Bill Nye Takes on Creationists
Scientist and beloved children’s television personality Bill Nye has always been a passionate proponent of education. Now he has focused his attention on creationists, and the dangers they pose to children hoping to learn how the world works.
Last Month, Nye released an online video "Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children," in which he slams the movement and its attitude towards evolution.
Creationists follow a literal interpretation of the Bible, believing that the world was created in six days, and that the planet is only a few thousand years old. They reject evolution. This, according to Nye, is completely unacceptable.
Posted by Big Think, the video went viral as Nye pleads that children be taught the fundamentals of evolution.
“If we raise a generation of students who don’t believe in the process of science, who think everything that we’ve come to know about nature and the universe can be dismissed by a few sentences translated into English from some ancient text, you’re not going to continue to innovate,” Nye explained to reporters.
Nye pleads with creationists to allow their children to learn about evolution, regardless of the beliefs of the parents.
“If you want to deny evolution and live 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.”
Creationists have not responded well to Nye’s video, which currently has over 4.6 million hits on YouTube. They believe that creationism should be taught in schools alongside evolution, if not in its place. Creationists maintain that evolution is just a theory, and an inconsistent one at that. They question the science that dates the age of the earth to billions of years, saying it oftentimes contradicts its own findings.
“We say the only dating method that is absolute is the Word of God,” said Ken Ham, co-founder of Answers in Genesis, to reporters. “Time is the crucial factor for Bill Nye. Without the time of millions of years, you can’t postulate evolution change.”
[Pic via Flickr - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]
