Bill Nye: Debate Over Evolution In Texas Schools Is Jeopardizing Our Future

A battle has been raging in Texas, and it's all about evolution.

On one side are creationist-minded members of the state Board of Education. They don't believe evolution should be taught in public schools in Texas. On the other side are board members who don't want religious or political ideologies to suppress a widely accepted theory.

Huffington Post Science reached out to Bill Nye to get his take on the ongoing debate, which had recently flared during a board discussion about whether to approve new science textbooks. And the "Science Guy" had some choice things to say.

"This textbook business is, to my way of thinking, a very serious matter, because of the economic impact," Nye said in an email to HuffPost. "Everyone should take a moment and think what it will mean to raise a generation of students who might believe that it is reasonable to think for a moment that the Earth might be 10,000 years old."

continue to source article at huffingtonpost.com

Teaching creationism needs to be left at Sunday school. It has no place in the sciences. Those who are trying to push their faith on America’s schoolchildren are doing this country a disservice by dumbing down the population. You have to have faith to believe in creationism because the evidence sure isn’t there. Go Bill.

I don't have the right to tell others what to believe if they are not bothering me. Neither does anyone if the people's beliefs are not a threat to society. Although I believe things evolve, I am not in belief that the theory correctly addresses where or how life started on earth. I think there is a lot more to it than this theory says. I am not much into creationism either but the facts stand, something structured life...it was not random even in the beginning.

AAAAAhhhh.....DP That can stand for more than double post.

Grimpachi

A battle has been raging in Texas, and it's all about evolution.

On one side are creationist-minded members of the state Board of Education. They don't believe evolution should be taught in public schools in Texas.

Teaching creationism needs to be left at Sunday school. It has no place in the sciences.

Nice spin. Why can't we just teach them what we know instead of what we think we know? My daughter's going to learn about the big bang theory next week... (the public education version). I can just imagine what those dinner table discussions are gonna be like

Anyways, nobody's asking to teach creationism in public schools, you just spun it that way.

reply to post by Grimpachi


As my children were growing up, I held Bill Nye in high regard. Back then, he was not intrusive or inflictive in his personal beliefs regarding the gap that exists between science and faith. He gave my kids an interest in science which was a good thing, and allowed my wife and I, as parents, to offer them a few years of faith-based teachings so that once they reached adulthood, they had a foundation from which to make informed choices.

They have all now since grown up, finished college and begun their own lives.

Unfortunately, Mr. Nye has since changed.

It is my belief that science is indeed very important but so is the freedom to make personal choices. Lacking that avenue of choice, science devolves into a quasi religion... standing with the potential to initiate its own form of inquisition.

Two wrongs don't make a right... never has and never will.

The theory of evolution does not work as most pro-evolutionists think it does. Just ask anyone involved in biochemistry and you will likely get a nice laugh out of them.

I personally think that if they decide on teaching evolution exclusively that they teach how the mechanism is actually is thought to work. Right now most people's understanding of how evolution works is a complete joke, that goes especially for the pro-evolution crowd.

I LOL sooooooo hard when they try to explain the mechanisms of DNA.

Seems Bill Nye got a taste of power and is trying to force people to conform to his beliefs. Humans have been around for a long time and I seriously doubt our future is in jeopardy if some small group of people stop teaching a concept which has very little impact on the issues of today.

That is unless you are super into transhumanism . . . . even then though you wont care much for biological functions . . . . just people making mountains out of mole hills.

-FBB

reply to post by Grimpachi


Here is an easy solution: Put evolution in a biology class under faculty of science, put creationism in a theology class under faculty of philosophy. Have an elective for those who want it called the debate class for those who want to vent their opinions can vent, problem solved.

This whole shove creationism into a science class is nothing but a deliberate provoking move by the religious, and denying creationism being taught or brought up at all in school by the pro evolutions/science crowd is seen provocative by the religious (Keep science to science yes, but to ban teaching of theological views from school entirely, really? How is that not also provocative?). All of this in my opinion is a deliberate political show, so people pore their energy into this instead of considering serious topics, for example political corruption or the equality gape. Case closed.

Regardless of whether you have religious beliefs or not, the reality is that while the U.S. is teaching "alternative" fairytales, countries like China and India are not. The future does depend on providing quality education that will transfer into scientific degrees and careers in the future.

Most teachers do not teach evolution properly and the text books are misleading because of religious school boards. I live in Texas and have seen the textbooks. It is no wonder we are so far behind other nations in science and mathematics fields.

Edit: Also, I "attended" a fundamentalist home school and if it wasn't for Bill Nye on TV I wouldn't have had any real science education. Thanks Bill Nye.