Bill Nye says he isn’t attacking religion

Bill Nye says he wasn’t attacking religion in his recent video comment on evolution versus creationism, and he explains his controversial “Creationism Is Not Appropriate for Children.”

The former Boeing engineer and Seattle resident many know as “Bill Nye the Science Guy” posted a video last week saying adults who deny evolution and teach a literal biblical view are hurting America’s future. Since then, the video has had more than 2.2 million views, and you had a lot to say with comments on this story.

Nye further explains his view to “CBS This Morning,” saying “religion is one thing, but science, provable science is something else.”

“My concern is you don’t want people growing up not believing in radioactivity, not believing in geology and deep time. You don’t want people in the United States growing up without the expectation that we can land spacecraft on Mars. You want people to believe in science, this process, this great idea that humans had to discover more about the universe and our place in it, our place in space.

I really want to emphasize, I’m not attacking anybody’s religion, but science, if you go to a museum and you see fossil dinosaur bones, they came from somewhere, and we have by diligent investigation determined that the earth is 4.54 billion years old. The sun is a star, like all the other stars you see in the sky, and we are made of the same stuff. This is wonderful! This is fantastic discoveries that fill me with reverence, make me excited.”

A June 2012 Gallup poll found 46 percent of Americans believe God created man, 32 percent believe humans evolved with God’s guidance and 15 percent believe in evolution alone.