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Nye is best known for his television show “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” as well as his appearances on talk shows and “Dancing With The Stars.” He is the CEO of the Planetary Society, and recently wrote a book “Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation.”
In his talk, Nye repeatedly encouraged the audience to use science to “change the world.” He spoke about his debate earlier this year with Ken Ham of the Creation Museum, who argued that evolution is not real. Nye said that he is troubled by people such as Ham and legislators who deny that climate change is happening.
“This matters because this leader and his flock have a worldview that is not going to help us out in the coming decades. They have to be either outvoted or brought around. And when they’re brought around, we have to embrace them," Nye said. "We can’t just spend the rest of our days criticizing them for being so thoughtless, we have to move forward."
He said that the United States needs to get out in front of the climate change issue, and that the rest of the world will follow our example. People who deny evolution on religious reasons are “a special case of religious people,” he said.
“The Pope’s on board with evolution,” Nye said. “People get tremendous comfort and community from their religions. They get a lot out of it, I give you that. But no matter what you believe, the Earth is not 6,000 years old. It can’t be.”
The problem with these beliefs is that when people pass them on to their children, they grow up with nonscientific ideas ingrained in their thinking, he said.
“It’s in nobody’s best interest to raise a generation of people who are scientifically illiterate," Nye said. "Nobody wants that.”
Nye also spoke about his family, his father’s love of sundials, finding out what colors different planets’ atmospheres are, and being inspired by Carl Sagan. He talked about how rovers on Mars contain a message, wishing anybody who may one day find them “a safe journey and the joy of discovery.”
“My friends, that is the essence of science. That is the essence of this business: the joy of discovery,” he said. The joy of discovery is what has driven mankind to make the advancements it has, he said, and it will continue to do so in the future.
“Our need to look over the horizon to see what’s there is how we thrive as a species.”
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