Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Undeniable

Nearly a year ago on February 4, 2014 there was a debate between two opposing figures – Bill Nye and Ken Ham. From that debate you would know that Bill Nye is a strong advocate for evolution, whereas Ken Ham is for intelligent design. It was a rather lengthy debate, with an eye opener near the end.  When asked what would change their minds, Ken Ham said nothing while Bill Nye said evidence. It would take evidence for Nye to accept intelligent design. Nothing will ever change Ham’s belief, even with evidence he would and is denying evolution. This debate is what inspired Nye to write Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation.


The Science Guy does a really good job at explaining what evolution is and how it works in a very simple and humorous way. He starts off by explaining his desire to learn about the world around him. Such as any knowledge-seeking individual would do. For Bill “it started with the bees.” His young curious mind wondering how bees operate and where they came from and how they came to be. Only later to explain how bees have evolved to be what they are today.
He will give you a little history lesson on the evolutionary theory. Such as stating that the concept of evolution can be traced back nearly thousands of years ago from Greek philosopher Anaximander. Which Anaximander hypothesized that life began as fishlike creatures from the sea after observing some fossils. Following up to the recent discoveries conducted by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. Because of Darwin and Wallace we now fully understand the concept of evolution. That is why it is now the Theory of Evolution. In scientific terms a theory is a verifiable explanation of aspects of the natural world through peer-review and the scientific method. If you want to learn even more about evolution through the words of Darwin himself, pull up a chair, have a drink and read On the Origin of Species.
A good chunk of the book will discuss his experience with debating Creationist Ken Ham. If you haven’t seen the Ham-Nye Debate, I strongly recommend that you do. My personal favorite from both the debate and the book is when Bill Nye points out flaws with the Ark. The Ark would have to be massive to be able to hold two of each animal, especially when you consider how many different species of animals there are. It’s very eye opening when you consider that the Ark was built by a 500 year old man, perhaps unskilled in building ships. It takes many different types of engineers to build ships today. It just doesn’t add up how one man can build a gigantic wooden ship. When today it takes many people to build even a wooden ship and we have technology helping us.
Bill Nye did a superb job with this book. You’ll see many examples of evolution at work from reading each page. Periodically you will laugh from his jokes that just seem to appear out of nowhere. Near the end he covers some topics that some people might consider controversial – such as GMFs (Genetically Modified Foods), human cloning, and skin color just to name a few. He does it from the view of evolution. Evolution has a hand in all of these topics. Without it, none of this would be possible. Such as without gravity, you wouldn’t be sitting there reading this blog.
Bill Nye is the Science Guy. Well, actually he is a mechanical engineer. Like everything else, engineering requires science. Just like Nye, I too am a strong advocate for science. From science, we understand the world around us through an evolutionary standpoint. Please, realize that we didn’t actually come from monkeys. Bill Nye explained it rather well by stating that evolution is like a family tree. We all came from a common ancestor, and as the tree grows different species would branch out. From those species more would branch out, so on and so on.
So as an engineer myself and a fan of science, I strongly recommend that everybody pick up this book. Doesn’t matter if you already are in favor of evolution or a believer of creationism or intelligent design. It is a good read and witty at the same time. As you read, I hope you take some time after putting it down, to think about what you just read. Hopefully you’ll finish it with a better understanding about evolution.
[This Appeared on Learning Uncensored]

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