"Science Guy" Bill Nye: Anti-Evolution Crusade "Horrible"
By Sandhya Bathija
With Darwin Day (Feb. 12) just around the corner, scientists, educators and citizens across the world are gearing up to celebrate the birth of Charles Darwin and his contributions to science.
As Bill Nye “The Science Guy” recently put it, teachers’ reluctance to teach Darwin’s theory of evolution is “horrible.” Scientific advances that benefit everyone could be at risk if students don’t learn sound science.
“People make flu vaccinations that stop people from getting sick,” he said. “Farmers raise crops with science; they hybridize them and make them better with every generation. That’s all evolution. Evolution is a theory, and it’s a theory that you can test. We’ve tested evolution in many ways. You can’t present good evidence that says evolution is not a fact. ”
Yet some Religious Right-oriented state legislators across the country want to derail the teaching of evolution and weaken science education in public schools. We are barely into 2011 and, according to the National Center for Science Education, already four states are pondering anti-evolution bills, including: New Mexico, Oklahoma (where there are two anti-evolution bills!), Missouri and Kentucky.
All of these measures are carefully crafted with creationist code language intended to sidestep decades of federal court decisions preventing creationism from being taught in public schools. These courts have ruled time and time again that creationism is religious dogma and our Constitution prevents our public schools from favoring any religious belief.
The latest bill, out of New Mexico, HB 302, would allow teachers to inform students “about relevant scientific information regarding either the scientific strengths or scientific weaknesses” pertaining to “controversial” topics. The bill would protect teachers from “reassignment, termination, discipline or other discrimination for doing so.”
The Oklahoma Senate bill, SB 554, provides that teachers and administrators be free to inform students about “relevant scientific information regarding either the scientific strengths or scientific weaknesses of controversial topics in sciences,” where such topics “include but are not limited to biological origins of life and biological evolution.” The bill also ensures that teachers not be disciplined for teaching science in this manner.
Oklahoma’s House Bill, HB 1551, sponsored by the Religious Right favorite Sally Kern, an avid anti-evolutionist, requires that teachers be permitted to teach the “scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories.”
Missouri’s HB 195 uses similar “academic freedom” type language, calling on teachers to encourage students to explore “scientific questions, learn about scientific evidence, develop critical thinking skills, and respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about controversial issues, including biological and chemical evolution.” The bill also requires teachers to find “more effective ways” to teach scientific controversies.
Kentucky’s HB 169, the first anti-evolution bill of 2011, would allow teachers to “use, as permitted by the local school board, other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner.”
Most of these bills are similar to legislation introduced in past years that have failed to become law. The bad news is that those who want our public schools to adopt poor science standards just won’t go away.
If you live in any of these states, let your state legislators know you want strong science standards in your home state.
As “The Science Guy” said, “”Science is the key to our future, and if you don’t believe in science, then you’re holding everybody back.”
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Did they pick a photo where it looks like Bill Nye is about to puke?
Because that is a reasonable reaction to creationist claims.
These anti- science initiatives make the US look foolish and backward to most of the rest of the world. The three steps forward two steps back model of progress in US science education is incredibly tiresome. Are we going to allow a critique of Newton's physics theories because they fail at relativistic speeds and in quantum mechanics? The *only* reason evolution is an issue is because evolution as a theory of biological change conflicts with a *literal* interpretation of Genesis. For Christians who accept the old testament as allegory, there is no conflict between religion and science.
Evolution does not explain the origins of life. There are natural hypothesis that emerge from the theory, but these are hypotheses. The problem is that people blur the lines between scientific hypotheses and scientific theories. We need to get past this constant word game. The layman really means hypothesis when he or she refers to a theory. A scientific theory has been proven through observation and confirmed predictions. This needs to be drilled into kids from third grade forward. It shouldn't be something that becomes clear in college.
Darwin's most controversial prediction around common descent was confirmed through genome mapping. We did not evolve from chimps, gorillas, bonobos or orangutans. However, all of the great apes branched off from the same ancestor species at some point. However, laymen still say "we did not evolve from chimps," to which the correct answer is "no, we did not." The common ancestor prediction for all great apes including man is an important distinction lost on most of the opponents of evolution.
One of the challenges in teaching evolution is that in primary school and high school the truly convincing evidence for evolution found in genetics is too advanced to present to kids. For example, most people still think mutation is a simple flip in some gene. This has led to all kinds of sophistry such as the statistical argument for why evolution can't be true and the information theory argument that says that chromosomes can never increase in information. Essentially, both of these false arguments rely on the same fundamental misunderstandings of mutation and both are used to infer that speciation is impossible. However, mutation includes many other mechanisms such as transposition, insertion, gene doubling, chromosomal merging, etc. These are subtleties that make most scientists mock creationists, but the reason that more people don't understand these counterpoints is due to a lack of understanding of basic genetic science.
People need to learn that it is genetics that took evolution past silly arguments around the fossil record into a foundational theory for modern biology. Darwin was hampered because he was stuck analyzing the molecular and cellular changes within organism from a Lamarckist point of view. Genetics (macro and molecular) are what completed the general theory of evolution.
The real problem for evolution is that science education has been so poor and so outdated for so long that the policy makers are enacting laws from their same ignorant point of view. We are effectively in a catch-22. It has taken intervention from the courts to keep evolution legally in the classroom and creation out. Each piece of legislation in the post is yet another potential supreme court case. I fear it is going to take decades of litigation before we can finally drive the last remnants of religion out of the science classroom and back into Sunday school where it belongs.
Evolution isnt real period. Jesus created this earth and you may to make a plant better thats awesome but its still the same plant you started with you didnt make a new species. Open your eyes you think this all happened without a creator. Evolution is just an excuse not to have responsibility because that does come with having a relationship with Jesus but its all worth it.
Is it possible for you to explain how the fossils of such a wide variety of creatures came to be embedded in rock that can be dated to 300 million years ago.
Or better still how about the small once living things found in ice cores that are not "carbon dated"....did Jesus make them as well ?
"June 16, 2010....."The oldest known DNA molecules date back some 450,000 - 800,000 years ago. They were found in Greenland and were in reasonable shape. Details were published in 2007 as DNA analysis revealed much about the history of this part of the world.
www.brighthub.com/science/genetics/articles/14886.aspx #ixzz1DVfewlcb
Could it be that the "inerrant bible" based on biblical genealogy .....is wrong.
Some of the people who have posted here like Joseph Wales have specifically said that the fossil evidence is garbage, carbon dating is a fraud, and scientific time lines are BS.
It is difficult to argue with the willfully ignorant. You can use astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology and simple logic to show how old the earth is and how the biosphere has changed, and still you will get no acknowledgment from the ignorant.
People like this are convinced that science is just a satanic religion replacing Jesus with science. It is amazing to me that this perspective has so many adherents in the US.
It is not a wonder to me why faith is so prevalent in the US when education comparisons with the world at large rank the US 25th out of 34 in developed nations.When you seek science from holy books ......you creationism.
Regarding the understanding or acceptance of evolution. The US ranks above only one country .......Turkey.
The US seems destined to become a educational backwater.
•U.S. mathematics and science K-12 education ranks 48th worldwide.
•49% of U.S. adults don't know how long it takes for the Earth to circle the sun.
•China has replaced the United States as the world's top high-technology exporter.
"U.S. school achievement scores have stagnated, harming the economy as employers look elsewhere for "competent workers", the report says that other nations have made gains.
If U.S. students matched Finland's, for example, analysis suggests the U.S. economy would grow 9%-16%."
One thing this site really really needs is a hand that "points down" so you can demonstrate disagreement for posts such as yours.
then we would see how many put a thumb down to your silly remarks.
You would not even be able to post a comment such as you have here if not for science .
You and your medieval faith feed off the science that surrounds you daily...yet cling like a child to the apron of your imaginary faith.
You are such a pitiful lot.
You are making the case why some people in the US are so poorly educated in science .
Speciation has been demonstrated, documented, and observed. The simplest example are strains of drug resistant bacteria. Through horizontal gene transfer and other forms of mutation drug resistant bacteria are *NEW* species.
Here is a simple challenge for you. If evolution is based on lies, then it should be scientifically disprovable. The religious community of like minded believers like you should be able to concretely demonstrate that the predictions of evolution are false. A great deal of evidence has been shown and published demonstrating the scientific validity of evolution. If all this is based on lies, then why hasn't anyone anywhere successfully challenged it?
Every scientist on the planet would love to create a new theory that could be verified to disprove another theory. This would be instant celebrity status, huge pools of research dollars, etc. However, nothing like this has ever occurred with evolution. The original theory has been greatly extended because of genetics, but the expanded theory is only stronger not weaker.
I think the real lie is that the Genesis is literally true. There are many believers who also acknowledge the scientific validity of evolution. You obviously believe that the bible must be true word for word. Do you read Aramaic, Greek and Latin? If not, then you are reading someone's re-interpretation of the original text. Any chance there might be some mistranslations?
There is nothing in evolution that absolves anyone from a personal relationship with Jesus or personal responsibility. You are drawing conclusions that are examples of more religious sophistry.
because I say it is.
I know that it's true even though I've never seen it happen. My teacher is smart, and he said evolution is true. I know he's smart because he believes in evolution. So that is proof that bears fell in the water and turned into bears. Teacher =smart=evolution= science =smart=teacher. See? if my teacher is smart, then what he says must be true. If what he says is true, then he must be smart. My teacher decides who is a scientist cuz he iz smart. If i wants to be smart, all i have to do iz agree with him, and not question Neo-Darwinism.
see? now me AND my teacher is smart. My teacher went to college. college is where smart people teach things that are smart. Even though education majors are the dumbest people in college, they're still the smartest people on earth cuz they believe Darwin. Darwin is a scientist cuz he said bears turned into whales and lizards turned into chickens. they never saw one turn into a chicken, but I know it's true cuz all the teachers and perfessers agree on it. And I'm smart and trendy cuz I went along with what the smart people believe, even though I never saw that chicken come from a lizard either.
see, you don't understand things right, cause you prolly didn't see that picture where they line up all the busted up bones into a line and show yu how people's tails fell off and stuff. It's obvious proof wen you line'em up liek that. I don't know how anyone could doubt something lik dat. That reminds me of a joke the perfesser played on me one time.
He took some coffee cups and asked me to use evolution science to tell which of'em came from the other, so I took the littlest one and then i put the big one fer the dinosaur stage, then i made them get smaller, then I broke the handle off one of em, and said that must be the last one cuz it had no tail,er handle.
So that was funny cuz he said my method was right , but I shouldna broke that handle off.
so that's why i believe rocks and mud turned into spaceshuttles by accident.