Neil Tyson speaks the truth

Talking about the recent case of a teacher spouting religious anti-science nonsense in class, Neil de Grasse Tyson wrote in his letter to the New York Times:

To the Editor:

People cited violation of the First Amendment when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific and that Noah’s ark carried dinosaurs.

This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it’s about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

New York, Dec. 19, 2006

The writer, an astrophysicist, is director of the
Hayden Planetarium.

PS. 500th post!