Bruce Kabat
Internet general manager
WacoTrib.com

Here is the story:

The Science Guy is entertaining and provocative at MCC lecture

Waco Tribune-Herald (TX) – Thursday, April 23, 2009
Author: Tim Woods Tribune-Herald staff writer
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Waco Tribune-Herald on April 6, 2006

Audience members who expected to see Bill Nye “The Science Guy” conduct experiments and wow their children received quite a surprise Wednesday when Nye spoke at McLennan Community College.

Nye instead addressed such topics as Mars exploration, global warming and energy consumption, particularly oil and gas. He even ruffled a few religious feathers along the way.

The scientist with a background in stand-up and sketch comedy kept spectators interested, entertained and at ease with his funny, sometimes hilarious, delivery.

Speaking as part of MCC’s Distinguished Lecturer Series, Nye spoke to two audiences, one at 1:30 p.m. and the second at 7 p.m., of about 600 each. He said the first audience, though littered with young children listening to some rather adult scientific topics, “was very supportive.”

The second group also was rapt from the beginning, greeting the scientist with a raucous standing ovation upon his introduction.

“You haven’t heard the presentation yet!” Nye told them.

Opening with a discussion of Mars and his hopes for further discovery on the neighboring planet, Nye encouraged the audience to take interest in discovery and “change the world,” a mantra he repeated throughout.

Nye indicated that the presence of water in Mars’ atmosphere – evidenced by the planet’s ability to form frost – leads him to believe that there is a strong possibility that the planet once supported life.

The Emmy-winning scientist angered a few audience members when he criticized literal interpretation of the biblical verse 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.”

He pointed out that the sun, the “greater light,” is but one of countless stars and that the “lesser light” is the moon, which really is not a light at all, rather a reflector of light.

A number of audience members left the room at that point, visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence.

“We believe in a God!” exclaimed one woman as she left the room with three young children.

Nye also was critical of what he said was governmental agencies’ lack of action, even lack of understanding, in protecting the Earth from global warming and wasted resources.

Nye ‘s educational science show won 28 Emmy awards during its television run from 1992-98.

It seemed most in attendance were pleased to hear Nye speak, and some were even awed by the presence of a childhood icon.

“How cool is that, to be face to face with the man, Bill Nye ?” said Jared McClure, who worked sound and video for the event. “And he’s funny, too.”

They see but do not understand.

The Bible is a book of History and Phrophecy therefore is both Literal and Symbolic. For Example although not a phrophecy Jesus said ” You are the Salt of the earth.” (Mt 5:13)Would it make sense for Jesus to tell his apostles that they are Literally Sodium a mineral found in the earth?No, rather Jesus was saying that his apostles would have a preserving effect on the lives of those whom they shared their message with.

Although in Genesis God Did Litterally create the heavens and earth and so on, What about the length of the creative days? Were they literally 24 hours long? Some claim that because Moses—the writer of Genesis—later referred to the day that followed the six creative days as a model for the weekly Sabbath, each of the creative days must be literally 24 hours long. (Exodus 20:11) Does the wording of Genesis support this conclusion?
No, it does not. The fact is that the Hebrew word translated “day” can mean various lengths of time, not just a 24-hour period. For example, when summarizing God’s creative work, Moses refers to all six creative days as one day. (Genesis 2:4) In addition, on the first creative day, “God began calling the light Day, but the darkness he called Night.” (Genesis 1:5) Here, only a portion of a 24-hour period is defined by the term “day.” Certainly, there is no basis in Scripture for arbitrarily stating that each creative day was 24 hours long.
How long, then, were the creative days? The Bible does not say; however, the wording of Genesis chapters 1 and 2 indicates that considerable lengths of time were involved.

MY kind of guy!

I’ve believed in God since parental indoctrination and watched Bill Nye The Science Guy when I was young, and neither one ever disproved the other. Now I’m an engineer and pray every day.

No wonder there’s a Texas Edition of World History. I bet soon there will be a Texas Edition of Science. I guess that is why young Americans rank twenty-something in Math and Science in the world. You *can* be religious and have an interest in the ways things work, too – unless we teach them that’s a sin. Stop keeping your kids back.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/newton/olneyhymns.h2_86.html

Christian thinkers have used this scientific knowledge to demonstrate the idea of turning from false faith to permit the sun itself–through Jesus–to shine on the believer.

To the religious right, I say, learn your own traditions before you shove half-knowledge on others.

So we are all a little slow on the uptake, some more than others.

He seems to have actually been booed because he specifically pointed out the contradiction with Genesis.

The nuts are pretty nutty, but stuff like that goes rocketing over their heads unless you carefully point it out.

That’s an insult to the intelligence of lemmings. That running off cliffs stuff is just Disney propaganda and not true.

Here it is.

A lot of the Bible beaters – and I’m from Texas, born in Waco (though luckily educated overseas) – are just well, nuts. Clueless. Definitely candidates for a mental disease classification.

You can’t educate them, they just go to Church at least once a week come out and babble nonsense. Baptists are the worst, but other sects are a close second.

Republicans love them, they’re like lemmings, they just run right off the cliff.

this is from one of my favorite sites and it’s not a joke–from OneNewsNow, the CHRISTIAN website, see a boxing match between Calvin and Darwin! Who will win? Family tickets are available, so get yours now.

http://www.visionforumministries.org/calvinvsdarwin/

Religion is a philosophy and science is a definition of matter and its interactions. Having two approaches to the same questions will derive different answers at times. Take light for example; when we test its properties with the assumption that it is a wave, light appears to be a wave. When the assumption is made that light is a particle, a light is a particle. The world is as we perceive it.

Knowing that these two things are working towards a common goal, I don’t see it necessary to huff and puff and storm out of a lecture. I know it’s sensitive sometimes because it hits the core to some people’s beliefs but the truth will stand on it’s own. It doesn’t need to be stuffed with emotions to be legitimized.

What I’m getting at here is that we should listen to Bill Nye. We know that the moon does not have the same nuclear reaction occurring at its core to produce electromagnetic radiation. The light travels as a wave/particle from the sun, where there is nuclear fusion occurring, and this is reflected off the moon to light up our dark nights. That’s just how it is.

Emotions disturb logic like a stone to a stagnant pond. Before we know it, our justification for a divine being at work loses clarity of what is being discussed.