Thursday, April 30, 2009

Does cheese glow?

Bill Nye the Science Guy goes to Waco:

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.


But, apparently, not a God who could invent an object that reflects the light of another.

4 comments:

I'm Not Ned said...

Wow. Thanks for this Doc!

I wonder how often those who got up and left would have their children stoned for disobedience? (Deut. 21:18-21) At what point (if ever) to you actually think about what you believe?

L said...

People need to take a chill pill, seriously.

Anonymous said...

We tend to associate the sun and moon with day and night , respectively. But a literal understanding of events in the sky exposes that as mere folk wisdom.

The sun's light is up there all day every day and is never up there at night. But the analogous claim cannot be made for the moon's light. Sometimes it shines in the night sky, sometimes in the day (which I especially like to see), and sometimes it casts no light at all in our direction.

You'd think the biblical literalists (aka fundamentalists) would get their act together on this one.

Carlos said...

... chill pill taken with tea?