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.
Pulled from here.
Thanks to MissAnn & Kathy for some additional details!
The Science Guy is entertaining and provocative at MCC lecture
By Tim Woods Tribune-Herald staff writer
Thursday, April 23, 2009Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Waco Tribune-Herald on April 6, 2006
Audience members who expected to see Bill Nye “The Science Guy” conduct experiments and wow their children received quite a surprise Wednesday when Nye spoke at McLennan Community College.
Nye instead addressed such topics as Mars exploration, global warming and energy consumption, particularly oil and gas. He even ruffled a few religious feathers along the way.
The scientist with a background in stand-up and sketch comedy kept spectators interested, entertained and at ease with his funny, sometimes hilarious, delivery.
Speaking as part of MCC’s Distinguished Lecturer Series, Nye spoke to two audiences, one at 1:30 p.m. and the second at 7 p.m., of about 600 each. He said the first audience, though littered with young children listening to some rather adult scientific topics, “was very supportive.”
The second group also was rapt from the beginning, greeting the scientist with a raucous standing ovation upon his introduction.
“You haven’t heard the presentation yet!” Nye told them.
Opening with a discussion of Mars and his hopes for further discovery on the neighboring planet, Nye encouraged the audience to take interest in discovery and “change the world,” a mantra he repeated throughout.
Nye indicated that the presence of water in Mars’ atmosphere – evidenced by the planet’s ability to form frost – leads him to believe that there is a strong possibility that the planet once supported life.
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.
Nye also was critical of what he said was governmental agencies’ lack of action, even lack of understanding, in protecting the Earth from global warming and wasted resources.
Nye ‘s educational science show won 28 Emmy awards during its television run from 1992-98.
It seemed most in attendance were pleased to hear Nye speak, and some were even awed by the presence of a childhood icon.
“How cool is that, to be face to face with the man, Bill Nye ?” said Jared McClure, who worked sound and video for the event. “And he’s funny, too.”
twoods@wacotrib.com
Made in DNA
22 April 09 at 17:13
*chuckle*
You can lead a horse to water…
Gerard Hilinski
22 April 09 at 17:41
Good grief! Love Texas (and Texans) but this is ridiculous. Beliefs tend to be very subjective, regardless of what side of an issue we’re on. Seems that better strategy is simply to agree to disagree.
Astrosetz
22 April 09 at 17:47
Texas: home of NASA’s Mission Control and McDonald Observatory, as well as some of the largest amateur astronomy organizations in the US. Just goes to show that we can never do enough outreach and education on astronomy and science in general.
Johnny Blog Archive Bill Nye Bood In Texas For Saying The Moon Reflects The Sun | Popular Tweets
22 April 09 at 17:54
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Toomy
22 April 09 at 17:56
The world will never be as flat as these people’s minds. BTW 1970s book Birth of the Moon (was made fun of) proposed the moon was created from something hitting the earth… today it’s considered highly probable.
sam
22 April 09 at 18:06
wow…just wow
blake
22 April 09 at 18:33
Maybe they pulled the story because it wasn’t true or was incomplete?
Luke
22 April 09 at 18:50
I LOVE “We believe in God!”.
Does that mean you don’t believe in science?
lauren
22 April 09 at 18:59
Oh ridiculousness. I believe in God, AND science. (and Bill Nye.)
Trey
22 April 09 at 19:11
Everything’s bigger in Texas…unfortunately, that also included boundless stupidity and vile ignorance.
Friar
22 April 09 at 19:15
Howcome you never hear stories like that, that take place NORTH of the Mason-Dixon line?
Mark Esper
22 April 09 at 23:24
The Bible tells you how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go!
Rafael Marquez
23 April 09 at 5:07
This just reinforces my stance that the town is called “Wacko” not “Way-co”
MissAnn
23 April 09 at 6:15
Not to ruin a good story, but the story is still on the Waco Tribune website. Sadly, anything there over 30 days old goes to the archive and you have to pay to see it.
If you do an archive search, you can see the first parts of the articles there. These are the two I found at the Waco Tribune website:
2.) Science Guy, you’re right
It’s unfortunate that several people felt offended enough by celebrity scientist Bill Nye to walk out of his speech at McLennan Community College last week.
Nye, whom most people remember from the TV show, “Bill Nye, The Science Guy,” appeared almost strident at moments about his views regarding the intersection of religion and science during a fascinating speech as part of MCC’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
But after a few people walked
Publish Date: April 9, 2006 | Word Count: 625 | Document ID: 110F3C4230FA7B90
3.) ‘The Science Guy’ is entertaining and provocative at MCC lecture
By Tim Woods
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Audience members who expected to see Bill Nye “The Science Guy” conduct experiments and wow their children received quite a surprise Wednesday when Nye spoke at McLennan Community College.
Nye instead addressed such topics as Mars exploration, global warming and energy consumption, particularly oil and gas. He even ruffled a few religious feathers along the way.
The scientist with a background in stand-up and
Publish Date: April 6, 2006 | Word Count: 431 | Document ID: 110F3C4033DAF6A0
But as far as the people who walked out, well yeah. They give the town a bad name. As if David Koresh hadn’t done that already.
val cartwright
23 April 09 at 8:15
Waco is aptly named.
Johnny
23 April 09 at 17:11
Thanks for all the responses. I recently did discover that the story was a few years old, and assumed that might be why the link no longer worked. Busy life and a little laziness prevented me from getting the blog post updated.
Thanks to MissAnn & Kathy for finding some additional details.
Here is an updated repost.
doombot » Daily Doom 4/27/09
27 April 09 at 12:35
[...] personality Bill Nye gets booed in Texas for saying the moon doesn’t emit light. Nye subsequently threw the Texans into a logical conundrum when he calmly asked, “Well, have [...]
Reflections « anarchival
30 April 10 at 10:14
[...] there’s this (rather old) story about Bill Nye “the Science Guy” going to Waco, Texas to give a lecture on popular [...]