Bill Nye: Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children

Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. According to Bill Nye, aka "the science guy," if grownups 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."

-- 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.

Directed / Produced by
Jonathan Fowler and Elizabeth Rodd

• Category

  Science & Technology

[allanhill1]

"Evolution is dying out". Oh this guy is a scream. Lolll. Evolution can no sooner die out than erosion or gravity. It is not an ism or a belief it is a natural process. He really needs to put down the "buybull" and read some non fiction

[xme71]

Evolution is dying out- Look at Russia, Look at North Korea. Every one who sites your folly is an ex-atheist!

[werriboy55]

What evidence do you have that "after death there's eternity". Please cite your sources for that assertion. Or show the evidence you are using. Please include the researchers names, name of publication and date.

Evolution will continue after our deaths, we just won't be part of it any more because we are dead.

[ppatrick1a1]

"EVIDENCE: scripture, archeology, personal experience"

The only reasons we know the stories from the bible are because of the bible. The bible is not evidence that the stories in it really happened. Archaeology?...please. Not the Shroud of Turin...Its at least 1200 years to late. Personal experience?...LOL. Do you hear voices in your head?...Chances are, its not "God" talking to you.

[Atriviality]

Answer my question and then I'll answer yours. I know you won't because you're afraid of the answer, but that's the deal.

[ppatrick1a1]

And how would an ark hold two of every species of the billions of creatures that ever existed on Earth, including the dinosaurs? How would 8 people take care of these billions of creatures. If the salt-water marine life didn't need the ark to survive, what about the fresh-water ones? Where did all the water come from...the firmament? Where did the water go? How did kangaroos end up in Australia if the ark landed at Mt. Ararat?

[xme71]

When you feel, hear and see crazy stuff you read about in a bible, all the crap that makes you wan't to remain worldly is put aside. If you want to believe; do so.

[633495]

"Tom Cech won a Nobel in 1989 for showing RNA was self-reproducing and could act as a catalyst to make protein (no, actually polypeptides)"

If the ribozyme RNA molecule was actually present in primordial earth with innumerable amino acids just waiting to be arranged, you're still back to the same 1 X 10^9 probability necessary to construct a small 150 aa protein.

Recall that the eukaryotic RNA polymerase exceeds 3,000 aa in length.

It's much more credible to prestate the molecular end point!