Bill Nye, the Science Guy, says that teaching Creationism to children is inappropriate

Bill Nye, the Science Guy, who is alive and well, despite rumours on Twitter that he died, made another video in which he stated, “Teaching Creationism to children is inappropriate.”  He repeated this sentiment during an interview with the Huffington post, by saying, “Teaching creationism in science class as an alternative to evolution is inappropriate.”

This video, which went viral, caused controversy, just as the last Big Think did, and also caused some parents to become upset with him.

For him, the claims of creationism are completely unreasonable and in the video, he tells parents that if they want to believe creationism that is fine, but do not force children to believe it, because we need them as future scientists and voters, among other things.  He tells parents it is important for children to learn Evolution so that they can understand science.

He further stated, in his video, that denial of Evolution is unique to the United States.

"[W]hen 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.

"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.

Nye believes that in a couple centuries, Creationism will not exist, but according to a recent Gallop Poll, 46% of Americans believe Creationism is true.  However, in 1987, the Supreme Court ruled that teaching Biblical Creationism in public schools violates the First Amendment.

At the same time, various states declared that teachers could teach Creationism, by comparing the weaknesses between Evolution and Creationism.

Nye told CBS, in an interview (video on site), that he was not attacking religion in his video.

On "CBS This Morning," Nye said, "You can believe what you want religiously. Religion is one thing, but science, provable science is something else. My concern is you don't want people growing up not believing in radioactivity, not believing in geology and deep time. You don't want people in the United States growing up without the expectation that we can land spacecraft on Mars. You want people to believe in science, this process, this great idea that humans had to discover more about the universe and our place in it, our place in space. And I really want to emphasize, I'm not attacking anybody's religion, but science, if you go to a museum and you see fossil dinosaur bones, they came from somewhere, and we have by diligent investigation have determined that the earth is 4.54 billion years old. The sun is a star, like all the other stars you see in the sky, and we are made of the same stuff. This is wonderful! This is fantastic discoveries that fill me with reverence, make me excited.

He continued, "But I encourage everybody who's a voter this year to evaluate the candidates based on their stand on science. Rick Santorum made a reference to sonograms a few minutes ago. Well, you wouldn't have sonograms without science, and furthermore, if you ask any physician, they will tell you, he or she will tell you, that science came, the modern medicine largely came from the space program."

CBS asked him why he is passionate about Evolution and he stated feels passionate about it for the betterment of the United States, the economy, and our future.

"If you have this idea that the earth is only 6,000 years old, you are denying, if you will, everything that you can touch and see. You're not paying attention to what's happening in the universe around you. As I say, this is bad for kids."

He reminded people, during his CBS interview that we are made of the same “stuff” that the universe is made of too.

Various Creationism supporting websites accuse Nye of slamming Creationism and that it “hurts kids”.  Ken Ham attempted to rebut Bill Nye, saying that Evolutionists accuse Creationists of abusing children by teaching creation to them.  He also alleged that some people who emailed him stated that Answers in Genesis website refuted all of Nye’s arguments and that he insulted those who believe in Creationism by calling them “ignorant”.  The emailer added that embracing Evolution is a “very convenient way to deny Christ”.

Ham stated, “At AiG and the Creation Museum, we teach children and adults the truth concerning who they are in the Creator’s eyes—and where they came from.”  He then added that humans are “made in God’s image”.

His video received 2,512,139 views so far.

The Answers in Genesis video, which attempted to rebut Bill Nye’s statements concerning Evolution:

Mriana

Mriana is a humanist and the author of "A Source of Misery". She has two grown sons and raises cats. She enjoys writing, reading, science, philosophy, psychology, and other subjects. Mriana is also an animal lover, who cares for their welfare as living beings, who are part of the earth. She is a huge Star Trek fan in a little body.

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