Bill Nye’s Campaign Against Creation #5

Street Preacher in Union Square, New York City

Should Christians teach children Creationism or Evolutionism?

Bill Nye the Science Guy thinks everyone should believe in molecules-to-man evolution. He thinks it is obvious that Creationism is wrong and Evolutionism is correct and that children should therefore be taught only evolution.

This concludes a series of weekly posts responding to Bill Nye’s wildly popular recent YouTube video in which he urges parents not to teach Creationism to their children because he claims that will impair scientific advancement in the U.S.
(For reference, Nye’s video and transcript are included at the end of this post.)

The purpose of this series is to rebut Nye’s thinking and critique his remarks, identify his mistakes, analyze his bias, and apply Biblical passages to see whether Christians should follow Nye’s advice with their children.

Part One of this series contained these two sections:
1. Nye’s Video with Transcript
2. Critique of Nye’s Remarks
Part Two of this series contained this section:
3. Rebuttal: Creationism Does NOT Threaten Science
Part Three of this series contained this section:
4. Nye Is Not Objective
Part Four of the series contained these two sections:
5. Evolutionist Proselytizing
6. Nye’s Mistakes

This concluding post of the series contains this single section:

7. Should Christians Follow Nye’s Advice?
Christians would be sinning to follow Nye’s advice to teach Evolutionism instead of Creationism to their children. For the Bible explicitly instructs believers to teach their children about God’s wondrous works (Psalm 78:4-7).

God told Israel that His Word was to be a daily presence in their lives and a continually present source of teaching, instruction, and discussion (Deuteronomy 6:5-9). Over and over in the Word, God identifies Himself as Creator. (See God’s Calling Card.) Scripture continually lauds His wondrous works of creation and commands us to praise Him for that without ceasing.

If we neglect to teach our children to honor the awesome Creator, the consequences are grave and sobering. Romans 1:18-25 warns that God’s work as Creator is self-evident, and He grants no excuse to those who refuse to honor Him as the Maker of the Universe. Without a solid grounding in Creation truth, our children will be trapped in futility, and their hearts will become darkened. Professing to be wise, they will become fools. The ultimate consequence of persisting in denying the Creator credit is corruption and destruction.

Without a correct worldview glorifying the Creator, our children will also miss out on the joys of a life of daily exultation, savoring God’s amazing works all around us. The earth itself celebrates the Creator’s handiwork. (See for example Psalm 98:4-9; Isaiah 55:11-12; Psalm 89:5,11-12)

The Apostle Paul says, “We are not ignorant of Satan’s schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11). He warns against being deceived as Satan “deceived Eve by his craftiness” (2 Corinthians 11:3).

Therefore it is wise to help our children be informed about the claims of evolution. Understanding the theory of evolution and its glaring deficiencies will help de-mystify a thought system which permeates the media, most museums, and government education. Children need to know what evolution teaches and how to refute its tenets. They should be equipped to counter the sneering attacks of arrogant teachers and spokespeople for popular science. We have a treasure, the truth, which has a wealth of evidence undergirding it. We should give our children the gift of confidence and competence in true science, in harmony with God’s revealed Word.

Churches, in particular, should have Creationism as one of their major teaching emphases for adult, youth, and children’s education departments.

Jesus expected His followers to believe Moses and thereby Genesis and hence be creationists. He said, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:46-47)

When questioned about marriage, Jesus quoted from chapters 1 & 2 of Genesis (the Creation chapters) as an authoritative answer to the question:

And some Pharisees came to Him, testing Him, and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause at all?” And He answered and said, “Have you not read, that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘FOR THIS CAUSE A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND SHALL CLEAVE TO HIS WIFE; AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” (Matthew 19:3-6)

The Lord’s use of the words “consequently” and “therefore” signal that He was deriving His conclusion straight from His Genesis quotation of the Creator. His conclusion is only as good as His premise from Genesis. Clearly Jesus regarded Genesis as true history.

The Matthew passage also makes it clear that Jesus was NOT an evolutionist. According to Jesus, God created mankind fully formed as man and woman ready for marriage at the Beginning, NOT after billions of years of evolution following the beginning. Jesus was a Creationist! (See Was Jesus an Evolutionist?)

Those who claim Jesus as Lord must accept His view as their view. Think like Jesus!

So to answer the original question posed in Part One of this series,
“Should children be taught Creationism?”,
I answer “Yes, absolutely!”

Reader Poll
Please give your opinion in this anonymous poll. Multiple answers may be selected.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Nye’s Video with Transcript (for reference from Part One of this series)
In this recent YouTube video Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children, Bill Nye warns against teaching creationism to children. The two-and-a-half-minute video is from the online think tank Big Think. The video has gone viral with over 4,836,000 views, 229,000 comments, 81,000 Likes, and 16,000 Dislikes since it was posted on August 23, 2012.

Bill Nye is best known for his “Bill Nye the Science Guy” TV programs on PBS in the 1990s. He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and worked for Boeing. In 2010 he received the Humanist of the Year award from the American Humanist Association.

Here is a transcript of Nye’s video remarks:

Denial of evolution is unique to the United States. I mean, we’re the world’s most advanced technological—I mean, you could say Japan—but generally, the United States is where most of the innovations still happens. People still move to the United States. And that’s largely because of the intellectual capital we have, the general understanding of science. When you have a portion of the population that doesn’t believe in that, it holds everybody back, really.

Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology. It’s like, it’s very much analogous to trying to do geology without believing in tectonic plates. You’re just not going to get the right answer. Your whole world is just going to be a mystery instead of an exciting place.

As my old professor, Carl Sagan, said, “When you’re in love you want to tell the world.” So, once in a while I get people that really—or that claim—they don’t believe in evolution. And my response generally is “Well, why not? Really, why not?” Your world just becomes fantastically complicated when you don’t believe in evolution. I mean, here are these ancient dinosaur bones or fossils, here is radioactivity, here are distant stars that are just like our star but they’re at a different point in their lifecycle. The idea of deep time, of this billions of years, explains so much of the world around us. If you try to ignore that, your world view just becomes crazy, just untenable, itself inconsistent.

And I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine, but don’t make your kids do it because we need them. We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future. We need people that can—we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems.

It’s just really hard a thing, it’s really a hard thing. You know, in another couple of centuries that world view, I’m sure, will be, it just won’t exist. There’s no evidence for it.

Read the prequels on Bill Nye’s campaign against Creation:
Worldview Analysis – Science Guy Bill Nye
Bill Nye’s Campaign Against Creation #1
Bill Nye’s Campaign Against Creation #2
Bill Nye’s Campaign Against Creation #3
Bill Nye’s Campaign Against Creation #4

Read the sequel:
Creation-Evolution Debate: Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:4)
Wednesday October 31, 2012 A.D.

We will not conceal them from their children,
But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD,
And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.
For He established a testimony in Jacob,
And appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers,
That they should teach them to their children,
That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,
That they may arise and tell them to their children,
That they should put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments. (Psalms 78:4-7)