Posted September 26, 2012 02:10 am - Updated September 26, 2012 03:07 am

Bill Nye the Ignorant Guy

Many TV watchers of the 1990's are familiar with the mechanical engineer and science aficionado "Bill Nye the Science Guy."  His TV shows sought to make science fun, accessible, and entertaining to the general public, especially the youth.  Nothing wrong with that.

He's a very smart guy.  In general, he's a walking advertisement for learning science and mathematics.

But it's possible to be smart and ignorant at the same time.  (The online Free Dictionary defines ignorance as:  "The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed.") Unfortunately, the smart guy with the bow tie, Bill Nye, recently decided to take a walk on the ignorant side.

Nye recently did a "Big Think" video in which he whines about how America, the world's "most technologically advanced" nation, is somehow being threatened by the millions of Americans who doubt or deny the claims of evolution.  For example, a 2012 Gallup poll found that 46 percent of Americans believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago.

(Of course, as First Things writer David Klinghoffer observed regarding this alleged threat to US science, one could easily ask Nye how the USA could have reached such a technological pinnacle in the first place, given that in the Western world we're also the country whose citizens are the most inclined to doubt Darwin. Nye is totally silent on that point.)

But Nye, in his viral video, doesn't stop there.  It seems that parents who discuss their doubts about Darwinism to their own children are somehow "holding our country back," according to Nye.

"When you have a portion of the population that doesn't believe in it (evolution), it holds everybody back," Nye claims.

So Nye condescending chides the parents for telling their own kids what they themselves believe.


Now, Nye's condescending tomfoolery has been thoroughly dissected from several angles (including the issue of parental rights!), and I'll present a detailed link later.  But let's explore just one aspect. 


Nye is totally ignorant of the fact that there are multitudes of engineers and scientists, men and women who are indeed scientifically literate, and who have indeed "built stuff, solved problems", and indeed advanced America's scientific enterprise, all while supporting creationism and intelligent design even today.

For example, there's the Los Alamos National Laboratory geophysicist and creationist Dr. John Baumgardner, featured in a 1997 US News and World Report article. He created a geophysics software called "Terra" in an effort to prove that the worldwide Genesis Flood was historically true.  His colleagues obviously disagree with him about the Flood, but his Terra software turned out to be a wildly popular geophysics tool, all by itself.  The article states:

"Indeed, there is universal agreement that Terra, created to prove the Bible literally true, is one of the most useful and powerful geological tools in existence. 'Baumgardner is seen as one of the world leaders in numerical models of mantle convection,' says (MIT's Brad) Hager. Agrees Gerald Schubert of the University of California--Los Angeles Department of Earth and Space Sciences: 'As far as the code goes, Baumgardner is a world-class scientist.'"

Here's another example:  have you heard of a scientific device called the "gene gun"?  The device inserts genetic information into plant cells, and can even inject DNA vaccines, according to Wikipedia.  Who was its primary inventor?  A PhD geneticist from Cornell, Dr. John Sanford, who just happens to be a U-Know-What.  Here's his rather long resume, including a ton of patents:

Finally, here is a huge laundry list of professional scientists and engineers, covering a large spectrum of disciplines, who ALL happen to be creationists. (This is actually a small list, and doesn't include OTHER scientists and engineers who doubt the claims of Darwinism, including intelligent design supporters like Lehigh biochemist Dr. Michael Behe, and the origin-of-life expert and mechanical engineer Dr. Walter Bradley.)

So let's stop here.  You see all those examples, don't you? So how is it that Bill Nye can say what he said with a straight face?  There's only one answer:  Bill Nye the Science Guy is also Bill Nye the Ignorant Guy.  He did NOT do his homework, didn't check his facts, before spouting off.  Ignorance.

This is yet another reason why Kansas needs its own version of the Louisiana Science Education Act.  It's okay to teach evolution, but we need some critical-thinking and questioning in there too.  It's time to let young science students know that there are good scientists and engineers on all sides.  Kansas needs Science Education, NOT Darwin Indoctrination.


For further study if you're interested:  Elizabeth Mitchell, M.D., offers a detailed response to Nye's video at the Answers In Genesis website.  Her article also contains a short video from molecular biologist Dr. Georgia Purdom, who likewise responds to Nye.  Enjoy!