Bill Nye The Science Guy Not Dead, Despite Twitter Rumors [VIDEO]
Scientist and educator William Sanford Nye, a.k.a. "Bill Nye the Science Guy," spoke out against creationism in a YouTube video published on Thursday, Aug. 23. Three days later, rumors of Nye's death became a trending topic on Twitter, which sparked a massive outpouring of support for the allegedly dead PBS children's show host. Courtesy

Bill Nye, best known from the 1990s children's TV show “Billy Nye The Science Guy,” is back in the news after the satirical news site The Onion "killed" him in a balloon accident.

The death hoax swept Twitter and resonated throughout the internet, and now Nye is using the notoriety, which he called “fun” in a CBS interview, to oppose the teaching of creationism in school.

"The Earth is not 6,000 or 10,000 years old," Nye said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's not. And if that conflicts with your beliefs, I strongly feel you should question your beliefs."

"If we raise a generation of students who don't believe in the process of science, who think everything that we've come to know about nature and the universe can be dismissed by a few sentences translated into English from some ancient text, you're not going to continue to innovate," Nye said in a wide-ranging telephone interview.

In the interview he explains that he doesn’t care what adults think about creationism, "but don't make your kids do it. Because we need them."

The clip was posted on YouTube by Big Think and went viral within days. It now has 4.6 million views along with nearly 200,000 comments.

"What I find troubling, when you listen to these people (those who don’t believe in evolution)... once in a while I get the impression that they're not kidding," Nye said.

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