Bill Nye: Science Guy or Evolution Huckster?

Bill Nye, The Science Guy, upset residents of Waco when his explanation for light from the moon differed from the explanation in the Bible. While the original article is no longer on line, BSAlert.com reports on reading about this in the Waco Tribune:

As even most elementary-school graduates know, the moon reflects the light of the sun but produces no light of its own.

But don’t tell that to the good people of Waco, who were “visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence,” according to the Waco Tribune. Nye was in town to participate in McLennan Community College’s Distinguished Lecture Series. He gave two lectures on such unfunny and adult topics as global warming, Mars exploration, and energy consumption.

But nothing got people as riled as when he brought up Genesis 1:16, which reads: “God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

The lesser light, he pointed out, is not a light at all, but only a reflector.

At this point, several people in the audience stormed out in fury. One woman yelled “We believe in God!” and left with three children, thus ensuring that people across America would read about the incident and conclude that Waco is as nutty as they’d always suspected.

While I cannot verify the accuracy of BSAlert’s post with the original article not being available on line, it is worth recalling that Bill Nye has upset the religious right in the past. I’ve previously written about a “subversive” exhibit at Epcot, The Universe of Energy Pavilion. The ride features a movie in which Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Nye star in a film which discusses evolution, and also teaches that the earth is older than the age stated in the Bible. In the course of that discussion I wound up doing a Google search which verified my suspicions that this exhibit was upsetting to the religious right as I found this criticism:

Opened a couple of years ago, Universe of Energy is one of several attractions at Epcot that portray molecules-to-man evolution as fact, with high-tech special effects, Star Wars quality surround sound, audio animatronics, simulation seats and fast-moving, humorous scripting. The attraction propels 500 impressionable youngsters and adults through the dazzling displays every 17 minutes, as it illustrates everything from the Big Bang to dinosaurs to the ultimate future, where the correct answer for the Double Jeopardy question What is the only energy source that will never run out? is: brain power.

Even atheistic scientists should be ashamed at some of the shallow science presented in these attractions, such as picturing the Big Bang from the outside (there is no outside to a universe that encompasses everything), or that brain power would survive the heat death of the universe. To be fair, Epcot in this holiday season does have a nice manger scene, Christian Christmas carols playing over the intercoms, good patriotic programs and other clean fun, but in the scientific programs, never is God mentioned any time, nor even a hint that anybody, anywhere believes anything else than that evolution is fact. The host of “Universe of Energy,” Bill Nye the Science Guy, could better be named Bill Nye the Evolution Huckster. And won’t parents just be thrilled to find out that the star of the show, who outwits Albert Einstein and exits to thunderous applause is none other than openly-homosexual actress Ellen DeGeneres.

Bill Nye, Science Guy or Evolution Huckster? We report, you decide.

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