As scientists, our job isn't to change people's minds or perceptions. Science is not a religion. Science and Religion are not equatable or comparable. Science explains the how, how things work, how things are, how they came to be. Religion explains the why. Mr. Nye casts a dark shadow on the scientific community by doing crap like this because he puts us at odds against a sect of people we really shouldn't be talking to in the first place. This ultimately breeds the mentality of it's us vs. them which will never result to anything positive. Let me put it another way for you. If I wanted to throw out physics and claim that little gnomes were the reason we had anything from gravity to electrons, that everything was the work of little invisible gnomes, would anyone in the scientific community actually try and debate me on it? What if I had tons of followers as well? The answer is a confident no. Not a single person would waste their time talking to me about it. If people choose to believe in creationism, let them. If they choose to be ignorant it isn't our job as scientists to show them the light, it's our job to make the information available and let them come to it if they want to.
If one person believed in invisible gnomes, no. But what if that one person convinced thousands and thousands of people? Further, funding began flooding into the invisible gnome appeasement project. Still confident no one would raise an eyebrow and step beyond their 'jerb'?
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If there was a political movement to put the "gnome theory" into the science class room, do you think its still safe to ignore it? Not saying that a public debate is the right way to tackle the issue (probably isn't).
Bill Nye's point isn't about arguing the merits of religion. His point is that it is harmful to society to exclusively teach our children that creationism is factual (the earth is 6,000 years old) when we have concrete facts to prove otherwise. We do ourselves a disservice to institutionally dismiss facts. As a society, we can't progress. The slippery slope leads us back to witch hunts. In the past, scientists were witches.
Because a large % of the population still believe in teaching religion based curriculum in public school. Just look at this recent and on-going case of clear religious discrimination in public school: https://www.aclu.org/religion-belief/lane-v-sabine-parish-school-board No child should be the victim of religious discrimination in our nation's schools. No child should be the subjected of religious based teaching in our science class or non-religious classes.
There will always be ignorant people. Even if we lift it, and make so that in the classroom one thing is taught another will be taught at home. Fighting the ignorant and setting up a dichotomy of science vs. religion does nothing. Science literacy isn't something that can be forced, look at math as for a comparison. All children are taught math, but the fact that it's importance is not emphasized and it's skills are not re-enforced at home leaves us with a society where people struggle with basic algebra. For the ones who do go on to college, most only go as high as introductory calculus, with some science majors (like chemists and biologists) stopping before multivariate calculus. Teaching a skill in a classroom is not enough, understanding the importance of said skill and changing a faulty background is necessary. No amounts of classes or debates from the scientifically literate will change this, the change must be from within these families, within the parents and the children. All you can do is provide access to this information and hope that they come to it on their own.
...but they are literally rewriting history/science books. Their goal is to limit children's access to information. This should be staunchly resisted. I'm all for teaching religion in school ...all religions. I am firmly against slanting an educational system to promote Christianity, particularly when many believe the earth is only 6,000 years old. How do we compete in the world economy when America's geologists, that search for oil, don't understand earth history?
Just finished watching it. Nye did very well, and I think all those who hated on him for participating were way off.
Yes, he did. The drawback to his participation is that this event was hosted by the Creation "museum" and therefore this event brought new publicity and revenue (it was a paid event). Nye helped the folks who's stated mission is to undermine science.
In response to the Ken Hamm Bill Nye debate - Pat Robertson rebukes the young-earth creation theory. “There ain’t no way that’s possible,” he continued. “To say that it all came about in 6,000 years is just nonsense and I think it’s time we come off of that stuff and say this isn’t possible.” http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/...ake-a-joke-of-ourselves/#.UvLFIur6LtE.twitter <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/MWAbr-SoMAs?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I dislike religious proselytizers. Big difference. Still whimpering and cowering under that veil of victim's mentality I see?
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If Pat Robertson's telling you that you are illogical and reproachable, by golly, you should reconsider your actions.
It has nothing to do with a victim's mentality. Your words are frequently vitriolic towards religious groups. I expect it from you. I just hope you don't take this attitude into the workplace when you graduate from UT.
Right. Nothing to do with a victim's mentality. That's why you lash out at liberals and non-religious folk like I do the same towards conservatives and the religious. Get off your high horse. Oh boo hoo. The one thing reasonable atheists like myself don't do is talk about religion and whatnot with other people in a professional or social setting. You know why? Because I'm considerate enough not to bother them with personal belief bull**** that they would hate to hear about. Something most Christians and religious folk fail to keep in mind as their life goals seem to be to convert as many people as possible, any way they can. I'm never the one to initiate conversation about religion. I'm only here to tell you to keep your beliefs to yourself. I'm not the type to pretend to go along and humor attempts at conversion either.
Do I need to bring this back up? You often cross the line with your posts on here, yet you cite that you are only supporting your beliefs. Your militant anti-religious stance is unusual and borders on hatred/bitterness, so I will call you out for it. The difference between you and I is that at the end of the day, I don't hate liberals. I disagree with them. I also don't hate atheists. I have a friend who is an atheist, and we often debate political/religious/philosophical/ethical issues. We don't agree on much, yet we are still friends.
What you think my hatred of religion is so strong that I'm openly avoiding religious people? LOL. Like I said, I don't bring up religion. I have friends that are religious. We don't bring it up, why? Because its a futile discussion where the both of us are so entrenched in our mindsets and ideologies that it would be utterly pointless to have conversation about it. If it does come up, we're both respectful. Why? Because neither of us are trying to convert, and both of us are genuinely curious about the others worldviews on various topics. My roommate is an atheist libertarian. We disagree on EVERYTHING. One of my friends is an atheist, authoritarian liberal. We disagree on a LOT. Its not hard, its not rare, and its not something to gloat about. Oh look, I'm friends with someone I don't align with ideologically. GREAT. Who cares? I'm certain nobody in the D&D is going to start cutting off contact with all their friends just because they disagree with them politically and ideologically. Its about as dumb as those people that say "I have a black friend" to justify being a racist tool and attempting to create some moral high ground.
