Okay…it’s getting just plain medieval deep in the heart of Texas.  Bill Nye, The Science Guy, was giving a presentation at McLennan Community College in Waco, and some people walked out after he told them that a literal interpretation of Genesis 1:16 just doesn’t square with the facts…

And God made two great lights: A greater light to rule the day, and a less light to rule the night, and he made the stars also. -Tyndale’s Old Testament

Well…okay…  As poetry it kinda works, but it isn’t right.  The sun is a star, and a fairly common type of star at that.  And the moon shines in the sun’s light (and also a bit of reflected earth light too from time to time, so we get light from it that’s been doubly reflected), not its own.  The moon is not a light, anymore then the mountaintops that reflect the last light of the day as the sun goes down are lights.  It’s the moon…a pretty amazing object in its own right, but it is not a light.  And the sun is a star too…little different from most of the other stars whose light we see at night.  But the person who wrote those lines could not have known any of that and you can see their intent well enough.  God made all the things which shine down upon us from the heavens above…the sun which gives us the day, and the moon which shines brightly in the night and also all the stars that shine in the night…

Fine.  I can dig it.  I’ve spent many a night gazing up in rapture at the creator’s work.  This is a beautiful amazing universe we live in.  Depending on how expansive your view of God is (or how willing you are to admit you really don’t know crap about what God is, other then it’s that which created the cosmos), science and religion don’t really have much to argue about in Genesis 1:16.  But some people just don’t want to hear it…

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.

Fine, but you don’t seem very willing to embrace that which God hath wrought are you?  What the hell were you doing in a science lecture lady?  See…this is what’s a tad scary about this story.  This fundamentalist woman took her children to a science lecture expecting to hear nothing that contradicted her religious conceits.  So what have they been teaching in science classes in Texas for the past generation or two?