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 Commenters were fired up about Bill Nye, creationism and evolution.
August 28th, 2012
10:37 AM ET
Your Take: 5 reactions to Bill Nye's creationism critiqueBy Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN) - Bill Nye does not think that children should be taught to deny evolution, and a YouTube video of him explaining why has gone viral. The CNN Belief Blog's report on the video has generated around 10,000 comments and thousands of Facebook shares since Monday. There were some broad themes in the comments, reflecting a debate that is largely unique to the United States. While Christianity is booming in Africa, Asia and Latin America, creationism is not, Penn State University religious studies professor Philip Jenkins writes in his book "The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South." Here are five schools of reaction that have emerged in comments: 1. Those using this controversy to bash religion Atheists love the Internet, as we've chronicled on the Belief Blog. While they may be a small portion of the population, they seem to make up about half our commenters. It was their chance to join with Nye and cheer him on:
2. Those who say wait a minute, being a creationist isn’t necessarily being anti-evolution Lots of folks from the theistic evolution camp came out to say that believing God was involved doesn't automatically make you anti-evolution.
3. Those who say that science is stupid and that young Earth creationism rules Young Earth creationists, who believe the Earth is about 6,000 years old, appeared to be out in force in the comments.
4. Those who say Nye should stick to his area of expertise This tweet was the most polite remark we could find on this subject. Other comments and tweets, not so much.
[tweet https://twitter.com/watsup1101/status/240168918109523968%5D 5. Those who say CNN is cooking up controversy where none exists Lots of people suggested we were generating a story instead of covering one.
For the record, plenty of other news outlets covered this story, pointing out that Nye's video was posted on YouTube just before the Republican National Convention opened. Turns out that Nye taped the segment awhile back and had no say in when it would be released. Thanks for chiming in. The comments are open here, and you can always hit us up on Twitter @CNNBelief. soundoff (2,811 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 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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COWARDLY, LYING FRED, just google Lady Hope Story and little rat Fred's lying will be very plainly exposed in most of the results.
Grow some balls, Fred, and admit to your lying. You've been caught browntongued.
Prayer changes things .
I pray that Creationists would keep out of the public school system but as to be expected it's not working.
America needs faith prayer and creationism in our public schools again. Romney / Ryan 2012
Hey, Ronald, seeing as you don't believe in the separation of church and state, would you have any problem with our coins being stamped "in Vishnu we trust?" Why not?
Good evening prayer-bot.
Fouling us with your vile and bilious issue again?
When the phrase “In God We Trust” was going to be placed on the $20 gold coin in 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt was against it:
“My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins, or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege…”
That, from a president who was a Christian, a Sunday school teacher, and a Republican… those days are long gone.
It is one nation under God-you want to be a hindu take a slow boat to india or stop by the quik-e-mart, before November. Romney/ Ryan 2012
Hindus believe in God, numb nuts, and Vishnu is one of them. So what's the problem of changing the pledge to "one nation, under Vishnu"? Seriously, how can you possibly object?
Yeah, it doesn't take much to get the evolutionists upset. Just question their religion of science and they get upset.
But, they really get upset when you remind them that their prophet, Charles Darwin, recanted at the end of his life.
That really gets them upset. But that's okay. Maybe they'll evolve into a higher life form. They certainly need to.
Recanting what?
He was a Christian all his life.
I know you a liar, you know that you are a liar, and what is more important your God knows that you are a liar.
COWARDLY, LYING FRED, just google Lady Hope Story and little rat Fred's lying will be plainly exposed.
Grow some balls, Fred, and admit to your lying. You've been caught browntongued.
Are you the Fred that is always being the Fred? If you are, I understand completely.
Just because you don't like the truth doesn't mean it is no longer true!
These evolutionists sure didn't take long to devolve into name-calling, did they?
But that's okay: I'm enjoying the show!
So just keep on frothing at the mouth. Your prophet bailed out on you. You will, too, eventually.
Is Jesus such a pussy that he really needs you to lie for him? You're not helping your cult you know. Are you saying your fellow Christian, Charles Darwin, recanted Christianity? Are you really that stupid?!
I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature~
Thomas Jefferson
Freds brain has not had an original thought in decades!
COWARDLY, LYING FRED, just google the Lady Hope Story and little rat Fred's lying will be plainly exposed.
Grow some balls, Fred, and admit to your lying. You've been caught browntongued.
Interesting reading here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin%27s_religious_views
Fred, you ARE the froth master, who are you kidding? You posted.
Lets say that you are correct. (That story is probably horse poo though.) Does it matter? He believes one thing all of his life, and then when he is on his death bed he all of the sudden changes his mind. Did you ever think that maybe he was afraid to die? He saw the end was near, and the light bulb was about to go out permanently. I will not hold it against him that he became delusional (possibly) during his last hours. That does not mean he believed it. He tried to trick himself into believing in something that is most likely a fairy tale. As an atheist, I think there is a chance that I will do the same thing when I am dying. "Maybe I am wrong. Maybe there is an afterlife. I don't want to cease to exist." Maybe it will bring me a tiny bit of comfort. That and a lot of drugs. That does not change what I KNOW "in my mind" to be true. That goes for the last ten years, this given moment, and the next 30/50 years. And "hoping" on my death bed does not change the view I will have for 90 percent of my life.
Fred is a liar and a COWARD.
Fred, you are a LYING LITTLE RAT and for that you have now been exposed.
Grow some balls and acknowledge that fact, you COWARD and typical Christard
Jesus looks down at all "true believers" through the fingers of the hand he is facepalming with.
And God cries in his beer a the stupidity of 46% of Americans.
i believe science has progressed immensely over the last couple of centuries and has benefited the lives of many. That being said, for one to believe that human beings have discovered the mysteries of the universe in their relatively short time here on earth is absolutely absurd and somewhat mind boggling. The theories of evolution and the big bang are both very well thought out but have in no way been proven true (hence THEORIES). Yes I believe living organisms have the ability to adapt to their surroundings and have the unique ability to survive for instance the variations of human anatomy like skin pigment. But to claim that humans started as micro organisms, turning into fish like creatures, from that to apes or monkeys to what we are now is ludicrous. History has often proven that humans more often than not put their foots in their mouths. A couple hundred years ago people thought the earth was the center of the universe and a couple hundred years before that the earth was flat. In 2012 we believe that life itself came from nothing. Lost we are!!
-"He will come forth in my name and will mislead many"
Guess from where???
Cleveland?
You don't understand how evolution works, so it's pretty easy to be dismissive. I actually heard Pat Robertson once say "evolution makes no sense...I've never seen a chicken turn into a man."
How can evolution be ludicrous, just curious?
if i'm not mistaken those who believe in evolution think we came from apes who came from fish. So yes i do think its ludicrous that people believe we're "animorphs (great book series by the way)" and are changing from different species to species. So what's next, we evolve into birds? There you go, we figured out the cycle of life bacteria>>fish>>monkeys>>humans>>birds!!!!
"if i'm not mistaken"
Guess what?
This is what happens when you make robots/computers too much like humans, they try to take over the world by saying "religion is wrong, listen to me I am the one with the answers! I will tell you what you should think and do because, lets face it, I am much better than you simple humans". Didn't anyone learn anything from the Terminator movies?
You tell me that people who only read one book, repeat the 7 verses they remember over and over are not the robot.
Hey Jag!
Does this sound familiar to you? "...listen to me I am the one with the answers!" Doesn't your Jesus say that?
This is going to the top of the comments. A liar named Fred just posted the old lie about Darwin recanting on his deathbed.
Fred, you can't get away with that here, you lying little rat. That lie is known as the Lady Hope story, and it is false. Even most creationists acknowledge that. Darwin did not recant on his deathbed. His relatives there were witness to that.
So take that, Fred, you liar.
Sorry, but relatives who weren't even present do not count as witnesses.
Hate to disillusion you about your hero, but in the end he recanted and he
wanted to go to heaven and be with his brother.
Sorry life didn't play out the way you wanted. Your hero recanted and
YOU WILL, TOO.
Fred must be very old to have been an eyewitness. Or maybe he just believes in myths. Actually, I KNOW he believes in myths.
....Hey!
Fred, you are a LYING LITTLE RAT and for that you have been exposed.
Grow some balls and acknowledge that fact, you COWARD and typical Christard
You know he is a liar,I know he is a liar, he knows he is a liar, and what is more important his God knows that he is a liar.
Why is it that everyone insists that earth time must be the standard of time for everything in all creation? If God created the earth in six days, and a man’s life is equivalent to one hour in the throne room of god, then if he created the earth from the throne room of God and that equation is true after he limited the life of man. Then god spent 6 days at 24 hours a day that were 120 years per hour. That means 17,280 Years on earth. Time really isn’t the same when you look at the universe. Six years on mars is very different than six years on earth. At least acknowledge the true math problem if you are going to add commentary. Such liner thinking, and this is what we have teaching our children.
"True math" – kind of irrelevant when you bring "the throne room of god" into the equation. So, is this throne made of gold, or marble? Does god use a cushion, or doesn't he need one because he has an omnipotent behind? For that matter, what is the purpose of the throne? Does God need to sit down?
Nice try, George, but you get a big fail whale. The events described in the bible are still wrong and in the wrong sequence, and the bible still gets so many other facts wrong, such as basic biology.
Does god use an Ottoman? A Barcalounger? Beanbag chair?
You sound like you know George...inquiring minds wanna know.
For amusement, let's consider the outline of evolution:
1. 5 billion years ago, no part of our solar system existed; neither did the materials for making it (apart from such as hydrogen). The needed materials were made in the nuclear crucible of a collapsing star then dispersed into a cloud of hydrogen when the star exploded. The result of gravity was our solar system.
2. 4.5 billion years ago, our Earth was a molten mass, but it cooled, crusted and became entirely, or almost entirely, covered with a warm salt-free ocean.
3. 3.9 billion years, somewhere in the ocean appeared the first undeniable living thing, the simplest of microorganisms called a prokaryote. It did not die, but regenerated itself by dividing into two microorganisms identical to the original, as did the two new ones and their offspring.
4. The prokaryotes ingested water and carbon dioxide and produced oxygen as a waste. There was as yet no free oxygen on Earth.
5. During the next two billion years, the prokaryotes ruled Earth and produced so much oxygen that, after the ocean dissolved all it could, free oxygen began to grow ever more abundant in the atmosphere. The prokayotes, for whom oxgen was toxic, found themselves restricted to ever more remote habitats.
6. Fortunately, a few of the prokaryotes had undergone mutations, and among them were oxygen-breathing mutants , who began to take over.
7. The lineage from the first prokaryote to humans is fuzzy until the appearance of the "roundish flatworm," about 900 million years ago. Though only a thirty-secondth of an inch long, it had evolved a gut among its innovations. Precisely which worm mutated and branched out towards humanity is not known.
8. About 7 million years ago, the first hominids appeared in Africa, which was being almost ripped in two by massive geological forces that caused an immense rift valley.
the hominids developed into humans on the east side of the rift, which became dry, while on the west side, which had new growths of plush rainforest, the hominids became extinct while the apes survived.
9. The first civilization appeared at Sumer, then the first empire at Babylon. Each published a set of laws which allegedly came from God; later Moses is said to have received a barbaric and otherwise inferior version of the same laws from God.
You have combined several 'theories' and called them evolution. This is in error.
Evolution is not planetary formation nor abiogenesis, It is what happens next.
10. Now humans are producing so much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that they seem to be setting the stage for the extinction of the human species.
I wonder how many hours it took to find anything semi-intelligent from their comment threads.
"Fred" so your logic is that fear – as you near death – will make you want to take out an insurance policy (belief in God).
Dazzling argument.
People are still evolving via genetic mutation. We call these birth defects. Some are survivable and become part of the gene pool, some not.
The author of this article is incorrect.
Bill Nye did not say that children should not be taught to deny evolution.
Instead, Bill Nye said that children should be taught to deny Creationism.
Big difference, CNN.
Rock
I don't trust men who insist on wearing bow ties.
Thats because you have repressed gay tendencies.
I think the more important fact is that even that bowtie may be more than six thousand years old.
I personally want to thank Bill Nye for having the courage to say what needed to be said. I also want to add that ignorance is not a virtue and should not be worn as if it were a merit badge. Instead of criticizing Bill for his message, how about taking some time to become familiar with the areas of discipline and knowledge that he speaks from? There was an age when seeing the moon pass in front of the sun caused people to scream. There was a time when people were convinced that the world was flat. It took brave men of science and curiosity who taught us differently even though they suffered greatly for revealing the truth. What side of those stories do you choose to be on?
Well stated!
I agree, it took a lot of guts for Bill Nye to come out in defense of science and reality. He always played it safe and was never very threatening to Christians but this statement for truth will put him in the bull's eye as in the same company as Satan himself....Richard Dawkins.
I find it hard to give Bill Nye much credibility considering how goofy-looking he is in that picture.
Really, he looks like someone's weird uncle or that creepy guy at the park who stares at the little kids.
He reminds me of Beaker from the Muppet Show ...
Show business often works for people who have interesting faces and something to say. But that thought may be a little deep for you, considering your post.
So knowledge is a beauty contest?
I bet you prefer to vote for tall white men with expensive hair cuts.
A valid reason for not finding his idea's credible. You might not have let your kids into a class that Einstein taught. Then again you probably don't put much stock in any of Eisteins theories either.
yeah...you probably have more trust in your pastor...fudge packer Ted Haggard. Is that your "ideal" man?
Bill, Thank you. Creationism purely stems from a lack of knowledge. "I don't know how Atoms and Energy came into being so it must be God" is a poor argument. That's like me saying 100 years ago, "electricity is witch craft because we can't fully explain it". We created God, (yes human beings created him) because we were ignorant and couldn't figure out what made us tick. Now we are starting to see the big picture and if your not on the bus to knowledge and facts your missing out. Creationism vs. Evolution. It's like talking on a banana compared to an i-phone. If you can get your banana phone to work by going to church, (not just voice but data as well) I'll be in church on Sunday. He's God right if he exists he can do anything..... I'm not holding my breath.
I figure you'll end up the same way Charles Darwin did:
at the end of his life he converted to Christianity.
Once the thought of stepping out into eternity sinks in, you'll want God.
Don't feel bad. It happened to your hero Charles Darwin.
That's about as useless an assertion as the no atheists in foxholes.
@Fred...stop lying for Jesus. No one buys it except your fellow frothing at the mouth FunDUHmentalists. Go back to living in a cave you hypocrite.
@Fred,
Charles Darwin started out as a Christian. He died as a Christian. What is this 'conversion' nonsense?
If you are as ill-informed about Darwin as you are about evolution no wonder you cleave to your big book of smiting.
Fred, Charles Darwin was actually in school to be a clergyman originally. It wasn't something he just decided to do at the end of his life. He was very at war with himself for a lot of his life, however he did in fact believe both natural selection and God were real. I would also like to point out that speciation and evolution are different things. Evolution does not always mean the emergence of a new species.
Fred, you dimwit, people back then did not have the right to paint themselves as atheists/agnostics without being rejected by the establishment. That means no job, no publishing, no career, no money. It's different now, thank...thank...thanks a lot.
"... however he did in fact believe both natural selection and God were real."
Isn't that remarkable? The man to whom much is owed for his insights, observations and evolutionary theory, found it possible to reconcile himself to both disciplines. Too bad the Internet didn't exist then, I'm sure he would have been shamed into anonymity for the kind of ridicule he would have been subjected to by the less "cerebral" posters in this thread for his belief in God.
A liar named Fred just posted the old lie about Darwin recanting on his deathbed.
Fred, you can't get away with that here, you lying little rat. That lie is known as the Lady Hope story, and it is false. Even most creationists acknowledge that story to be false. Darwin did not recant on his deathbed. His relatives there were witness to that.
So take that, Fred, you disgusting liar.
@Jungle...sadly, it's not changed enough. Christians stil persecute and threaten to the point of bodily harm and loss of income, etc. those who do not think as they do. A lot of Christians are no different than the Taliban.
So that means that 'Fred' is going to h.ell.
Only those with the most unscholarly and unlearned approach to the Christian faith insist that one cannot be a Christian and accept evolution. As a Christian for nearly 52 years and a pastor for over 22 years, I can say that most of the Christians I know have no problem accepting evolution, because that's reality, and I worship a real God who is the source of all truth. Please remember that the Bible is a book of theology, not biology or cosmology.
One day we will all find out the truth...I am 100% sure in my position...are Mr. Nye and others who do not believe in God and the wonders He created just as sure. You can throw hate at me all you want but...we all will find out soon enough. Blessing to all.
Post by Jim is a form of the flawed argument known as Pascal's Wager.
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/glossary.html
This debate is in itself an indictment of our education system. Putting it another way, education is the antidote to gullibility. I'm afraid that most of the people on the 6,000-year side simply can't tell the difference between good sources of information and bad.
But..one has to be open to being educated first. When you are indoctrinated from birth how the world works, that man was created it his current form 6000 years ago, woman made from a rib of a man, a snake fooled the woman tainting all future humans, etc. then you will distort reality to fit that absurd belief system. No amount of evidence to the contrary can dislodge this mental illness. Education in reality has no chance.
That is an interesting assessment...hasn't evolution been taught in the public schools for many years? At least it was when i was in the system. The liberal unions pretty much run the public school systems...so who are you indicting? The public school system is why we have people who are not intelligent enough to recognize macro evolution for what it is...nonsense.
It's not an indictment of education. It does indicate just how far believers will go in rejecting reality to cling to delusion.
Let me put it this way. A simple course in introductory geology will teach you that the Earth is around 4.5 billion years old and that the planetary crust is tens or hundreds of millions of years old, but more importantly, how it is that we reached these conclusions. A basic knowledge of the speed of light will yield insight into the age of the Universe, and so on. Yes I understand it is an uphill struggle when cultish thinking is taught from a very young age, but like Neo leaving the Matrix, with effort minds can be saved. It is a generational problem. I think at this juncture, every mind saved counts.