Saturday, August 25, 2012

Bill Nye: Creationism is NOT appropriate for children.

Here is the transcript:  

Denial of evolution is unique to the United States. I mean, we're the world's most advanced technological—I mean, you could say Japan—but generally, the United States is where most of the innovations still happens. People still move to the United States. And that's largely because of the intellectual capital we have, the general understanding of science. When you have a portion of the population that doesn't believe in that, it holds everybody back, really. 

Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. It's like, it's very much analogous to trying to do geology without believing in tectonic plates. You're just not going to get the right answer. Your whole world is just going to be a mystery instead of an exciting place. 

As my old professor, Carl Sagan, said, "When you're in love you want to tell the world." So, once in a while I get people that really—or that claim—they don't believe in evolution. And my response generally is "Well, why not? Really, why not?" Your world just becomes fantastically complicated when you don't believe in evolution. I mean, here are these ancient dinosaur bones or fossils, here is radioactivity, here are distant stars that are just like our star but they're at a different point in their lifecycle. The idea of deep time, of this billions of years, explains so much of the world around us. If you try to ignore that, your world view just becomes crazy, just untenable, itself inconsistent. 

And I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, 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 people that can—we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems. 

It's just really hard a thing, it's really a hard thing. You know, in another couple of centuries that world view, I'm sure, will be, it just won't exist. There's no evidence for it.

Dr. Nye is a kind and gentle man.

Personally I am less inclined to be so diplomatic with these idiots. To put it in more blunt language if you as a parent are actively teaching your children to believe INSTEAD of to think, to value superstition over science, than you are essentially committing child abuse in my opinion.

You are not doing your duty as a parent to prepare your child for their future, and are instead committing them to a life of ridicule and shame. That is unless they refuse to expose themselves to the world around them and instead hide their heads in the bosom of their ignorant families while embracing the lies perpetrated by their fundamentalist church.

Which would just result in yet another generation left standing on the curb watching the world pass them by. And robbing them of the beauty of difficult truth, in exchange for the solace of simple superstitions.

39 comments:

  1. Sharon4:30 AM

    This goes part and parcel to your previous post on the glam sluts of Fox....old white men and their sheep wives, there ya go. Keep em barefoot and pregnant and going to church. Forget about college cause you just might see the "reel" world. It always comes back to a black man in the white house, the GOP finally feels safe in all their stupid racist ideals to come into the light. You can't deny it...2010 should be the biggest wakeup call to this country, the Dems stayed home and they lost state after state, not to mention congress. I hope and pray the reverse happens now.

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    1. The Mighty Daughter of God Sharon doe's not get out much or watch the news, blacks and hispanics are also speaking against the self appointed governors of our children! Bill speaks directly against commandments when saying as he say's! Bill Nye the so called Science guy { a good man } has again shamed himself by speaking down to those in the know, those who understand that evolution is a science brought forth by God's Word, and that the data collected by evolutionists is valid, yet the ...conclusions drawn from the data has been very badly researched! Go to the Proof in the news and Science and Theology page, and the Darwin battle field of God and satan page on the website at http://www.adamandeveseedgatheringministry.com/proof_in_the_news_and_science_and_theology and http://www.adamandeveseedgatheringministry.com/charles_darwin_battle_field_of_god__satan_pageevolution also go to the prophecy and the signs page as proof the Minister and Word researcher of the website is a Righteous man, the prewritten news events were listed over three years ago and more { the Minister having found a code/key Rev:1:17-18 } which helps him prophesy coming events and scientific discoveries, events such as the Japan quake and the DC/Virginia Beach Virginia quake which our Lord Jesus brought on the same day as the unveiling of the martin luther king statue in DC { with more quakes now coming there to DC/V.B.V } page link at http://www.adamandeveseedgatheringministry.com/prophecy_and_the_signs ... view all pages and links .... contact his site for more info.... Respect to all of Adam/God

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  2. "actively teaching your children to believe INSTEAD of to think, to value superstition over science, than you are essentially committing child abuse in my opinion."

    Exactly what the State of Texas is trying to do to its entire public school population, by removing any kind of critical thinking from its curriculum.
    I fear for the future of this country.

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    1. Anonymous8:18 AM

      I was at a meeting last week on the new science standards and Texas and Alaska are two of the non-adopting states. Wait til their kids try to get into college (and I don't mean that baby-sitter Bob Jones U)

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  3. Anonymous4:55 AM

    I just came back from a business trip. One morning in the hotel room, I was flipping through the cable channels and landed on a Merrie Melodie cartoon from the 1940s. In it, Elmer Fudd was an MC interviewing Bugs Bunny on stage. He asked Bugs for his story, and Bugs went into amoebas evolving. It was quite the eye-opener that nearly 100 years ago, there was no Cretinist crap and evolution was accepted as reality. We're going backwards as a society.

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    1. Anonymous7:43 AM

      One of my favorite movies -- Fantasia -- has a sequence depicting evolution. Disney! In 1941!

      However there most certainly was creationist crap then, that's why these cartoons are remarkable.

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  4. It would be really nice if just one media or literature personality would propose the novel idea that faith and science can coexist. I believe in God and I believe in science. I believe in what is seen AND unseen. I embrace faith in something bigger than myself but do not see that as a reason to deny evolution as a concept- and I do NOT understand people who do deny it. Every unit of time and space and money and distance was different in the Bible. Nowhere does it say a day when God created ______ was 24 hours. It could have been light years, decades, millennia.

    The concept of MILLIONS of years is hard to grasp. But even if you just cannot wrap your brain around what science has proven over and over again- you STILL cannot deny evolution as a concept. Everything evolves. Gryphen evolved from a young testosterone driven lunkhead to . . . a not so young testosterone driven lunkhead. With a blog! Even their beloved embryos evolve from tiny beans to screaming, pooping little people. Evolution is everywhere. It happens, and to say it doesn't just makes you sound like a total ass.

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    1. Anonymous7:01 AM

      Science and faith belong in different classrooms. Evolution is a fact. All scientists believe in the ¨unseen.¨ The electrons flowing out of your computer screen is one example.


























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    2. Nyah,
      Here's to testosterone. Hear! Hear! And to those of us lunkheads who use it to fuel our brain waves in every waking monent. Hear! Hear! For, without it, there wouldn't be as much evolution going on. Yeah, that's it, it's gotta be all about moving our species forward. Pretty nobile, huh? Actually it's noble, not nobile, I think.

      On a related subject, Nyah, before you start thinking about running off and get married to some testosterone driven lunkhead that might not share your view of science within this wonder of our universe that we can only begin to imagine the parameters of, please know and consider that there are OTHER testosterone-driven lunkheads who DO happen to share similar sentiments to your idea that we should not deny the science that we have discovered, but we should never think we can get our arms completely around to fully understand concepts and dimensions which our minds cannot fully grasp at our current state of evolution. Whew, long sentence. Try saying all that without taking a breath. I'm a little tired. Do you like to spoon on the couch sometimes while taking a short nap? Here. Here.

      Or, if you've got that covered, and insist on moving forward with any pre-existing plans you happen to have, certainly you must have a sister or two who are single and similarly enlightened, perhaps? Cousin? Aunt? Neighbors who are inseparable (close, not conjoined) twin sisters that are New Orleans Saints cheerleaders?

      Not that I'm picky on every criteria, but it never hurts to ask because how else is one to know if that special someone might be out there--- you know, a wealthy, good- looking, young thang who just happens to be a nymphomaniac, owns a chain of liquor stores, and loves watching ESPN or having it on in the background all the time, no matter the activity at hand. Other than those simple matters of the heart, I find that I'm as flexible as most.

      If you or someone you'd strongly recommend is interested in applying, please forward current resume with references, visual portfolio (non-nudity acceptable at this early stage), essay on "Why I Love Sports & Guys Who Love Sports" (hand-written, black ink preferred), photo of liquor cabinet (date- and time-stamped, with current inventory) and past immediate 12 years of complete tax returns as well as current audited financial statements to G, whom I trust will forward (unopened, G, please!) to my assistant to schedule an interview/rehearsal at our earliest convenience.

      Sincerely,
      Toasty (not too lightly, not too dark. Just riiiite.) ;^]
      P.S. I've been practicing for eHarmony. Can you tell?

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    3. Toasty, I regret to inform you I have zero critically thinking, faith-embracing sisters. And I'm pretty set on marrying my Menschie. However, were it not for my recent betrothal, I SWEAR I would have already sent my specs to G along with a sketch of the Jesus-and-Einstein-Holding-Hands china we would commission for our multicultural interfaith interracial union. (assuming you are not black. If you are, scratch the interracial)

      I am totes serious. My fiancé reads here and when he sees me gushing on your comments, he calls you my bloggy boyfriend.

      I regret to say I cannot send a photo of my liquer cabinet, as I work at a university and most students just steal from their folks' liquer cab to procure Christmas gifts for staff and teachers. AND one of my future siblings in law has an ownership stake in a winery. You would cry, you really would.

      Gotta go, saints & texans are on . . .

      Love,
      Your IM best girl

      PS- you forgot to add "must have good birthin' hips" to your e harmony ad. (yes, of course I have them)

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    4. "I believe in God and I believe in science."

      In other words you accept reality but you still believe in magic. You are admitting you're insane.

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    5. Human Ape, I am not admitting I'm insane. I'm rational, logical, and believe that given the vast galaxies of amazing and untold beauty, the complexities in space, sea, and land, the reality that we will truly never know ALL which came before us- I accept there may well be something at play more breathtaking and deep than we can comprehend or process.

      And if YOU call that "magic", derisively and rudely no less- you're "admitting" you are a complete and total chuckle whack ass hat.

      You know, given that you instantly call someone who believes differently than you "insane", perhaps you'd feel more at home over the pee pond. Don't let the door hit you in your highly evolved ass crack.

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  5. WakeUpAmerica5:18 AM

    Ignorant fundies like the Tundra Turd get in their bully pulpits and pound their fists while screaming about "America's exceptionalism". All the while, they are denying the evidence of science. Well America won't be exceptional for very long if the science deniers get their way.

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  6. I’ve had several Invisible Force encounters. My Invisible Force seems to like knowledge. It’s a big universe, and we’ve barely scratched the surface.

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  7. Leland5:28 AM

    I read this and I said to myself: Hey! maybe THIS is why I couldn't accept all the crap my father tried to beat into me! Did I just see naturally that what he was trying to cram down my throat was crap?

    Anyone with half a brain, who stands back and seriously looks at the two sides of the question should be able to just SEE what's garbage and what's probable. (When I say "probable", I am trying to be circumspect and allow the idea of incomplete knowledge to be taken into account.)

    Of course, there are those who truly are incapable of thinking - or are too lazy to try, so we can argue this question forever with them. But as Nye says, denial of evolution is unique to the United States.

    Do we REALLY have that many ignorant, stupid fanatics here? And if so, WHY?

    And is there some way to solve the problem? (In my opinion, no, there isn't - until there is no more organized religion.)

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  8. Anonymous6:27 AM

    Religion and specifically 'heaven' is a crutch used by people who cannot and will not accept the fact that they will die someday. The end. It's over. They can't accept that. They want to float off somewhere to be with old aunt Hester and the family cat that was ran over when they were 3 years old.

    I understand that no one alive today knows exactly how the universe was formed and what was before the 'big bang' but to believe in stories and tales written by ancient people with no grasp of science is unbelievable to me. And what's even more frightening are the people today who want to legislate our country by what's in the Bible. Truly scary.

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    1. Anonymous7:34 AM

      For some, there is a bigger reason. In ¨White Trash in the Snow¨ Cristol learns she is pregnant. Then she finds an out.

      From Chapter Twenty-two:
      ¨The conclusion that a pregnancy was an act of God freed her from blame and responsibility.¨

      ¨...freed her from blame and responsibilty.¨

      Convenient, eh?

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    2. Anonymous7:57 AM

      You wouldn't deny the afterlife if you grew up in a haunted house like I did, toots. I saw the previous owner - who died before my parents bought the house - numerous times. So did my mother. We often awoke in the morning to find all the kitchen cabinets open and drawers pulled out. One time we came home from a shopping trip, went to put groceries away and discovered all the cans and boxes in the pantry had been rearranged in alphabetical order. NO ONE had been home.

      Explain that.

      Oh I know you'll just blow it off -- because your mind is every bit as closed as a Fundy Christian's.

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    3. Anonymous8:26 AM

      Ha ha- a ghost with OCD.

      But then my favorite show as a kid was Topper.

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    4. Anonymous9:10 AM

      7:57,
      ¨Explain that.¨

      This is easy. You´re lying.

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    5. "Explain that"

      It's like you're saying "I am extraordinarily stupid, explain that."

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    6. Anonymous6:49 AM

      Anonymous at 7:57. You cannot explain it to closed minds. I do not try. I just know what I know, and no, I am not Scara. Energy never dies, it just takes different forms.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous6:31 AM

    Zola said, "Man will not be free until the last stone falls from the last cathedral on the last priest"

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  10. How sad that there are apparently so few on either side of the evolution/creation debate who can come to see that there is no contradiction, rather a debate over perspective with neither view negating the other. Reinhold Niebuhr, Obama's favorite philosopher and theologian, had no problem with Darwinian science as it concerned itself with the empirical rather than the ontological aspect of science.

    As Niebuhr wrote, "the resistance of the religious community....to the Darwinian discoveries in science was both stubborn and pathetic." He was, however, as am I, saddened by the seeming loss of a sense of human spirituality and dignity inherent in the wide acceptance of a wholly materialistic view of man in the world.

    I think therefore I am becomes I am stuff of the earth for a while and then there will be just stuff and no I.

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    1. Anonymous9:18 AM

      Darwin stopped believing in god after watching his little daughter die painfully. That is a fact on the record. He could care less about spirituality.

      Einstein´s equation tells us what we are made of, Lewis, and it ain´t ¨stuff of the earth.¨

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    2. quod erat demonstrandum.....sad indeed

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    3. "How sad that there are apparently so few on either side of the evolution/creation debate who can come to see that there is no contradiction, rather a debate over perspective with neither view negating the other."

      There is no evolution/creation debate. Every educated person knows evolution is reality and magical creation is fantasy.

      No contradiction between science and make-believe nonsense? Do you know what "full of it" means?

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    4. Yes I know what "full of it" means.

      Do you know what the passage below means? are you aware the arguments contained therein are not empirical...not subject to scientific proof? Yet I believe them just as I believe the arguments of Darwin (did you figure out from my posts that I agreed with Darwin?).

      We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

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  11. Anonymous7:15 AM

    We don't only need science for the future, we need it now!
    People spend 100's of thousands of dollars on vitamin crap (Look up strontium for oesteoporosis!!) They claim everything natural has no side effects. Perhaps it has no side effects because it has no effects at all and they are just peeing money away.

    Then, they claim that cancer researchers and doctors don't want to cure cancer, even though we HAVE cured some cancers, and learned to detect others early. Even though chemotherapy is the reason they are still on the planet and buying noni juice.

    This crap way of thinking is why we have people guarding sacred military spending but cancer research $$ has been at a standstill for a decade.

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  12. Anonymous7:42 AM

    I say let science answer the "how" and let religion answer the "why." There's no reason they can't both coexist in the hearts and minds of thoughtful and reasonable people.

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    1. Religion has never answered any question. And what is thoughtful and reasonable about believing in a magic god fairy? It's a disease that needs to be eradicated.

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  13. Anonymous8:09 AM

    Anon 7:15

    Without hope, knowledge can be useful but not seem helpful. Without knowledge, hope can seem useful but not be helpful.

    It's easier to purchase hope than it is to gain knowledge. The more you spend, the more you can hope, even if it's really worth no more than having no hope at all.

    Sometimes it is easier to hold onto false hope than it is to learn the truth.

    I might read this later and realize it makes no sense at all, but right now it seems to fit. I "hope" so.

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  14. Anonymous8:16 AM

    "It's like, it's very much analogous to trying to do geology without believing in tectonic plates."

    But they DON'T believe in tectonic plates! A student told me he could prove the Grand Canyon was created in a flood 6000 years ago by the "angle" of the fish fossils. And this dunderhead wanted to be an engineer.

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  15. Anonymous10:54 AM

    The world will always need church secretaries and fast food workers. These children of science deniers will fill those jobs.

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  16. Anita Winecooler8:18 PM

    I find it entertaining how some people can block out the sun with one finger. One of my son's friends is being raised to believe in Intelligent Design and Creationism while denying Science and Evolution.
    He's not allowed to watch shows or movies like "star trek" because it's a waste of time, it's fiction that may or may not happen years from now.

    Yet he has read the entire series of "left behind" books and watched the videos, listens to bible stories on dvd, you know, fiction about what may or may not happen years from now. Based on stuff written years ago that may or may not have happened years before.

    In a similar way, The Jetsons, a work of fiction written in the past about the future included things that were actually invented by science. Space Travel, meal substitutes, conveyor sidewalks, the microwave, smartphones, and the Callista Gingrich hairdo.

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  17. Anonymous2:33 PM

    Gigantic New Study Changes Everything We Knew About Human Genes
    Jennifer Welsh|Sep 5,2012
    (with embedded 4:37 video)
    http://www.businessinsider.com/encode-genome-data-and-human-genes-2012-9

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  18. Be careful about calling things like Creationism child abuse. I've done a lot of study in preparation for foster parenting, and there is real abuse happening all over. The type who are Creationists would be the ones to take those abused children in, to love them back into mental health. Such a blanket slam on anyone who doubts evolution is ignorant and mean. If you did that to a child, that would be child abuse.

    If it's so easy and obvious, win the debate already.

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  19. Can't teach God, but its okay to tell them to go around having sex with anything that moves. Same people think that.

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  20. Anonymous5:32 PM

    Human Ape, evolution is NOT fact, but is indeed just a theory... and one that all true scientists will agree has not proven. There is no true explanation for the origin of life itself, no transitional fossils (there should be millions of these), no proof or evolution of new species ( don't be fooled by those who say genetic variation is the same as evolution, it's not). So let's talk about fairies and magic - it's those who trumpet evolution when the truth is there are no facts.

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