if you’ll examine the evidence, you’ll agree with me that He was the Lord, the one who spoke and the universe leapt into existence.
SOURCE: http://WWW.EQUIP.ORG (See website for other intelligent reasons to believe in God).
I am God in human flesh as well.... As divine as the next being of light!
'god' is an idiotic idea promoted by immoral people to control and pacify the weak minded.
you're crazy for evolution, it's crazy for you, la la la