Bill Nye the Misinformation Guy

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Bill Nye was on CBS This Morning and the amount of misinformation in a short interview was amazing. Here is the interview.
First, he babbles about some employer who requires a religious test. Gayle King asks him what this has to do with some debate and we still don't know who/what he is talking about. That was the interview's informational high point.

Then, Nye tells us that if you don't believe in evolution you "can't be a productive member of society." Really?

Next, he decided to train his peashooter on the Catholic Church. He referred to Pope Francis as "their head guy" and (condescendingly) that Catholics "were going to join the mainstream of scientific thinking" -- because Pope Francis reaffirmed evolution -- as if this was something new. Attention, Bill Nye: Catholics have never had a problem with evolution.
  • Pope Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI said the debate raging in some countries — particularly the United States and his native Germany — between creationism and evolution was an “absurdity,” saying that evolution can coexist with faith.
  • Saint Pope John Paul II on evolution: "Proven fact."
  • Go back to 1950 and Pope Pius XII said there was nothing incompatible with creation and evolution (full discussion here).
Nye then proved he knows even less about climatology than he does Catholicism. "It is not a coincidence," he said, "that the creationists also deny [a reference to Holocaust denial] climate change."  And, his evidence for this climate change conspiracy? "Just look at this morning's stories, the snow storm in the Midwest" (to which an adoring Norah O'Donnell says, "yes") and "the military building a robot to fight a war we might not fight again." 

So, let me get this straight: Snow…in Minnesota….in November... is proof of climate change?

Nye never explained what the military reference had to do with anything. 

He then went on to trot out the tired canard that science and religion are incompatible. As the Papal quotes above make clear, there is nothing incompatible with God creating the universe (many Catholics believe "Let there be Light" = The Big Bang) in a way that allowed species to evolve. 

Catholics believe that both religion and science have a common goal: To find the truth. But, with completely different techniques. 

Usually, we watch Good Morning America in the morning. If this is typical of CBS This Morning, we won't be back for quite a while. 

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