Undeniable

by Bill Nye

Sparked by a controversial debate in February 2014, Bill Nye has set off on an energetic campaign to spread awareness of evolution and the powerful way it shapes our lives. In Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation, he explains why race does not really exist; evaluates the true promise and peril of genetically modified food; reveals how new species are born, in a dog kennel and in a London subway; takes a stroll through 4.5 billion years of time; and explores the new search for alien life, including aliens right here on Earth. With infectious enthusiasm, Bill Nye shows that evolution is much more than a rebuttal to creationism; it is an essential way to understand how nature works - and to change the world. He argues passionately that to continue to assert otherwise, to continue to insist that creationism has a place in the science classroom is harmful not only to our children, but to the future of the greater world as well. It might also help you get a date on a Saturday night.

• ISBN10: 1250007135
• ISBN13: 9781250007131
• Publish Date: 4 November 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 9 March 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

I decided to listen to Undeniable as an Audiobook, why you ask? Well Bill Nye actually read his own book for it! How could I resist that? Seriously. But honestly I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while. I was a huge fan of his show when I was a kid, and that fondness never really wore off when I grew up. I know you should never meet your heroes, but surely listening to an audiobook written and read by them doesn’t count, right?


This novel is really perfect for any fans of Bill Nye. A lot of the science may end up being more along the lines of ‘refresher course’ than anything, but we can all use that from time to time. It is bursting from the seams (does that term fit when talking about books?) with Bill Nye’s personality and sense of humor. Okay, it’s got a good chunk of his ego too, but that’s not really a bad thing.
For me this was a perfect audiobook to listen to while I was working on something mind numbing. Instead of sitting there hating myself I got to refresh my memory on a lot of basics in science, all while pretending I was watching a Bill Nye the Science Guy Show. And yes, I did have the song stuck in my head for the better part of a week because of this. I’m okay with that.
While a lot of it was stuff I more or less knew (thanks to my high school science teachers) there was a lot of information I didn’t know in here. For example, I apparently live under a rock. I somehow managed to miss this massive confrontation Bill Nye had with a Creationist. I don’t know how I managed to miss that, but at least I got the highlights from this book. I’m sure Bill Nye’s opinion on what happened is biased, but if I’m being honest with myself I know whose side of that confrontation I would have taken anyway, so I’m okay with this one-sided storytelling.
I also learned that Bill Nye is not a fan of his ex-boss. I don’t know which one, but I do know that there is a lot of past between those two. Most of the jokes made in this book were at this poor guy’s expense. I wonder if he read the book and knew it was him? Or if, like the song “You’re So Vain” all of his ex-bosses will end up thinking it’s about them?
Also, apparently Bill Nye read 50 Shades of Gray. And apparently I’m five years old, because hearing about him talking about sex was seriously weird. So there’s that. But seriously, I kept looking over my shoulder expecting somebody to call me out for listening to Bill Nye talking about 50 Shades. Also, Bill Nye (and anybody else that needs this advice) if you’re reading this – 50 Shades is not a good example to read if you’re looking to understand what women want. So please don’t do that.
I could continue with all the funny anecdotes that were included in this novel, or I could just encourage you to grab yourself a copy to read/listen to (I got my audiobook from the digital catalog at my library, didn’t even have to leave the house!). It’s an educational and funny read and I truly think that any fan of his would enjoy it.


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[inlibrisveritas]

Undeniable is a book that stems from a debate Nye had with young-earth creationist Ken Ham, over where science fits into creation and how. Part of me was a bit worried before the debate and this book. When you debate religion and science things can get nasty, but Bill tries very hard to avoid that and I think he was fairly successful. I think if you go into this book expecting a fight, you’ll without any doubt find one. But for every few sentences on young-earth creationism(or science denying) there is an entire chapter for the topic of choice. He is hard on young-earth creationism and those who deny science, but he doesn’t have a problem with religion in itself and I think it’s important to know/remember that.

I will warn you. This is a science book, this is not a book that focuses purely on the debate aspect. It’s not a light book, but it’s definitely not on the same density as say Hawkins. Evolution is a fairly big topic, and it covers a lot of ground…so Undeniable is basically a crash course in what evolution is, how is works, and what it affects. We get topics like vision, bacteria, vaccines, GMOs, and cloning. It’s not something you can breeze through, you need time to process what you’re reading…unless of course you’re already a scientist well versed on evolution in a wide variety of fields. However, that being said everything in the book is presented in a very accessible way with a lot of nifty comparisons to make more difficult ideas easy, like only Bill Nye can do.

It did take me a while to get through this, but I really enjoyed it overall. It was sort of like a older more complex version of watching Bill Nye the Science Guy with each chapter topic being a new episode. For those who love science or simply want to know more about evolution then it’s definitely something to check out.