Bill Nye Slams Creationism, Asks Parents to Abstain From Teaching it to Kids The man best known as "The Science Guy" has some tough words for those that deny evolution.

VIA GLOOCE

 

You know what gets Bill Nye's bowtie spinning? People who would refute the teachings of Charles Darwin.

The beloved scientist and television host posted a video on the website Big Think this weekend, making a case for evolution, which he called "the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology." Not believing in the idea holds everybody back, he said.

"It's very much analogous in trying to do geology without believing in tectonic plates," Nye offered. "You're just not going to get the right answer. Your whole world is going to be a mystery instead of an exciting place."

Name-dropping his former mentor, astronomy all-star Carl Sagan, Nye made his case in a passionate yet restrained fashion.

"Once in a while I get people that claim they don't believe in evolution," he continued. "And my response generally is 'why not?' Your world just becomes fantastically complicated when you don't believe in evolution."

Finally, he made an appeal: "I say to grownups, if you want to live in your world without 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 tax payers for the future."



-- 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.


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