In addition to being reported as dead on Twitter, a very much still alive Bill Nye recently spoke against anti-evolutionists, saying “To the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live 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.” While to some people, these words may seem harsh; to me they resonate loudly, and Nye’s words should be given importance.
Nye is right in expressing that if parents want to remain living in ignorance and hold onto their anti-evolution views in an ever changing world, it is their own folly and right to behave as such.
However, he feels that it is inappropriate for children to be taught these grievous errors because if we still have a large part of our population not believing in a foundation of life science, everyone is held back. As he himself put it, “Your world just becomes fantastically complicated when you don’t believe in evolution.”
In addition, Nye rightly points out that a lack of scientific understanding can also negatively impact political policy that these citizens vote on.
My personal view is that there should be a separation of religious beliefs and scientific “facts”. I attended a very liberal Catholic high school where we were taught evolution in our biology classes as scientific dogma and Christian ethics alongside other world religions as fully respected life choices in our religion classes. Both world views were given equal treatment, and neither was viewed as the superior option. I am grateful for that experience, and I wish that all schools who want to teach religious beliefs in addition to science teach it in such a manner – with the acknowledgement that these are separate and individual entities and need to be treated as such. While there were undertones of Christian egocentricity in the religion classes, the crucifix in our biology classroom didn’t whisper “science is feeding you lies, I really did create the world in six days…” and instead the two ideologies remained apart, as they should.
Regardless of your religious beliefs, evolution is now becoming more than ever a very hard fact to deny, except from the most religiously devout. If you want to put faith in stories about our history that are clearly mythical or allegorical and take them as the absolute truths that govern this world, more power to you.
If you want to believe in an all-powerful creator that designed us in his image, go for it. I’m not here to tell you that you’re wrong in, ort hat it is not your right to do so. In fact, it’s absolutely your right to believe or practice what it is you want. However, I agree with Nye, and that if you are against evolution, your reality is more complicated than most.