Bill Nye infuriates Religious Right with anti-moonshine

August 25, 2007

Guest Post by Morbo

I’ve often wondered why creationists spend so much time harping about evolution and the age of the earth when the Bible makes so many other scientific claims that, by their logic, should also be taught in public schools.

For example, consider the claim that certain languages have a common origin. According to the Book of Genesis, God created all of the languages in the world during that fracas at the Tower of Babel. So why do we allow linguists to lead our young people astray by talking about the Latin roots of certain English words?

Also this: Genesis 1:16 claims that the moon gives off light. The passage reads, “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.”

We’re all familiar with the concept of being able to see better outside on a night when the moon is bright. Evil, hell-bound secular scientists tell us that the moon is merely reflecting light from the sun. But that’s not what the Bible says. The sun is our light for the day, and the moon is our light for the night. End of story. But do our public schools teach this? Noooo.

Recently, some brave fundamentalists had the courage to stand up for this biblical truth. Bill Nye the Science Guy, a well-known heathen who appears on the PBS (’nuff said) gave a speech in Waco, Texas, during which he pointed out that the passage in Genesis is in error, since the moon produces no light of its own.

According to one online account, several people in the audience were “visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence.” A few walked out, and one woman yelled, “We believe in God!”

I’m glad someone had the guts to stand up for the truth! Now if only more fundamentalists had the gumption to tackle two other sacred cows of science: that the Earth moves and that it is a sphere. The Bible refutes both.

Creationism is just the beginning. The Bible has much more to teach us about science, history and even math. Did you know, for example, that pi equals three? Why aren’t we teaching this controversy?

A priceless post. I will be using this, thanks. 🙂

  • Good for Bill Nye. He’s got balls to do that in Waco of all places.

    I can only imagine the mental gymnastics those folks do when they watch TV or deal with electricity. I’d hate to be the one to tell them there’s no tiny folks in the TV and that electricity is not god’s static cling.

  • So, when did God stop creating?

    I’m a complete biblical ignoramus.. I mean, I’m not a ‘Biblical Ignoramus’, whoever he might be : I’m substantially ignorant of the Bible. Nevertheless, these sort of strange (ridiculous?) metaphysical questions and contradictions that it seems to throw up are quite entertaining.

    So, when did God stop creating?

    And, by the way, who created God?

    Morbo, or anyone, can you tell us who we should ask for an answer?

  • don’t forget the part about joshua making the sun ston in the sky. it was one of the better passages in the play “inherit the wind.”

  • Good post, CB. I wonder what a fundamentalist version of the science guy would be like. I have a feeling that those little chemical experiments for the kids could go mightily awry.

  • stop – not “ston”
    btw, if anyone could make the sun stop in the sky, a friedman unit could be much longer than six months!

  • I can only imagine the mental gymnastics those folks do when they watch TV or deal with electricity.

    It’s not mental gymnastics, it’s mental torpor. They don’t even consider the questions that might occur to someone with a scientific bent. Instead, stuff happens (you flick the switch and the light goes on) and you credit the invisible sky daddy for making such a wonderful world.

    To be fair, the average non-fundy doesn’t really think about these things either. How many people understand the electron guns painting the phosphors on a traditional crt? How many people understand how an LCD works? (I sure don’t.) For that matter, who really understands how electricity works? Electrons play hopscotch down a wire, because some magnets are spinning in a generator room many miles away. Does that really make sense? But it happens, and it works, so we accept it.

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  • I don’t see the controversy.

    “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.”

    I’ve been outside at night. The moon DOES give off light, even if it doesn’t produce the light itself.

    But I love these little instances where the Bible cannot be taken literally. A favorite of mine is the wise men following a “star” to the manger in Bethlehem. Ever tried to follow a star? It can’t be done. They’re too far away.

    Stars are bigger than the earth, but to follow it, it would have to be inside the earth’s atmosphere, hovering like a helicopter maybe a few hundred feet off the ground.

    Whatever those guys followed, it WASN’T a “star.” Thus demonstrating that the Bible cannot always be taken literally.

  • Why on earth these folks believe the old testament, written centuries ago for simpler folks, word for word… oh wait, they must be simpler folks themselves. In that case I challenge them to live without any inventions that are scientifically based. No electricity, no phones, no computers, no cars, no advanced medicine, no non-natural fibers, no processed food/homogenized milk, etc. etc. Unless they are Amish, they are hypocrits. I would love to ask these people why the moon has phases, ummmm, you know, that most of the time, parts of the moon are, um, dark???

    As a Christian, I am incredibly embarassed by these people. They show no signs of using the brains that God gave them.

    And btw, Bill Nye is amazing. Met him a couple of times in Seattle when he was on TV there. Very funny, very hyper. I wonder what Bill’s response to these nutjobs was?

  • tenpointtype: “I don’t see the controversy… The moon DOES give off light, even if it doesn’t produce the light itself.”

    Fair enough. I’m actually more concerned with the more common misunderstanding, perhaps also tied to Biblical cosmology: that the Moon “rules” the night. There are people to this day who are amazed to see the Moon during the daytime. Wow! That would be as awesome as seeing the Sun during the night! …Which is exactly what happens at the high latitudes in summer, where the Sun also fails to rule the daytime during the winter.

    Jettisoning the ancient concept of the Sun and Moon would allow people to appreciate those objects for what they are.

  • tenpointtype said, “Ever tried to follow a star? It can’t be done.”

    Second star to the right, and straight on ’til morning. (gotcha!)

    Now as for the ridiculous, how is it that there are so many gods-uglier-than-ugly goats and cows in the world? If Noah saved just two of the species, and he sacrificed a ram and a bull to thank God for bringing him through the flood, then just how did these two species procreate? Were the cow and the ewe the first instances of interracial sexual reproduction? Did they do it with a horse? A dog? Are these Biblical literalists merely camouflaging the fact that their belief-system’s foundation is beastiality? Is Noah’s family responsible for “kink?”

    Also—if God made the stars, and each star is nothing more than a really big thermonuclear device, then how come the neocons aren’t accusing God of having WMDs?

  • Re: post number 10

    It’s not just the ‘old testament’ that was written long ago and far away. The new testament was written from the stand point of a middle eastern, honor/shame society, of around 2000 years ago. It also needs a great deal of interpretation to make sense today.

  • I have no issue with people of faith. But I think a point needs to be clarified: Biblical literalists do not worship God, they worship a book. And there is a big difference. Someone who believes in God can see for themselves what God is about in everything around them. Biblical literalists see God only in a book and refuse to use their own senses and mind to see what God is all about. To deny what we can readily see in the world around us for the sake of what unknown authors and translators instead put on pages is to deny God and instead idolize a book.

  • Of course it’s possible to “follow a star”. That’s how those folk navigated the seas in those days, no? By taking a bead on a particular star’s position and following a course “towards it”.

  • Why is it Bible people can’t understand symbolism? Is it just that accepting word for word saves them the difficulty of thinking? Did they not understand the reason Jesus spoke in parables was because the truth of his stories could then be understood by those with eyes to see it?

    Buying a rope on the Sabbath to save your ass which fell in a hole translates to havinf auto parts stores open on Sunday so you could buy parts to fix your car on Sunday. Thank God the “Blue Laws” are finally gone. Now you can even buy Liquor on Sunday. But I digress.

  • Besides, God has its own Friedman Unit:
    2 Peter 3:8 (New International Version)But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
    🙂

  • libra:

    Maybe I should have been more specific. Allegedly, the three wise men followed a “star” which moved along the sky until it shone above the manger where Jesus was born. Whatever THAT was, it couldn’t have been a “star.”

    You are right. With a knowledge of astronomy, sailors were able to “follow” stars in general directions depending on the time of year. How could I forget the North Star?

    I doubt there ever was a Manger In Bethlehem star.

  • tenpointtype@9
    Stars, like the sun, rise in the east and set in the west due to the earth’s rotation.
    If you are west of Bethlehem and walk towards a bright star in the east, you can have it end up directly overhead.

    It’s one of the few things that could plausibly happen.

    Does the Bible say it was directly overhead or is that one of the pagan enhancements of the story?.. you know like it being December 25th. Otherwise they could walk until they get to the manger and see the beams of light or whatever clued them in that the big Kahuna was in there.

    I’ve read the Koran… working on the Torah now…I’ll get to the NT someday and REALLY give the right wing some headaches.

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  • Why teach the Bible in schools? It’s not even the most worshiped religion. That would be Islam. Shall we teach that instead? We are a democratic nation, by the way, so majority rule is a sensible way to make sense of this. Just because you think the Bible is correct in the moon aspect doesn’t mean everyone must think that; there’s religious freedom in America in case you didn’t know. You probably didn’t, actually, because the Bible didn’t tell you so. (How could Morbo be so hateful in that article? It was almost painful to read.)

    Did Bill Nye get fired for talking about moonshine? Seriously?

    I think everyone who commented on this article made great arguements for what they believed in. Morbo, however, is ridiculous and needs to step down from the high-and-might throne he’s created.

  • There is no God.

    Every day, hundreds of people all over the world die from starvation and sickness. People are murdered in cold blood, and human beings kill each other in wars and acts of passion. Women and children are raped and murdered, and teenagers kill each other in the streets. New diseases come out every year, and the Earth is dying because of mankind’s addiction to oil.

    There. Is. No. God.

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