UNDATED (AP) — A Christian geneticist has posted an online rebuttal to Bill Nye the Science Guy, who says in a web video that America is being held back by parents who teach their children to disbelieve in evolution.
On the Big Think website, Nye says adults can deny evolution, but he pleads, "Don't make your kids do it, because we need them."
Nye says evolution is so central to science that when many Americans don't believe in it, "it holds everybody back."
Answers in Genesis Science Director Georgia Purdom responds on her organization's website that she and many other Christian parents teach their children about evolution as well as biblical creation. But Purdom, who has a doctorate in molecular genetics, insists that evolution can't explain how organisms "go from simple to complex over time."
Nye declares that fossils and the light from distant stars can't be explained unless Earth and the universe are billions of years old.
Purdom says that's a human theory, but she believes that the Bible is God's eyewitness account of how it all began.
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%@AP Links
357-w-33-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor, with Bill Nye the Science Guy and Georgia Purdom, molecular geneticist and science director of Answers in Genesis)--A Christian geneticist has posted an online rebuttal to Bill Nye the Science Guy, who says in a web video that America is being held back by parents who teach their children to disbelieve in evolution. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. (30 Aug 2012)
<<CUT *357 (08/30/12)>> 00:33
359-a-04-(Bill Nye the Science Guy, in online video)-"holds everybody back"-Bill Nye the Science Guy says the theory of evolution is central to science. Courtesy: Big Think ((mandatory on-air credit)) ((cut used in wrap)) (30 Aug 2012)
<<CUT *359 (08/30/12)>> 00:04 "holds everybody back"
358-a-15-(Bill Nye the Science Guy, in online video)-"we need them"-Bill Nye the Science Guy says America is hurt by parents who teach their children to disbelieve in evolution. Courtesy: Big Think ((mandatory on-air credit)) ((longer version of cut used in wrap)) (30 Aug 2012)
<<CUT *358 (08/30/12)>> 00:15 "we need them"
361-a-13-(Georgia Purdom, molecular geneticist and science director of Answers in Genesis, in online video)-"complex over time"-Georgia Purdom, molecular geneticist and science director of Answers in Genesis, says she teaches her daughter about evolution as well as biblical creationism. ((longer version of cut used in wrap)) (30 Aug 2012)
<<CUT *361 (08/30/12)>> 00:13 "complex over time"
362-a-11-(Georgia Purdom, molecular geneticist and science director of Answers in Genesis, in online video)-"created it all"-Georgia Purdom, molecular geneticist and science director of Answers in Genesis, says creationism and evolution are alternate theories for how everything started. (30 Aug 2012)
<<CUT *362 (08/30/12)>> 00:11 "created it all"
360-a-15-(Georgia Purdom, molecular geneticist and science director of Answers in Genesis, in online video)-"do the same"-Georgia Purdom, molecular geneticist and science director of Answers in Genesis, says the Science Guy is mistaken. (30 Aug 2012)
<<CUT *360 (08/30/12)>> 00:15 "do the same"
