Morgan Matthew
Think Atheist
Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:23 CST



Bill Nye, the harmless children's edu-tainer known as "The Science Guy," managed to offend a select group of adults in Waco, Texas at a presentation, when he suggested that the moon does not emit light, but instead reflects the light of the sun.

As even most elementary-school graduates know, the moon reflects the light of the sun but produces no light of its own.

But don't tell that to the good people of Waco, who were "visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence," according to the Waco Tribune.

Nye was in town to participate in McLennan Community College's Distinguished Lecture Series. He gave two lectures on such unfunny and adult topics as global warming, Mars exploration, and energy consumption.

But nothing got people as riled as when he brought up 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."

The lesser light, he pointed out, is not a light at all, but only a reflector.

At this point, several people in the audience stormed out in fury. One woman yelled "We believe in God!" and left with three children, thus ensuring that people across America would read about the incident and conclude that Waco is as nutty as they'd always suspected.

This story originally appeared in the Waco Tribune, but the newspaper has mysteriously pulled its story from the online version, presumably to avoid further embarrassment.

He should have gone for the tri-fecta and told them the earth is actually about 8 billion years old and terrestrial life crawled out of the water.

lol... they woulda shot him...

Reporter of Bill Nye, Moonbat story speaks

The real story is a bit different from what is presented in the OP.

Nobody booed Bill Nye.

The woman didn't yell "We believe in God", she whispered it to the guy she was sitting next to as an explanation for why she was leaving, who happened to be the author of the original article.

The article is six years old and wasn't taken down, it was moved to the news paper's online archives, because it's hardly news now.

Personally, I think the offense wasn't that people didn't believe that the moon was a reflector, the offense was that at a science lecture for adults and children, a beloved entertainer suggested that the Bible was wrong. Any serious student of the Bible knows that ma'owr (light) means simply "light" and doesn't indicate if the object is the source or if the light is reflected.

Notice that in Proverbs 15:30 "The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart: [and] a good report maketh the bones fat", "light" is used to talk about a twinkle in a person's eyes.

I know that atheists love to work themselves into a lather about how violent and ignorant Christians are, but it's just delusions to reassure them of their intellectual superiority to believers. A superiority that only exists in their own desperate minds.

Nice, you did a good job of debunking some of the criticism, you made it clear it was much less controversial than presented and thus dispelling some of the us vs them rhetoric, but then at the end just cant help yourself but to get in jabs that just end up supporting the us vs them mentality.

Sigh.

Because Christians are really known for doing that, right? As wrong as they were, the abortion clinic attackers only killed because they saw abortion as murder and felt they were protecting innocent babies. How often have Christians killed people for expressing unpopular ideas?

Christians are a diverse group, so are atheists.

My criticism of your post is illustrating how useless any kind of blanket statement really is . . .

crusades mean anything to ya?

Carl Sagan, noted atheist, would probably agree with me. Why? Because he doesn't feel that his lack of belief makes him better than believers. Not all atheists believe they are mentally, emotionally or intellectually superior to believers. He calls those atheists who do "dogmatic atheists" and looks down on them. They are a religious cult, which sees all other religions as competition.

And just so you know, what I posted was true, which makes it completely different from the three posts before mine.

Even though you say "as wrong as they were" you still went on to try and justify abortion clinic attackers. That doesn't help prove your point. Some Christians are violent.

Have you ever read the history of the crusades? The only reason you aren't a Muslim is because Christians died to stop the Muslim incursions into Europe. So it's time to stop whining and talking about Christians who have been dead for almost a thousand years.

you seem full of "superiority" right now, don't cha?

Hey not the end of the world, but would be nice if you had added the word "some". In the spirit of fairness and all. : )

Thanks,

i see... you ask a question, then i answer it, and you tell me i'm wrong... thats the christian spirit for ya....

Did I "try and justify" or explain their motivation? Clearly the latter. Don't do that, don't smear me as a person who would justify senseless murders. You should be better than that and if you aren't, then you now have a new life goal.

That's how discussions work. Just because I'm a Christian, that doesn't mean I have to accept your BS answers.

thats because of your blind faith leads you to different answers... but of course, since your a believer, you cannot be wrong...

You are correct, my apologies. Some atheists.

There are plenty of atheists who are thinking, rational people and not reactionaries who view the world as a battle against the good thinking people (atheists) vs the unthinking barbarians (religious).

Just look one post down from this one, where I admit to making a mistake. You are using a logical fallacy call "Appeal to Ridicule". I admit when I'm wrong. My faith is not blind. My faith does not influence my understanding of the Crusades. Only the first Crusade can be fully justified by history, but the fact that the soldiers were Christians doesn't make them evil or the fact that they were defending themselves from invaders wrong.