The Science Guy Bill Nye calls homosexuality natural sexual behavior
ORLANDO (Christian Examiner) -- Popular science educator and television personality Bill Nye the Science Guy, known for agnostic and pro-evolution views, explained in a recent You Tube video his perspective of homosexuality as part of a natural spectrum of sexual behavior found in humans and animals.
In the video, Nye responded to an anonymous question submitted to Big Think which asked how homosexual preferences among humans "made sense" with evolutionary theories which assert reproduction and survival to be the primary purpose of a species.
Relying on his own personal observations and those of zoologist Desmond Morris who claimed to have observed homosexual behavior in primates such as chimpanzees in his 1967 book The Naked Ape, Nye said, "The answer nowadays that we give to everybody about this -- is it's a spectrum.
"I don't know about you, but I have known a great many gay men who are married, who have babies, who have kids. So . . . apparently there's a spectrum," he said on the video.
"Some people are more inclined to have sex with people of their same sex than others . . . Being somewhere on the spectrum of heterosexual with homosexual, being on that is not genetically lethal. You still have kids anyway," Nye continued.
"So let's celebrate being alive, everybody. Apparently it's just something that happens in nature, and look, we're all here," he concluded.
Nye stated on the video he was no expert on the subject but merely an observer of the human condition.
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler discussed the same issue in a 2010 blog post. Referring to research publicized at that time, Mohler wrote, "Those pushing for the normalization of homosexuality are eager to make the case that homosexual behavior is natural, or at least not unnatural."
"The documented existence of animal homosexuality would presumably help that case. On the other hand, opponents of the normalization of homosexuality have long pointed to the central biological fact that homosexuality does not lead to reproduction — which is the goal of every species," Mohler continued.
"The scientists making these observations are committed to an evolutionary worldview, so their findings on animal homosexuality have to be fitted within the structure of evolutionary thought. Given the non-reproductive aspect of homosexual behaviors, this poses a significant challenge. Put bluntly, homosexual behavior in any form seems to run counter to the logic of evolution," Mohler stated in 2010.
Mohler argued that not all things observed in nature are normative. "The world we know is a world that shows all the effects of human sin and the curse of God's judgment on that sin. Though the glory of God shines through even its fallen state, nature now imperfectly displays the glory of God. Because of the curse, the world around us now reveals and contains innumerable elements that are 'natural,' but not normative. Illnesses and earthquakes are natural, but not normative," Mohler wrote.
"Evidence of homosexual behaviors among animals is just another reminder that we live in a fallen world — one in which every dimension of creation bears evidence of the Fall.
"Efforts to claim a genetic basis for homosexuality are rooted in the assumption that our genes tell us what God's intention for us is. In a fallen world, that is a faulty assumption. Only the Word of God can tell us what God's intention is. We cannot derive our sexual morality from a laboratory," Mohler continued.
"The Apostle Paul warns us that homosexual behavior is indeed 'against nature.' [Romans 1:26-27] But we did not gain that insight by observing albatrosses. We have that knowledge because God spoke it to us in his Word," he concluded in his 2010 blog post.
In February 2014, Nye and Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, formally debated the merits of evolution and creation theories. Christianity Today posted a full-length video of the event which occurred before a sold-out crowd of 900 at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.