Bill Nye Defends Creationism Critique, Says He Wasn’t Ridiculing Religion

Bill Nye the Science Guy recently released a video asking adults who believe in creationism to keep their beliefs away from children. Some took the video as an attack on religion but Nye insists that he has nothing against religious people.

Nye said that his video, Creationism is Not Appropriate for Children, doesn’t even discuss religion. Instead, the video takes issue with Creationism which according to Nye contradicts provable science.

Nye said:

“You can believe what you want religiously. Religion is one thing, but science, provable science is something else. My concern is you don’t want people growing up not believing in radioactivity, not believing in geology and deep time. You don’t want people in the United States growing up without the expectation that we can land spacecraft on Mars. You want people to believe in science, this process, this great idea that humans had to discover more about the universe and our place in it, our place in space.”

Speaking out against creationism may seem to some people like an attack on religion but Nye insists that that wasn’t the point of the video.

Nye said:

“And I really want to emphasize, I’m not attacking anybody’s religion.”

CBS reports that close to 50% of Americans believe that man was created by God while another 32% believe that man evolved with God’s guidance. Nye said that those people are free to believe what they want but warned that those beliefs can hold America back.

Nye said in his video:

“When you have a portion of the population that doesn’t believe in [evolution], it holds everybody back. It’s like, it’s very much analogous to trying to do geology without believing in tectonic plates.”

Do you believe in evolution? Do you think Bill Nye the Science Guy has a point?

You can watch the video here.