Suffice it to say Bill Nye is not confusing but indeed credible and correct and clear.

If you would propose in the "fairness" of it to teach Evolutinary Biology in Sunday schools and all religious schools they would say "NO." So since they are not interested in fairness or science then they are ready not to stick religion into a science class. And if we have to teach one version of creation. (There are two versions n the Bible.) Then all other religions must have their creation stories taught as well. (Do you see now why the Founders found it necessary to keep Religion out of it?)

Here in TN, they have taken steps though new legislation to
allow creationism back into the classroom. This law turns the clock back
nearly 100 years here in the seemingly unprogressive South and is simply
embarrassing. There is no argument against the Theory of Evolution other than
that of religious doctrine. The Monkey Law only opens the door for fanatic
Christianity to creep its way back into our classrooms. You can see my visual
response as a Tennessean to this absurd law on my artist’s blog at
http://dregstudiosart.blogs...
with some evolutionary art and a little bit of simple logic.

I don't see the part in the bill about teaching creationism. This is what I'm reading:

"This bill prohibits the state board of education and any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrator, or principal or administrator from prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warming."

Nothing here about teaching creationism; only about teaching strengths and weaknesses, what is sometimes called "critical thinking."

Why is this so absurd? If schools are teaching evolution they should also teach creationism. Let the kids decide for themselves what is right. How can you possibly argue that there is no argument against evolution. Evolution does not answer where everything started from. It also doesn't answer if it is true, why has it stopped?

It is absurd because one is science and one is not. We shouldn't spend all of chemistry class teaching medieval potions and alchemy and then let the kids decide for themselves. Because alchemy is not science. Likewise, creationism is not science. If it is taught in school it should be only taught is a comparative religion class. Or the conflict could be taught in an English class and the kids can write persuasive argument papers about the issue. But science is for science class. This argument is indicative of why the US is falling behind the rest of the world in math and technology. Adults can't even tell what constitutes science, so how can kids expect to develop skills in scientific literacy.

That could work if they were honest about it. Teach evolution and teach creationism.Teach the flaws in science and teach the flaws in Christianity. It wouldn't take very many minutes for the Creationists to understand the horrible mistake they just made. Education would become another RD.

I fail to understand how being a believer in God is a horrible mistake. There is far more evidence of creation than evolution. That's why evolution is a fairly newer idea.

If you question the foundations of science in the classroom and teach creationism, then you have to also question the foundations of Christianity in the classroom. Science can answer. Christianity can't.

If you're going to tell these kids that evolution is the only way, then that is what they will believe. This is brainwashing impressionable young minds. Kids should be allowed to make up their own minds as to what they belive.

No, but evolution is the only evidence based approach to explaining the development of the world as we know it. Creationism is not evidence based. It is often the opposite of evidence based because using scientific forms of material dating goes back way farther than the six thousand years the bible says we have been around.

The bible does not state that we've been around for only 6000 years. That is open for interpretation. But there is no specific verse that mention how old the earth is.

If you're going to teach creationism in public schools,then you need to also teach them about the many flaws and dishonesties in Christianity. This could help counteract the brainwashing that they have been going through in church. They should also be warned about the consequences. How does the church treat young people that think for themselves instead of sticking with the program?

The complexities of a human being is strong evidence of creation. The complex DNA structure with the amazing structure of the eye and the complexities of the brain all point out to intelligent design. Creation itself speaks to a creator. Something cannot evolve from nothing, so a creator had to create to be able to have something. By the way my faith is that of a Christian perspective and is therefore not a lie as you can't unprove it to be true.

That is not true at all. Complexity in of itself is not an argument for a creator, though it is possibly an indicator of length of time. It takes me longer to make an intricate oil painting than a simple line drawing. However, the human eye is a pretty poor example of creation by God, because it is not a particularly great design. Why does our optic nerve block part of our fovea? Why are our photo receptors in backwards? Why can't we see better in the dark? Why are our eyes so closely set that we have a narrow field of vision? Many other species, like octopi, cuttlefish and cats, have better examples of eyes than humans. That said, I believe in God, I believe in free will and I believe in human intelligence. I don't understand people who don't think you can have all three.

Regarding our narrow field of vision, our eyes seem to be tuned to our needs. We see best in the very center of our vision, while chimps see better from wide in their field of vision. This is what chimps need to survive in the jungle. We need to see better in the tiny center of our vision so that we can make tools. Another example of our senses tuned to our needs is hearing. We hear more detail in the range of frequencies of the human voice, which helps us communicate and that helps with everything else.

Isn't that a better example of adaptation, an important part of the evolutionary process? We adapted to our vision limitations by using the narrow field to make tools. Those most successful at the tool building made the best spears, arrows, baskets and clothes so their progeny ate better, stayed warmer and survived long enough to pass on their DNA including visual acuity. That is a perfect argument for natural selection in the evolutionary process.

You can demonstrate from history that there was no real Jesus, and that pretty much unproves it all.

I only ask how you can demonstrate that. The fact that history is divided into AD and BC refers back to the life and death of Christ.

Who divided time into AD and BC? Answer, the church.
When? Much later.
Why? Politics.
History demonstrate there was no real Jesus by showing us there were other religions centuries earlier that told all the Jesus stories. Miracles, water to wine, walking on water, virgin birth, resurrection. Those are the religious things that impressed people back then, so those are the stories that new religions taught. Christianity is just another religion down the line doing what religions tended to do back then. Those earlier religions were also about good men, men who preached the same messages as Jesus. Christianity explains this by saying the Devil made up those earlier religions copying what would later be Christianity to trick people. I think that idea is stupid, but it is the best they can come up with.

That is not evidence of creation at all. Human DNA is at least 95% identical with Chimpanzees, and there have been at least 2 separate but very similar species of Homo (our genus) excavated as fossils. Eyes come in various structures, from almost identical to ours, in primates, which you could dissect and not tell the difference between species, down to single-chambered, or without lenses, more or less simple, more or less complex, depending on which were better suited to survival of a species or subspecies in a particular habitat or area. You are suggesting that faith and science fight out a battle of why and what happened.

So if we evolved from chimps then where did chimps evolve from?

We did not evolve directly from chimps. We have a common ancestor. You mentioned human DNA. In many plants and animals intermediate forms, stages, or mutations between present species can be seen alive today, but this isn't true of close relatives of Homo sapiens. There are different species of chimpanzees and bonobos that exist today, but the best way to tell which ones evolved from the others, the relationships between species which have existed for longer or shorter periods of time, is the field of molecular taxonomy. This modern discipline combines the task of classifying life into Families, genera, species, and subspecies, by Latin scientific names with the kind of DNA analysis that's used in medical and crime labs. Naming and classifying life according to how it evolved to the forms we observe today is just what God asked Adam to do. God gave us brains to use, not to limit our minds to a very narrow and constricted reading of the Bible--which, you yourself have admitted isn't all written literally.

Nicely said!

My view of the bible is widely accepted. My viewpoint may appear to be narrow but only one thing can be true. Either God created the world as it says in Genesis or that's not the way it happened. I'm just stating that I do believe the literal interpretation.

Once again you are saying that anyone who belives in God is unintellectual as you seem to think that if they understood the scientific method they would find creationism to be absurd.
In the book of Genesis, God is the beginning and the end. There was nothing before and there will be nothing after. Once again it comes from a viewpoint of faith and you reason that just because it can't be explained then it must not be true.
Once again you're saying that the Christian perspective is a bold-faced lie. Where is your proof of this? A lie is something that can be proven. Where is the proof that God does not exist? There is none, yet you accuse me of being ignorant.

Tell me exactly how my version is different? I haven't proven that it's dishonest at all. I think you've been missing what I've been trying to convey.

I'm ignorant and arrogant now. Keep sweet talking me Spuddie. Actually the majority of Christians do believe in the literal interpretation of Genesis. The new testament uses parables, but the old testament does not. I've read my bible a few times so I'm not arrogant and ignorant as you claim.

How have I been ignorant and arrogant? I guess now you include me in the category of fundamentalists. The majority of Christians do believe in the literal interpretation. I know this because I went to Catholic school when I was younger and I now go to a nondenominational church, so I'm fairly knowledgeable about what is taught and believed. I don't get my beliefs from an internet article.

This article says nothing of a less than literal interpretation of Genesis. I actually do understand the doctrine but disagree with several aspects of it which is why I'm not a Catholic anymore. Hence I'm not ignorant or arrogant as you claim.

Actually it didn't go over my head Spuddle...thanks again for the critical comment. While I do agree that not all scripture is for literal interpretation, with careful discernment you can see what is literal and which is not. Genesis is not the only place in the bible where creation is discussed. Surely such an intellectual person like youirself would have known that. Therefore since other scripture supports the book of Genesis it's safe to accept the literal interpretation.

Apparently the current pope also believes in a non-literal interpretation of the book of Genesis as well. I was unaware that they changed their teaching. I guess I can add this to the list of why I am no longer Catholic. I disagree with a lot of what they teach, just like I accept a literal 6-day creation as supported by scripture not only in the book of Genesis but other books in the bible as well.
http://www.reuters.com/arti...

Creationism is a belief that the universe was created by intelligent design. Christians adhere to the theory of creationism, however there are those that believe that God created everything, like myself then there are those that say God crated it, but then evolution took over. What you consider dishonest is not because it can not be proven untrue. Your opinion is not fact it's only opinion. If it were a fact and if I were trying to tell you otherwise than that would by lying. For instance, if I told you that Hitler never existed than I'd be lying as it's based on fact. Some people actually do say that. My main point is that many Christians believe in the literal interpretation as stated in Genesis and supported by other books in the bible. Just because the Pope believes one thing does not mean that all Catholics adhear to his teaching.

Actually it's not small at all. Many Christians feel the way that I do. There are myriad sects as you mentioned, but many at least believe that God started it all. Once again the 4 points that you made are all opinion based and therefore cannot be dishonest. If public schools are going to teach the bogus theory of evolution in science classes then students should be able to hear the alternative as well.

And this response is supposed to endear people who are on the fence to your side? How does a blanket statement that all creationists are selfish morons and stupid help your cause? I don't believe that teachers who teach evolution is worth my taxpayer dollars. But as you've said my opinion doesnt matter and anyone who disagrees with you is stupid and moronic. There is no proof of evolution and you still claim its fact. I guess you're content believing that we are here be accident and that we have no purpose in life. I only pray that one day your eyes may be opened to the truth.

The only thing that Is going to go away is your unproven idea of evolution. And by the way Genesis does not state that the sun revolves around the earth or does it state that the world is round. If you want to teach kids that they have no purpose because they are here by random chance, then you have that right that are Christian forefathers fought for. However since prayer has been removed from schools and evolution is now taught in schools and as people are becoming increasingly unbelievers, have you noticed that moral decay has been on the rise substantially in this country in the last past few decades?

Hi Spuddie...good to hear back from you as always. Thank you for your response despite the numerous fallacies. You said in a previous post that Genesis claims that the earth is round and that the sun revolves around the earth. My response was that the bible does not state these ideas. I'm well aware that Genesis talks about God creating the heavens and the earth, I'm glad that your finally on board with that.

I understand the differences between Sunday school and science class. My point is that science class should not teach evolution to kids like its proven truth. It is far from that. As I've stated before there are many scientists who have shown that the universe was created by intelligent design. To mislead kids into thinking that evolution is true is destructive to them.

I suggest you do a little research on our founding fathers such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and others. The declaration of independence and other documents use references to a creator, not your bogus claims of evolution.
I guess you dont see a difference between today's kids and those kids of the 40's and 50's. To clue you into whats going on, more people are on drugs, the family unit is broken, divorce is commonplace and people are angrier today than back a few decades ago. Welcome to the we're to smart for God generation.

I don't want my views forced upon others and I agree that such things as slavery, and racism are dead wrong. The fact of the matter is that more and more religion is being pushed aside little by little. FDR was the last president to pray over the airwaves as he did for two minutes on d-day. I guess he was being ignorant and stupid. And also our stupid and ignorant government approved our national motto of In God we trust in 1956. Intelligence has increased today, but wisdom has decreased.

wow lots of people are angry about this. I don't know which side is worse. Seems as if its an excuse for atheists and fundamentalist Christians to be at each others throats. And many atheists are lumping all creationists together instead of realizing that there are a lot of theistic evolutionists that do not want "God did it" taught as science. Its not science and never will be.