Bill Nye Boo'd In Texas For Saying The Moon Reflects The Sun

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.

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/04/06/04062006wacbillnye.html

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  • Albert Bakker

    And I thought it was such a big thing in Christian apologetics that cause precedes effect. But first making the light and after that a source from which that light emanated is perhaps more supernaturally elegant. Why not have it so that the Sun instead of radiating light is just sucking out the darkness from the Earth?

  • Ben Arnold

    I'm surprised that anyone in Waco understands the Hebrew language of 2,000 years ago, much less having read and understood the bible.  I know from personal experience that people get terribly upset when they find out that what their preacher has been telling them is totally at odds with what the bible is trying to Impart.  I so hope we never get another president from Texas or we're doomed.

     

  • archaeopteryx

    Actually, Ben, the Jewish people didn't speak Hebrew 2,000 years ago, after the Babylonian captivity, they spoke Aramaic. If you REALLY want to get the pants scared off, read this!