Bill Nye: Creationism is Bad for Kids

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU"]Bill Nye: Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children - YouTube[/ame]

I think it's bad for everyone, but I agree with what he is saying in this regard. What I find ironic about the Creationist movement is that both evolution and the big bang theory have been accepted by some very prominent Christians. Most notably the previous Pope.


Edit: Sorry couldn't get the embedding to work. If someone could correct that, I'd be grateful.

 

The definition of Creationism varies from God being the first cause, to God having a direct hand in creating all of life in a specific way. Creationism isn't limited to Christianity, yet alone Theism (Deists also see God as the first cause). I know with myself (Christian monotheist), I don't accept the Young Earth Creationist model nor the Gap Creationist model (many Christians don't). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism

Now, I do agree with Bill Nye to an extent. My opinion is that anything involving God should be taught in Religious and Philosophy classes. Science classes should be teaching Science (after all that's what a Science class is about).

 

The danger of teaching creationism in the place of science is much, much bigger than the risk of our children being scientifically wrong about the origin of species and the universe.

The real danger is that our children will learn that, as Issac Assimov put it, "democracy means my ignorance is as good as your knowledge". Creationism (or at least the brand of it that denies evolution and the big bang) teaches children that they have the right to ignore the truth if it doesn't fit with their preconceptions.

 

And even worse you teach them to believe in things that haven't been verified. Saying something unproven is a possibility is fine. Saying something unproven is a certainty is just plain foolish.

 

I don't think that that is what Bill was getting at. I think he was saying that we need to teach kids to be scientifically literate.

 

I think they need a third category. Why must it be creationist OR evolutionist. I believe in them both. Evolutionary Creation.

 

If you believe in both then IMHO you don't understand either properly.
Evolution by natural selection doesn't posit or need a creator.
If you think there's a creator involved then you need to come up with another theory based around that because evolution by natural selection isn't it.

 

Okay... a theory:

God created everything and meant for it to change or (evolve) by design.

The Bible changes people every day.

 

That's fine if that's what you believe but evolution by natural selection has no direction or goal so it doesn't fit with what traditional religions view as the place of humans in the universe.

 

and this?

 

horrible quote if you're actually interested in science.

no, we weren't there when our mutual common ancestor came into being. but we can infer that one existed with much more certainty than a "belief" that some intelligent being created everything. we can demonstrably prove biological evolution using all sorts of methods. can you demonstrate god designed a petunia?

also, we might not have been there during the big bang. but we can actually measure that the universe is expanding. we can view celestial bodies and analyze them. we can demonstrate that light takes time to travel through a vacuum. we can demonstrably show the effects of gravity in the universe. using science across all kinds of disciplines, we can infer a great many things about the nature of the universe.

sure, there's a lot we don't have an answer for, and maybe some of our answers need work. but that's a lot better in my opinion than "read this book, it explains everything."

 

The Bible was not written to explain everything, it was written to save your soul.

the big bang and the expanding universe do not contradict Genesis.

 

does not contradict? really? explain this. day one, god separates light from dark. day four, god creates the sun ("the greater light"), moon ("the lesser light") and the stars. how can you get light without a source?

oh i know, god is all powerful. that's how.

 

Don't know who John Macarthur is...no surprise he's a young earth creationist.
I assume if he's in the business of looking for plausible theories of origins he also gives equal weight to hindu, norse and other creation myths?
Or is it only the christian creation myth he deems plausible I wonder?
He mentions foolishness and yet thinks the universe is only a few thousand years old? Methinks he's not well placed to judge foolishness in anything.

Anyway...

You can...at a push...put god as the spark that started "life" because that is not (yet) well understood. There are a number of theories but nothing concrete.
We know it was something incredibly simple and basic and all life on this planet is descended from it but the mechanics are not that clear. I wouldn't say god did it because that just adds the question of what or how god was created so it actually answers nothing but there is a gap there to exploit if you so wish.

However...when it comes to the origin of species (including humans) there is no gap for god. He's not needed and there is no evidence in the results of evolution that he's had a hand in it (quite the opposite in fact). That gap doesn't exist for god to inhabit.
So in one sense you could say god created "something" (if that's your thing) but that thing wasn't "humans".

 

Man is a temporal being, not God. He exists in timelessness.

PSALM 90:4

 

I don't have a soul so it's a pretty useless book then?
When did the soul evolve?

 

If that's a valid answer for something (it isn't) then I can use that as an answer as to why there is a universe at all.
The universe is a timeless thing.
Again...god not needed.

 

It most certainly was not

 

thank you for bringing this back to what this thread is all about. this is exactly what bill nye is getting at. when i confronted you with science, you confronted me with...psalms. psalms, being beautiful poetry about the love for god, are not going to give the usa great engineers or scientists.

 

Tell me...in all these years, none of the other animals on the planet evolved to invent science or engineering yet we did...why?