I received the following email today. It is from a man whom I respect. I first saw him years ago on the John Ankerberg Show. He was a young man then and he and the late Dr. Walter Martin were debating folks who didn’t believe in the Trinity. I thought he was brilliant for such a young guy. What a surprise I got when I discovered the work he is now doing. His name is E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D., Founder and National Spokesman for The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.
Dr. Beisner states in the email that public school curriculums will continue to get more secular and atheistic.
The scientists that Bill Nye supports are nothing like my favorite scientist, Dr. Robert V. Gentry. Dr. Gentry’s greatest discovery is documented in his book Creation’s Tiny Mystery. You can see a few comments I’ve written about Dr. Gentry, a picture of his book, and links to videos of him speaking here. He is also featured in one of the best creationist videos that I’ve seen called The Young Age of the Earth.
I always knew Bill Nye’s views in spite of the enjoyment I got from some of the experiments he did with kids. How did I know his views? His show was on PBS. Unless I’ve missed something, PBS would never share the information discovered by Dr. Gentry in a fair way.
The following is the email I received from Dr. Beisner. It is edited only where funding is solicited.
Chris Reimers
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What’s the message from Bill Nye “The Science Guy” to parents? Forget about God’s instructions in Deuteronomy 6 to teach your children about Him and His works. Leave your kids’ minds to us scientists!
Recently on CNN’s Newsroom [http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/cnn-anchor-tells-bill-nye-hes-losing-conservatives-politicizing-climate] the popular science teacher expressed frustration that the United States isn’t doing enough to fight global warming.
Nye insists [http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/cnn-anchor-tells-bill-nye-hes-losing-conservatives-politicizing-climate] that “tens of thousands of scientists … are very concerned” about catastrophic, anthropogenic global warming (CAGW), while “a few people … are … drawing attention to the idea that uncertainty is the same as doubt.”
“We in the science education community chip away at this problem all the time,” Nye said.
Nye and his fellow alarmists have a lot of chipping to do.
One hopes he’s just unaware, not dishonestly concealing the fact, that over 31,000 scientists have signed a petition [http://www.petitionproject.org/] saying, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s
climate.”
Drawing what he calls a “disturbing” analogy between skepticism of CAGW and skepticism of evolution, Nye simply defines anyone who questions this view as benighted. “We have an enormous population of people in the United States who don’t believe in evolution, the fundamental idea in all of life science,” he said on Newsroom.
How defensible does Nye think that is? “It would be like saying I don’t believe in earthquakes or something.”
In a recent YouTube video that went viral
[http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/08/bill_nye_the_in_1063641.html], Nye equated
belief in evolution with scientific literacy:
I say 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. …
“Because we need them”? Who are “we,” and what gives them the right to demand control of our children’s minds?
Ironically, in 2011 Nye received the “In Praise of Reason” award
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nye] from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSICOP], a program of the Center for Inquiry
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Inquiry], which purports to be dedicated to
“promoting and defending science, reason, and free inquiry in all aspects of human
interest” (emphasis added).
If Nye has felt frustrated about convincing Americans of either CAGW or evolution, he should take heart. Help is on its way.
As we told you recently, the educational bureaucracies that dominate our public schools are in advanced stages of developing ” Next Generation Science Standards [http://www.nextgenscience.org/next-generation-science-standards]” (NGSS) that will indoctrinate students with a secular, atheistic worldview and belief in both evolution and CAGW.
That’s why the Cornwall Alliance is gearing up to prepare environmental stewardship curriculum for grades K–12—curriculum that will be firmly rooted in Biblical worldview, theology, and ethics, coupled with excellent science and economics, first for Christian schools, then for public and secular private schools.
NGSS’s flagship product, A Framework for K–12 Science Education [http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13165], will expand and solidify the anti-Christian worldview already reigning in America’s public schools.
Let me give you just one example. The Bible clearly teaches that people are supposed to fill and rule the earth to enhance its fruitfulness, beauty, and safety—which implies that they can and should have an impact for good on the natural world.
But the NGSS says, “Human activities now cause land erosion and soil movement …[and] [a]ir and water pollution … with damaging effects on other species and on human health.” Well, yes, sometimes. But the standards never mention that we can also improve on nature, as the long-term rise in human life expectancy that started with the Industrial Revolution and continues even now demonstrates.
The assumption is clear: what people do is bad. A draft of performance expectations [http://psd-science.wikispaces.com/file/view/Draft+Next+Generation+Science+Standards+May+2012.pdf]
says, “Things that people do to live comfortably can affect the world around them. But they can make choices that reduce their impacts on the land, water, air, and other living things ….” If their impacts were good, why would they want to reduce them?
As World [http://www.worldmag.com/articles/19836] magazine environment reporter Daniel James Devine reports [http://www.worldmag.com/articles/19836], “High school students will be taught that fossil and DNA discoveries support common ancestry, and that one species can evolve into two. Not only will they learn that human activities have increased ‘the frequency and intensity’ of natural hazards like ‘floods, droughts, forest fires, [and] landslides,’ they’ll study the ‘feasibility of geoengineering’ projects to slow global climate change.”
Rather than letting our children’s minds be taken captive by the world, we want to help them learn to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
In Christ’s Joyous Service,
E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D., Founder and National Spokesman
The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation
9302-C Old Keene Mill Rd., Burke, VA 22015 | 703-569-4653 |
[http://www.cornwallalliance.org] | [http://www.inhisimage2012.org]
Wings of the Wind 
Chris, I always cringe when I read the praise of “reason” from the scientific circles, as if the use of reason belongs exclusively to them; only they have the rights to it and the “ability” to exercise reason properly and effectively. It always comes out that reason is the opposite of or an enemy of faith. And whats worse, Christians and other believers buy into the garbage, as if the scientists are right; we must choose between faith and reason.
Believers have to get back into the conversation.
Using reason, doesn’t it just make sense that creation speaks to the existence of a Creator? Philosophy did not get into trouble until the Enlightenment, when God was removed from human reason and achievement. And the theory of evolution? Give me a break- It collapses in on itself. Using Aquinas’ third proof of God, it is impossible for anything to be a cause and an effect at the same time.
Peace, Kassie
I still remember, as a young Christian, hearing that I didn’t need to commit intellectual suicide in order to believe in the Bible. I think I heard this from Josh McDowell, author of “Evidence That Demands a Verdict.” That book had an impact on me during my first years as a follower of Christ. I knew that faith was the main step to be taken, but that Christianity also had great support from solid evidence.
I am now convinced more than ever that “Darwinian evolution,” “macro-evolution,” or whatever they call the godless view, is a lie. And please don’t tell me that God used evolution to create humans. Theistic evolution is not what my Bible teaches and, in my opinion, it is not where the facts lead.
How do we get the conversation back into American public classrooms? It appears, by this email, that the heat is being turned up instead of down on our children and their parents.
It’s interesting that the discussion is more open in some socialist countries. I can’t remember the country, but in the movie “Expelled,” Ben Stein interviews some important guy in a country that you would never consider more “intellectually honest” than America. Yet, there it was. They were allowed to talk about the possibility of a “designer” in their public universities. I’ll have to go back and watch that movie. It shows how public colleges in America are completely controlled by “them.” If you are going to talk about creation, you had better not mention “Intelligent Design.” If you use that term, someone might think you are referring to the Bible.
I so like what you have written here, Kassie.
And unfortunately you are right about Church goers who buy into such twaddle. It is very sad.
I always appreciate your contributions.
God’s blessings…
By the way, I chose not to become a substitute teacher this year. This summer, I attended Subteach training and almost completed all of the paperwork for the Hot Springs district. But I could not go through with it. I was just not comfortable with being a member of the public education “system.” Blessings…
I understand. It is getting harder to be a Christian in the public schools. There are four schools in the Hot Springs School District that are “World Schools.” Their curriculum is approved in Geneva, not Little Rock. They are teaching our children a new way to think.