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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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Religion is bunk, garbage in gospel out.
@jab62
nope
Just because you are too narrow-minded to have faith in something larger than yourself,gives you no right to trash someone elses belief system.I have a right to my beliefs as much as you have the right to be a moron
@Margaret
"You've wasted too much time when you could have been relaxing with a coffee. Now, name one thing you own that wasn't designed.
August 28, 2012 at 7:14 am"
my goldfish, my parakeets, myself.
none of those things exsist because they have to, they exsist ONLY because they can.
i.e.) if you couldn't breath oxygen due to the highly corrosive nature of oxygen then you would die, thus no offspring (children) for you, thus no one of this species would have your inability to breath oxygen.
i.e.2) if you have a congenrative heart disease and through medical science you CAN pass this to your offspring giving them the same heart problem.
get the idea how genetics work? if it doesn't work it dies, if it does it.........well has a less chance of dying. lol
Prayer changes things .
Yeah, it turns you into a freakin' nutjob.
This has to be one of the most worthless comments I've ever seen on here. And that says a lot.
@shut...
nope
@oy
nope
I honestly feel so bad for people that consistently misinterpret basic rudimentary science. I don't feel bad for those that choose to remain willingly ignorant of it. It's shameful and what makes the United States far from the front of any respectable list.
What amazes me is that people refuse to believe the miracles as recorded in the Holy Bible by "living eye witnesses" but rather choose to believe that the universe just came to be "all by itself" without an eternal and intelligent source.
@LT: miracles are just natural occurances that have a low likelyhood of happening..............but can still happen.
kind of like the boy that was trapped under a frozen lake for 3-4 hours and pronouced dead. when they warmed his body and gave him oxygen on the way to the hospital he woke up, everyone screamed it's a miracle...............then science had to step in and explain it wasn't a miracle, the temperature of the water lowered his core temperature so low that his body required less oxygen, thus he didn't recieve enough brain damage to cease funtioning.
NO SUCH THING AS MIRACLES.
Is the boy still funtioning?
I know that religion has taught you that if you say the same thing over and over people will believe it.
And to a certain extent that is true, after all, look at all the believers.
But simply repeating your false assertions over and over does not transform them into being true at some particular point.
@WASP, Uh huh, but you still haven't explained how nothing is able to create nothing. I'm waiting......
No we believe that there isn't enough evidence to hammer out a final and accurate theory on why the Universe exists. What we do believe in is that knowledge and facts need to be supported by evidence and that if new information comes forward that challenges commonly held beliefs, then you need to revise your theories and in some cases throw out the old ones. That's how the scientific community pushes the envelope of human knowledge. Unlike the religious community that insists on teaching stories from thousands of years ago that were thought up by people in the bronze age who didn't even know what the stars were or that germs existed. Perhaps if humanity survives it's religious zealots and exists for many millennia to come, we may gather enough evidence to point us in the right direction to answering that huge question about what caused the Universe to be. But until then I'd rather base my views on what can be proven consistently and by multiple means, rather than take the word of some primitive middle easterners from 2000 years ago as being fact based on faith alone. That's called being willfully blind of the developing world around you and if that's where you want to live then fine. But don't expect me to agree with it or give Italy more respect than I would the rumblings of a homeless man.
First, stop trying to prove the bible by using the bible. Also who created your god? Or was he something from nothing? You need a better argument. The bible can be proven wrong, so you actually need a better god.
Really? Like, really? This is what Nye was talking about. Please stay out of the conversation if you don't understand it.
What a bunch of fools! Yes, you the evolutionists.
You call others "fools", yet you're the one who believes in an invisible fairy floating above us, yet you reject every other floating fairy that others in the past have believed in. Yours is no different and no more real than those other imaginary friends.
@mirosal
nope
gosh, jon.....you sound like a harvard man yourself.....
Bill Nye is just another one of the NEW ATHEISTS. People need to consider what the ENDSTATE of his own "evolution theology" brings, especially the idea of the SURVIVAL of the FITTEST, a Darwinian pogrom against the 'weak and frail' of humanity. ie, the unborn, the poor, the halt, the blind. Hitler would love this man's boasting. endtimesurvivalguide dought calm (recommend people read Dr. Robert A. Herrmann's writings on 'evolution'. Amateurs like Nye have no response to his arguments.
Clearly the man's assertions about evolution and creationism have offended your world view. However, making an assumption about his purpose for making such assertions like the one you just did is completely unfounded in reality and based on no real evidence. Much like your own belief in God and mythical stories from primitive bronze age societies.
I do find it funny that you bring up hitler. Why is it that so many of you on the Christian right bring up hitler or try to characterize your opponents as nazis whenever you lack a real argument based on logic?
You honestly have no idea what you are talking about.
wow, lwjr....putting stuff in capitals sure makes your blather look intelligent
@Seethrough
"I disagree. No one has ever observed any big bang, stellar evolution, chemical evolution or biological evolution. All which are required for evolution. Atheists have to have faith these things happened.(never mind all the other unexplained unobserved things) Faith is the cornerstone of religion. They also give all the attributes of God to nature. Therefore it's a religion. Another new age religion."
yes we can see evolution on the micro scale daily. with each new change in any strain of virus or bacteria that is that organism adapting to its' enviroment, over time that whole species changes as the ones adapted survive and pass on their traits to the next generation.
big bang? ummm just look up during a bright sunny day.........our star is a micro version of that very event, don't believe me give it a few trillions years and see how big of a bang our star makes.
defintion of FAITH:1. Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.
2. Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
3. Loyalty to a person or thing; allegiance
4. The body of dogma of a religion
5. A set of principles or beliefs.
Well.. our star isn't really big enough to go BANG. Our little yellow dwarf star will eventually become a white dwarf instead. If you want a BANG wait a few billion years and Antares will go off in a spectacular fashion though! (and its close enough to be easily visible from Earth when it does too. Well ~500 years after it does actually but you know what I mean.)
Saw a news story last week about pigweed. It had been successfully controlled by using Roundup weed killer for years, and Monsanto had genetically engineered crops that were not susceptible to Roundup. Then, poof, a strain of pigweed showed up that Roundup would not kill. Evolution in action, plain and simple. Happens all the time, just look at virus and bacteria.
Ever notice that whenever someone utters the term "evolution", all the creationists start shrieking and beating the ground with sticks???
@obi
nope
That's because the 'theory of evolution' is actually a THEOLOGY. Contrived by an 19th century man who propagated a worldview that 'fearful people' adopt, giving it the Nazi Salute lest they be labeled with the opposition. The root of Darwinist thinking is pride. No facts, no facts, no facts. Nye is Nay.
@ LWJR
Theory and theology are two different things. Mr. Darwin did not declare that the fearful adopt anything. This is an attribute applied to him be the religious zealots of his day.
Go get a bigger stick.
@obi,
nope
LWJR: Study Evolution and then come back and tell us how wrong you were here!! Quite obviously you know nothing.
Ever notice that whenever someone utters the term evolution, all the creationists start shieiking and beating the ground with sticks???
I like how they dismiss carbon dating, until they find a relic they want to prove was from the time of Jesus.
Show me the transitional species. you can't because there isn't one. Evolution is limited to a paticular species adapting in some way to its environment. Hey, i found thi sold boar tooth. I bet I can make everyone believe it was a cave man. Or, my name is Darwin, I am going write a book of my collective thoughts (theories) and we shall call it facts. Why? Because we humans can't believe that we are not the all powerful OZ. We have to be in control. Thatway we can say and do what we want with no accountability. just a peace of dirt that breaths for a few short years that goes back into good ole mother earth. That's so far more rediculous than believing in a greater power than yourself.
You will never get it.
Every species is a "transitional Species"
@JB: theory in science means it has been PROVEN.
it is just like an uneducated olf to mix up the street usage of a word as compared to the scienctific usage of a word.
For every scientist who comes up with a theory, there's a thousand seeking fame and fortune to discredit it. Pretty brutal test. Evolution wins.
Must go to work, but to get a gauge of just how jaw-droppingly ridiculous the belief in intelligent design is in the 21st Century, here are some areas they must ignore, any one of which proves beyond rational argument that, not surprisingly, the World did not start about 6,000 years ago at the behest of the Judeo-Christian god, with one man, one woman and a talking snake.
First and most obviously is the fossil record. The fossil record is much, much more than just dinosaurs. Indeed, dinosaurs only get the press because of their size, but they make up less than 1% of the entire fossil record. Life had been evolving on Earth for over 3 thousand million years before dinosaurs evolved and has gone on evolving for 65 million years after the Chicxulub meteor wiped them out.
The fossil record includes the Stromatolites, colonies of prokaryotic bacteria, that range in age going back to about 3 billion years, the Ediacara fossils from South Australia, widely regarded as among the earliest multi-celled organisms, the Cambrian species of the Burgess shale in Canada (circa – 450 million years) the giant scorpions of the Silurian Period, the giant, wingless insects of the Devonian period, the insects, amphibians, reptiles; fishes, clams, crustaceans of the Carboniferous Period, the many precursors to the dinosaurs, the dinosaurs themselves, the subsequent dominant mammals, including the saber tooth tiger, the mammoths of North America and Asia, the fossils of early man in Africa and the Neanderthals of Europe.
The fossil record shows a consistent and worldwide evolution of life on Earth dating back to about 3,500,000,000 years ago. There are literally millions of fossils that have been recovered, of thousands of different species and they are all located where they would be in the geological record if life evolved slowly over billions of years. None of them can be explained by a 6,000 year old Earth and Noah’s flood. Were they all on the ark? What happened to them when it docked?
Lions, tigers, bears, and wolves eat a lot of food – meat- which means its food would itself have to have been fed, like the food of every other carnivore on the ark. This is not to mention the thousands of species of meat eating dinosaurs, all of whom ate carnivorous dinosaurs which were, themselves, bigger than busses – and they, too had to be fed!
A bit of “back of the envelope” math quickly shows that “Noah’s Ark” would actually have to have been an armada of ships bigger than the D Day invasion force, manned by thousands and thousands of people – and this is without including the World’s 300,000 current species of plants, none of which could walk merrily in twos onto the Ark, nor the 400,000 species of beetles, nor the gnats that live for a few hours, nor for that matter, human beings! If Noah and his family were on the ark, where do black people come from? Or Chinese, or Ja.panese, or Australian Aboriginals, or the 100s of other races.
Secondly, there are those little things we call oil, natural gas and other fossil fuels. Their mere existence is another, independent and fatal blow to the creationists. Speak to any geologist who works for Exxon Mobil, Shell or any of the thousands of mining, oil or natural gas related companies that make a living finding fossil fuels. They will tell you these fossil fuels take millions of years to develop from the remains of large forests (in the case of coal) or tiny marine creatures (in the case of oil). That’s why they are called fossil fuels. Have a close look at coal, you can often see the fossilized leaves in it. The geologists know exactly what rocks to look for fossil fuels in, because they know how to date the rocks to millions of years ago. Creationists have no credible explanation for this (nor for why most of it was “given to the Muslims”).
Thirdly, most of astronomy and cosmology would be wrong if the creationists were right. In short, as Einstein showed, light travels at a set speed. Space is so large that light from distant stars takes many years to reach the Earth. In some cases, this is millions or billions of years. The fact that we can see light from such far away stars means it began its journey billions of years ago. The Universe must be billions of years old. We can currently see galaxies whose light left home 13.7 billion years ago. Indeed, on a clear night, one can see many stars more than 6,000 light years away with the naked eye, shining down like tiny silent witnesses against the nonsense of creationism.
Fourthly, we have not just carbon dating, but also all other methods used by scientists to date wood, rocks, fossils, and other artifacts. These comprehensively disprove the Bible’s claims. They include uranium-lead dating, potassium-argon dating as well as other non-radioactive methods such as pollen dating, dendrochronology and ice core dating. In order for any particular rock, fossil or other artifact to be aged, generally two or more samples are dated independently by two or more laboratories in order to ensure an accurate result. If results were random, as creationists claim, the two independent results would rarely agree. They generally do. They regularly reveal ages much older than Genesis. Indeed, the Earth is about 750,000 times older than the Bible claims.
Fifthly, the relatively new field of DNA mapping not only convicts criminals, it shows in undeniable, full detail how we differ from other life forms on the planet. For example, about 98.4% of human DNA is identical to that of chimpanzees, about 97% of human DNA is identical to that of gorillas, and slightly less again of human DNA is identical to the DNA of monkeys. This gradual divergence in DNA can only be rationally explained by the two species diverging from a common ancestor, and coincides perfectly with the fossil record. Indeed, scientists can use the percentage of DNA that two animal share (such as humans and bears, or domestic dogs and wolves) to get an idea of how long ago the last common ancestor of both species lived. It perfectly corroborates the fossil record and is completely independently developed. It acts as yet another fatal blow to the “talking snake” theory.
Sixthly, the entire field of historical linguistics would have to be rewritten to accommodate the Bible. This discipline studies how languages develop and diverge over time. For example, Spanish and Italian are very similar and have a recent common “ancestor” language, Latin, as most people know. However, Russian is quite different and therefore either did not share a common root, or branched off much earlier in time. No respected linguist anywhere in the World traces languages back to the Tower of Babel, the creationists’ explanation for different languages. Indeed, American Indians, Australian Aboriginals, “true” Indians, Chinese, Mongols, Ja.panese, Sub-Saharan Africans and the Celts and other tribes of ancient Europe were speaking thousands of different languages thousands of years before the date creationist say the Tower of Babel occurred – and even well before the date they claim for the Garden of Eden.
Seventhly, lactose intolerance is also a clear vestige of human evolution. Most mammals only consume milk as infants. After infancy, they no longer produce the enzyme “lactase” that digests the lactose in milk and so become lactose intolerant. Humans are an exception and can drink milk as adults – but not all humans – some humans remain lactose intolerant. So which humans are no longer lactose intolerant? The answer is those who evolved over the past few thousand years raising cows. They evolved slightly to keep producing lactase as adults so as to allow the consumption of milk as adults. This includes most Europeans and some Africans, notably the Tutsi of Rwanda. On the other hand, most Chinese, native Americans and Aboriginal Australians, whose ancestors did not raise cattle, remain lactose intolerant.
I could go on and elaborate on a number of other disciplines or facts that creationists have to pretend into oblivion to retain their faith, including the Ice Ages, cavemen and early hominids, much of microbiology, paleontology and archeology, continental drift and plate tectonics, even large parts of medical research (medical research on monkeys and mice only works because they share a common ancestor with us and therefore our fundamental cell biology and basic body architecture is identical to theirs).
In short, and not surprisingly, the World’s most gifted evolutionary biologists, astronomers, cosmologists, geologists, archeologists, paleontologists, historians, modern medical researchers and linguists (and about 2,000 years of accu.mulated knowledge) are right and a handful of Iron Age Middle Eastern goat herders were wrong.
You've wasted too much time when you could have been relaxing with a coffee. Now, name one thing you own that wasn't designed.
No matter how much space you waste on this blog. To believe that nothing created nothing is absolutely and totally absurd and ridiculous.
One obvious flaw is just where you began which was in linking intelligent design with a 6000 year old earth. Not all intelligent design proponents hold to that view . . . so your argument is a straw man
@Margaret. You.
Hello Colin...Very nice "statement of faith" unless you personally did all the "objective research" yourself, which, in part, you would have had to trust in one or two "man-made" instruments for your so called "objective" testing. Instruments made by us evolving apes that may or may not reflect the absolute truth of the matter. Did I say "absolute truth"? There's another problem for you as an evolutionist. Without an "Absolute Source" of truth, there is no absolute truth, yet you argue herein as if there must be, and you want us to "believe" that there is while arguing out the other side of your mouth that there isn't. You are quite the oxy moron. So not only is your biased, subjective ignorance showing but so is your hypocrisy. You want to use a montheistic worldview to develop and support your premises and propositions while at the same time curse the Hand that made you. Your "faith" is showing too!
Don't "believe" everything you read. Oh, but that's your argument against us Christian's isn't it? You've blinded yourself with so called "Science" to the point of willful ignorance...You don't really think that what you have written has not been addressed by greater minds than you, do you? Just search the internet and you will find your answers. But then you will be in the same position of "faith", won't you? Having to "believe" in the writing's of others – subjecting yourself to thei reliability of their "objective" testing, research & propositions, no? And round and round we go...NEWSFLASH: The "theory" of evolution is on the brink of utter collapse by the very Scientist's that you have placed your "faith" in. If you and I are alive for the next 5 years we will both see it. If not, I will be with JesusNotReligion and you will be....Where? And if I have "believed" in vain I will end up where?
Your faith is illogical, not to mention a Biblical manifestation of your willful sin and hatred of God (Romans 1:18ff)...If you can at least believe in that Biblical proposition (that we are ALL born hating God and wanting to be god) there may be hope for you yet. In the meantime, I offer you the opportunity in print to, as Jesus said, "repent or perish", and to change the direction of your "faith" from trusting in God-hating man (ultimately yourself) and trust in Jesus not religion. Who do YOU say that He is? (Matthew 16:15)...Be careful now, your answer will require "faith" either way. My apologies for any typos. My less than evolved thumbs may have hindered perfection.
What about those who believe in Evolution AND God?? Why is Bill taking the polemic's road here?? I don't see why there has to be this divide (artificially placed there) by other side. In our family, we find Science – Evolution, Astronomy, Geology, Anthropology, etc. fascinating and real. We also believe in God. For us, Science and Religion are both a quest for truth, and we don't discount that which we cannot see.
God has not been observed.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" – Carl Sagan.
Apparently he didn't say anything about believers who accept evolution. Which earns him more respect from me than the 'if you're not atheist you're a blithering idiot' crowd.
No surprise Nye said that. The Bible predicted it. Now, prove me worng.
It doesn't, but the burden of proof is with the person stating something. You need to prove it is written in the Bible. Which it does not.
maggie....burden of proof is on you
The GOP needs to take this mans advice. And also this man's:
thewarylemming.com/todd-akin-tea-party-republicans-and-the-chance-to-reclaim-the-gop/
The science guy should be speaking to this lot in Tampa!
Mr.Aware
Yet another scientist, or person of education, who thinks they know better than the rest of us, and that we have to follow their thinking or be publicly castigated and humiliated for any belief they didn't proclaim as "good."
Exactly. It's the "I don't know it therefore you can't know it' philosophy of life.
In internet talk, that is a FAIL. He says you can believe what you want.
But he wants children to be able to make up their own mind and not be fed with garbage about Hell. One could say though that if there was a Hell,it needed to be ever expanding, which is kinda saying the Big Bang Theory is right.
It seems simple to me; if you don't agree with Bill, prove him wrong.
Careful now. Don't be confusing the sheeple with the scientific method. They might learn something. I'm not sure they could handle that.
Baby Jesus loves his hillbilly Taliban.
I don't know... "god" must be pissed at the Bible belt right now because "he" is hurling a pretty good storm their way. Maybe someone built an ark in the shipyards in Pascagoula?
good for him .its about time .church and state also do not mix , if i wanted my kids to learn religion they can go to ccd classes or privite schools .it does not belong in public schools
wait. when there is a school shooting noboby cares if the children pray to God for protection. Why not pray before it happens?
May the FSM smite all you thumpers....
May his noodely appendiges knock them in the head so hard that they come to their senses!
And, isn't Ramen-don coming up soon? I need to go to the store and buy some Ramen noodles to celebrate!
Pasta be upon Him
Amazing. Startling that such a high percentage believe in literal creationism.
If evolution was false, the antibiotics we had 50 years ago would still be effective.
It helps to know a view before you criticize it. The young earth creationists do not deny selection; that's observable. And they will point out antibiotic resistant microbes in samples that were taken before the antibiotics were invented. There are difficulties with the young earth viewpoint, but that's not one.
Kurt, that's adaptation not evolution. Perhaps YOU should learn a little about science before posting?