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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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Interesting that many liberals are all in favor of free expression...as long as what you are expressing agrees with there thoughts on how things should be.
Lame
Nonsense. I'm a Republican and I think you should shut up.
Incorrect, I'm a super liberal and I believe that if you're going to allow this stuff to be taught in schools then also teach creationism from all religious perspectives as well as science. Not just the Christian tale.
All public schools, high school and college, teach evolution in biology classes. And you should be glad they do. Because if public schools did not teach evolution but instead creationism then who's religion would they teach?
Christians are quick to put down science until they get cancer or need help having children, then they run to science with open arms. god didn't save you from cancer, science did. god didn't want you to have kids, but science made it so. The Christians should be more grateful to science.
I tell this to Christian big mouths all the time. I will do to a doctor, and they can go to a priest. Let's see who makes it through that situation. Amen Dave!
Science is the uncovering of Gods creation
All we can do is pray for evolution of the American species. Belief, the act of fabricating a story and holding it firmly in the mind, fosters conflict naturally. This is because if a person will commit this act upon themselves there is nothing they would not do to their fellow human being should he or she question the belief. (If something is self evident, that is, made manifest by experience, it is unnecessary to believe it – for instance few people would believe in the moon – it's just there.)
The vast majority of Scientists in the fields of Biology, Genetics, Geology, Anthropology/Archaeology etc....are wrong and we would be better informed by referencing a book written by bronze age middle eastern shepards.
or
There is an active conspiracy of scientists throughout the world whose aim is to suppress evidence for creationism and manufacture evidence that directly contradicts creationism.
If you don't believe in the theory of evolution than it would seem to me that you would have to agree with one of the above statements. Which is it? Are the scientists just stupid or is there a sinister conspiracy afoot?
I am assuming that you were never taught the scientific method?
That would be an ill informed assumption. Care to elaborate?
It is all a sinister conspiracy.
I hope.
Otherwise it would mean I am stupid.
As someone who is a born again Christian, sr. mechanical engineer in the technology industry, and a first hand witness of the risen Christ, I just want to say that Bill Nye is on the right track. It is understandable that both sides seem to be entrenched in their own position, but, did anyone ever think that both are correct and that the truth lies somewhere in the middle?
Did you ever think that maybe someone claiming 2 + 2 = 4 and someone claiming 2 + 2 = 5,792 might both be on to something, and the real answer might be somewhere in the vicinity of 1,300?
Why is this so hard to understand? Science and religion make contradictory claims about the way the real world operates. They can't BOTH be true, and every single time in the past they've been in conflict, science has won and religion has lost. If you had money riding on this one, which way would you bet?
very well said...
@Steve,
32% of Americas synthesize a belief in God AND evolution.
I think the issue here is that 46% of Americans seem to believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old.
Thank you. I have never understood why the two must be mutually exclusive. Is it not possible to believe in a Creator, yet still be able to study the method of creation as scientific truth? If I believe in God and study science, then I must agree that God is a God of order. Otherwise, all theory is chaos.
That's simply not true. Around the world, theists as well as atheists understand and subscribe to the theory of evolution.
It has nothing to do with faith.
There may be a higher power. It may well be the christian god.
But it doesn't change the facts.
@Reason There is a theory/realm of Science known as The Chaos Theory. Look it up pn Wikipedia because i'm not going to expolain it to you here, but it just shows that there is a lot you don't know about Science when you claim you know alot about Science and God. Be informed. Maybe that will help.
As a Creationist, why would I want to debate an evolutionists? It all a matter of FAITH. You either believe, and have faith in, what Christians call "THE WORD OF GOD" or not. No debate. TRUTH IS TRUTH WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IT OR NOT.
The people who perished in the Great Flood, in the Bible, didnt believe it was going to rain until it was too late.
Better start knocking on the 'door of the ARK before it closes.
Threats? Really? Puh-lease. Your god and jayzuz can kiss my azz.
Yeah, because threats are going to suddenly convince me that bible fairy tales are real. lol.
I will gladly concur that the truth remains the truth regardless of what you personally believe.
I'm sure Bill Nye would happily agree as well.
You have been drinking too much holy water
Scientists have the theory of evolution to explain life, but none of them can explain why the physical laws of the universe evolved. Why doesn't chaos control the universe if the laws of thermodynamics are true and complete? Why and how does an atom hold its protons and neutron in such an orderly and consistent fashion? Why can scientist 'modify' an existing element, but not 'create' a new element without starting from an atom already existing? The physical laws of the universe did not evolve. They had to existe before the universe. No evolution has ever been observed or proposed in the physical laws as we know them. You can deny a biological creation by calling it a coincidence, but you can not deny that the physical laws were established by a superior being, aka God. The universe is truely amazing on both a macro and micro scale. Calling it a random event is unfathomably rediculous and contradicts the scientific method.
The best part of being an agnostic is that you can simply say "I don't know" and be OK with it.
Look up chaos theory. Also protons (Hydrogen nuclei) can be created from energetic photons. And from there...
See you're sort of using the same logic you're trying to argue except for your own benefit. Only because something can't be explain it deosn't mean that you can make up an answer for it. Most scientists aren't in the business of proving god doesnt exists. They're in the business of fact finding. That's it, it's very simple.
"... you can not deny that the physical laws were established by a superior being, aka God"
Sure I can. Watch me. The physical laws of the universe were not established by a superior being. There ya go. Got any more idiot ideas so easily demolished? (Silly me, why do I even bother asking? OF COURSE you do!)
@james-
They could "be ok with it" if they had zero intellectual curiosity.
Agnosticism and atheism are not mutually exclusive. (A)gnosticism refers to knowledge and (A)theism refers to belief. I am an agnostic, I don't know whether there is a god/gods or not. I am also an Atheist, I don't believe there is a god because I have not seen any evidence to support such a belief. If I was presented with convincing evidence, I would change from an agnostic atheist to a gnostic theist.
Belief is not evidence regardless of how many people believe it
Have you ever HAD a class in science, ever?
To say we haver never seen an act of evolution is wholly false, and that is why you're a Creationist, and know nothing about science. Evolution happens aropund us every day – even more so because of human intervention. I'll give you your due and respect your beliefs, but you got to respect science then and not be blind, dumb, and/or deaf to the very things you're espousing. Just because you believe one thing does NOT mean the very opposite of what you just claimed is true, because it isn't, and I can point you in several directions to make MY point. Can you?
Science flies us to Mars and beyond...Religion flies you into buildings!
nice!
Repeat!
Very nice indeed!
Even I like that one....well done TL
You can find fundamental whack jobs in any walk of life – scientists also kill. Is your mind so small that you must generalize out to entire groups of peaceful, giving people? Religious are the largest group of people who take care of the poor and afflicted in this world. Scientists also help the poor....try to expand your thinking out a little.
Wow! That remark was so great. I know I will never be able to explain it to my mom, she won't be able to get it.
Fortunately, Veronica seems to be in the minority in the replies. Now, if only the same could be said about the *creationists.*
Nope, still part of the problem due to cognitive dissonance. Give religious moderates an inch and they'll conquer a mile.
Not falling for that $#it ever again.
The more the athiests push their religion the more they sound like satans prophets. The Bible speaks of these times and at the rate our country is headed? I will side with the word of God over man anyday! Call me anything you want, but I know without a doubt in my being, that God does exist and every knee WILL bend and every head WILL bow to Him.
Okay, George.
umm...really?? "atheists push their religion"??? Do you even read what you write before you hit Post??
Atheism is not a religion. By the way, how's that rapture working for you? When's the next one?
And yet, you can never KNOW, I mean REALLY KNOW, that what you believe is not the word of Satan, just trying to deceive you. I'm sure you are confident it's not, but you can't ever be sure.
How often does an atheist come knock on your door to convert you?
I have had a lot of different religious groups come to my house (mainly on Saturdays) to try and convert me.
I take the word of God literally but I refuse to draw definitive conclusions about the precise meaning of certain words and verses in the Bible because I believe that God speaks from His perspective on certain things and His ways are beyond our ways (as written expressly in the Bible). That is not to say I believe in evolution as proven knowledge but a scientific theory that (like all scientific endeavors) will constantly be changed as discovery continues. I reject evolution because evolution reduces love and sacrifice to nothing more than the end product of self-preservation or selfish pursuit and also cannot provide a basis for morality or morals. Ask yourselves why real scientists in relevant fields do not take absolute positions on evolution like Bill Nye (an engineer??)? Isn't it unscientific to take an absolute position until you have every fact/knowledge/evidence/information that there is to be discovered?
I love you.
Exactly. Gods 6 days may very well be 6000 yrs to human life. Our lives are but a blink of His eye.
Wouldn't discovering every single fact about something be incredibly boring?
And yet the christian stupidity spreads like a cancer.
"why real scientists in relevant fields do not take absolute positions on evolution like Bill Nye"
Can you give us some names of these real scientists of which you speak or are you just making assumptions?
I guess those crazy creationists Newton and Da Vinci weren't smart enough or good enough scientists or inventors
Given that the aforementioned were privy to modern day science, I highly doubt either of them would be a creationist.
You must think the world is still flat. Hey, I got a bridge in San Francisco I'd like to sell you.
Yes, let's debate the beliefs of scientists that lived in the 15th & 16th centuries, thats valid.
Check out http://www.reasons.org which discusses old-earth creationism. They hold that God didn't inspire Genesis as a science text, but simply to demonstrate who He is, and that the "days" in Genesis are epochs. Micro-evolution certainly exists and has been demonstrated scientifically, but macro-evolution cannot be demonstrated (unfortunate for all). So where evolutionists talk about "spontaneous evolution" of a new species, as they see in the fossil record, old-earth creationists say that's where God intervened. And He intervened with man by breathing His Spirit in them, which is what made them in His image. It gave us the ability to love or hate. I don't understand the mind of God and why He allows what He does. And Christians and liberals alike often tick me off with how they just blindly follow propaganda. But Jesus did teach us how to love...so I follow Him.
There is no scientific distinction between micro and macro-evolution. There is just evolution. These so-called "old earth creationists" are just another stripe of people who use the god of the gaps argument, which is absolutely nothing new. Even if you don't accept evolution, and even if evolution were to be proven wrong today, that doesn't lend any more credence to the flat assertion that "god done it".
It's not god of the gaps...seriously, check these people out. I have an advanced engineering degree and they are definitely thinkers.
Speciation doesn't need to be observed via the fossil record, it can be observed directly today. There are countless studies verifying it. Too many to list. This idea that it's never been observed is just a myth.
And what method are they using to test for divine inspiration? What is their specific hypothesis, and where are their peer reviewed papers and independent confirmation tests? If their assertions come down to "it's really really really really unlikely natural processes did this, therefore god", then that's indeed not god of the gaps, that's argument from ignorance.
Sorry, the correct fallacy is argument from incredulity.
So let me get this straight, for every gap in evolution, god did it by breathing some magic mouth fart on the organism .... right.
If you eat my body and drink my blood, I will absolve you of your sins.
Wouldn't God want people to be good for goodness sake, instead of being bad, and saying sorry, just to get some wine?
So evolution says that there was a big bang or exploition and the world just came about due to that uncontrolled explotion. Or evolutions said we came from a fish or an Ape or monkey. If that were the case and we all evolved from these animals (fish and monkeys) then there should be no more fish or monkeys they should of all evolve into humans.
Creation on the othere teaches that we were created by an intelligent creator. Who created things according to it's kind genesis 1:25. Hence the reason we never see a tiger giving birth to a elephant or dog giving birth to a bird. Evolutionists wants you to believe that through one uncontrolled chance that a complex organize earth came about.
For example the water cycle, where by rain falls from the sky and evaporates and becomes rain again. And photosynthesis where by plants give out oxygen that keeps humans alive and gets rid of carbon dioxide that can kill us.
The bible logically says it "of course every house is constructed by someone, he that constructed ALL things is god" Hebrews 3:4. If I told Mr Nye that the White house just appeared and no one built it he would say I am crazy. Although neither he nor I witness the actuall building of it. Simarlarly, he wants to to think that it is logical to believe that this earth and mankind just appeared with no intelligence creation behind it is unreasonable.
You're arguing against some weird and stupid idea that has nothing in common with evolution. Learn what it is at the most basic, minimal level if you're going to express your disagreement with it. It'd be like me disagreeing with christianity because I don't like the flying monkeys and wicked witch of the west in Revelations.
"Or evolutions said we came from a fish or an Ape or monkey. If that were the case and we all evolved from these animals (fish and monkeys) then there should be no more fish or monkeys they should of all evolve into humans."
Are you that ignorant of what evolution actually means and how it works, or are you intentionally trying to appear clueless? I might as well say "it says right in Chapter 2, verse 4 of the book of Genesis "And God created flat screen monitors, but only gave this gift to fish" – geez, how can you believe the Bible when it says something so ludicrous?"
PS: In other words, everything you think you believe about evolution is just plain wrong.
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Ha ha, Moby, we thought the same thing at the same time. Amazing how much of this ignorance you see in these posts. No wonder the Bible thumpers think evolution makes no sense; they've never put the slightest effort into making sense of it. Just easier to listen to a Pat Robertson say "it's a lie."
I actually saw a TV broadcast of his in the 1980's where he said, literally, "evolution is crazy. Have you ever seen a chicken turn into a man? Of course not. It's just silly to believe this. "
Why you have to be so ignorant!!! I mean purposely ignorant!!
Wow, what ignorance! It is as if a layman from the medieval time is arguing cars are impossible because the tree-god doesn't like wheels ... or something absurd like that. Your comment is so incredibly illiterate that if a God did in fact create you, I really hope there are other gods - i just refuse to be created by a god capable of such a lousy job.
The reason not all apes or fish or other animals evolved (why we became humans and others stayed apes) is because there are different ways that species evolve. It mostly has to do with your environment. Certain apes stayed in their homes and were quite fine with the survival tools they were equipped with. Other apes (our ancestors) were removed from the orignal environments and only the fittest survived (the animals that had the proper mutations that made them better fit for the environment they lived in and better suited to survive). You have to remember that this happened over periods of hundreds of thousands and millions of years. Eventually the two sects of animals were so different from one another with these mutations that they were no longer able to breed with one another (again over a period of millions of years). This is how different species were created and how certain species stayed the same or fairly similar throughout the epochs (sharks).
Hawkeye, do you really think someone like lala is going to buy a straightforward explanation like that? If she was capable of understanding it, she wouldn't have said something so ignorant in the first place.
You need to spend more time in school ... like, basic school.
Give an infinite number of monkeys a typewritter and they will write Shakespeare.
There's lots of time in 4.0B years (when surface water appeared on earth).
Give an infinite number of monkeys a typewriter and they will write Shakespeare.
There's lots of time in 4.0B years (when surface water appeared on earth).
Oops – sorry about the double post, I thought I caught the spelling error in time.
Bill Nye said, "We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems."
1) I know many very competent engineers who do not whole scale accept evolution. So, it is quite a bold statement to say only those who accept evolution can build stuff and solve problems. It might be that many competent engineers can think for themselves and aren't swayed by academics pressures to conform to a particular interpretation of what is observed.
2) Considering the candidates we have running for political office, is it really necessary to buy into certain theories in order to voite? I think we first need candidates who represent the people, not their pocket books.
3) It is quite a bold statement to assume that ability to pay taxes, or of any reasonable amount, is tied to a particular scientific view point. Many business people earn big bucks and their view of evolution has no impact on that ability.
3) It is something to tell grownups to believe what they want and say they should bring their children up in to believe what he wants them to believe rather than what is well established in many of their homes – that there is a God and science is not Him. Rather science is the ability given to man to see the wonders of creation and to further create great things. To deny God is part of that process leads to a road of self destruction, low morals, unethical manipulation of the world, and a loss of meaning to life.
You said, "To deny God is part of that process leads to a road of self destruction, low morals, unethical manipulation of the world, and a loss of meaning to life."
As an engineer, you should know better than to make that sort of stupid, inaccurate statement. Shame on you.
I am agnostic, but I look at the world through a scientific lens. With that said, I tend to have much higher morals and values than most of my Christian friends... and I do it without a fear of damnation in an afterlife.
Why you embrace being ignorant!!!
Nobody has the answer, so stop guessing! If we can call it the big bang “theory” They why can’t we call the bible an “alternative theory”? Fact is no one knows how or why we exist. And frankly it shouldn’t matter! If you want to teach kids anything, teach them that! It doesn’t matter what you believe, it just matters what you are doing right now!
"They why can’t we call the bible an “alternative theory”?
Um, because that is insane.
A scientific theory must be based on a careful and rational examination of the facts.
@Tom
A scientific theory is not a wild ass guess with no evidence. The bible, on the other hand, is a book full of wild assertions with absolutely no evidence. Maybe you should learn what a theory is in science.
You clearly have no clue what the scientific definition of theory is... trying jumping out the windows... the theory of gravity is just a theory...
@Tom –
First – The bible can't be a theory because its claims are not supported by empirical evidence.
Second – You're enti'tled to your own opinions. You are not enti'tled to your own facts.
Third – Beliefs have consequences. Filling a child's head full of nonsense is a form of child abuse.
Fourth – Get some education.
Referring to the bible as an "alternative theory" is like referring to Wile E. Coyote as an expert on hunting road runners.
How many of you have read both "the Bible" and "the Origin of Species"? Unless you have read BOTH of those books, studied them BOTH, and UNDERSTOOD them BOTH. You have no right to form an opinion on this matter.
I have, and Origin wins.
I have too, and origin wins.
"Origin" all day long!
I wouldn't recommend the Origin of Species to anyone who doesn't have a background in current evolutionary theory. Darwin was actually wrong about a lot of things.
Oh, i thought you were going to out a good book and the Bible – origin of species talks about looking at change within kinds, and making conjectures about a changing to a completely different kind. Genetic information never increases unless new information is added Genetic limitations where discovered by Mendel, and his work was hidden for 30 years, until evolutionists made their rescuing device of mutations.
BTW read it twice – once as an agnostic, once as a Christian, and have it on my book shelf
I have but honestly can't remember anything note worthy about Origins. I think Origins was part of required reading at my alma mater. The Bible, on the other hand, is not to be simply read. Try "living" it before you dismiss it.
your opinion does not equate truth –
Gentleman, with God there is no time, which explains a lot of things that the science community try to put into a timeline.
Time is simply a dimension we cannot see because we are moving along it....
Copy and paste in your browser.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/intelligent-design-trial.html
Great info on this topic...it atually goes to the courts...and science WINS!
Yea Beer! Yea Science!
dude Science does not have human characteristics – it cannot win anything – arbitrary statement – fallacy of reification