Creationism Is Threatening Scientific Advancement, Warns Bill Nye

Bill Nye continued his battle against faith based education today saying that schools that teach creationism are threatening the advancement of scientific thought in America.

The former “Science Guy” has waded into this conversation before. Earlier this year Nye released a video saying that adults who believe in creationism shouldn’t pass those beliefs down to their children. Nye reiterated that thought today in an interview with the Associated Press.

Nye said:

‘‘The Earth is not 6,000 or 10,000 years old … It’s not. And if that conflicts with your beliefs, I strongly feel you should question your beliefs.’’

According to the CS Monitor, Nye is asking millions of Americans to rethink their beliefs. According to a recent Gallup Poll, nearly half of Americans believe that God created the earth and humans about 10,000 years ago.

Nye’s biggest problem with creationism is that it’s being taught to children in schools as an alternative to evolution.

Nye said:

“If we raise a generation of students who don’t believe in the process of science, who think everything that we’ve come to know about nature and the universe can be dismissed by a few sentences translated into English from some ancient text, you’re not going to continue to innovate.”

Nye’s comments have attracted criticism from several creationist groups. Ken Ham, a co-founder of Answers in Genesis, the group responsible for the Creationism Museum in Kentucky where exhibits show Adam and Eve walking side by side with dinosaurs, said that scientists can’t give an absolute age of the earth. Ham said that only absolute measure of time comes from God.

Ham told Boston.com:

“We say the only dating method that is absolute is the Word of God. Time is the crucial factor for Bill Nye. Without the time of millions of years, you can’t postulate evolution change.”

Do you believe that the earth is only 10,000 years old?