Science!

[moonshaz.livejournal.com]

Edited to fix a link that wasn't working!

Comments

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

I like the last one, that's cute! lol.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Faith is easier. No maths!

And then there's heaven!

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Goddamned heathens and their science and maths!

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Are you good at science and math? :p

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Relatively. I was originally a physics / philosophy double major.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

That's probably better than me. To me, they may as well be reading the entrails of sacrificed animals.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

There is a major Wikipedia edit war regarding Neil, some conservatives are very pissed off. (http://twitchy.com/2014/09/25/sean-davis-wikipedias-scrubbing-of-neil-degrasse-tyson-controversy-would-make-china-proud/)
ping! prock ping prock

[cinnamontoast.livejournal.com]

He posted something about this on his Facebook feed a couple of days ago (https://www.facebook.com/notes/neil-degrasse-tyson/email-exchange-with-the-federalist/10152354422065869). It was an interesting read.

The comments were also interesting. Some were absolutely ridiculous, but there were others, from the conservative side that were actually thought provoking. I have to admit that I was disturbed by some of his answers.

I remember what it was like for an atheist (Even though he choses to call himself an agnostic, Neil is the classic definition of an Teapot Atheist - We don't see evidence for a god. He knows this and I've heard him discuss it.) right after 9/11. There were a TON of people, including Bush, who made many divisive statements about gods and religious folks being the bestest folks. As a long time non-religionist, I have never felt so ostracized in my own country as I did in the aftermath. It was made worse by the trauma of personally seeing all religions as equally destructive and watching folks respond to a religion based act by invoking more religion. The spirit of his statement was absolutely true. I was scared out of my mind during that time.

But - When he is summarizing something from his personal memory, he should say that. Way too many people quote the hell out of him.

I still love him to pieces and trust the hell out of him though. I'll continue to rely on him, and others like him, to give me facts rather than a religious conservative political person's version of reality. The cognitive dissonance going on in a religious conservative's brain makes my head spin.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Well, I thought a lot of those questions were nit-picky and pedantic beyond belief (e.g. the story about how many grams of cocaine in a possible jury trial, and then the interviewer asked for specific details on the trail (so I guess they could really get to that critical answer).

[cinnamontoast.livejournal.com]

You're right that the questions were nit-picky and pedantic. The cocaine question was incredibly dumb. I did some serious eye rolling over that one. The reporter should have stuck with the single question of the Bush quote. He has a point that we should hold everyone to the same standards of truth. If you are claiming to quote someone, make sure you get it right.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

THIS, so very much. And even now, we have folks who started doing the Our Country is Christian, all the rest of you should DIAF, who make me weep for my childhood.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

...folks who started doing the Our Country is Christian...

Those folks always change their tune very fast when you ask them to compare the Iraq Wars and Afghanistan War with the Crusades.

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

I would have Neil change the word "true" for "correct" or "our best assessment possible," but that's just nit-picky me.

If you want to have a substantive argument with anyone remember that there is no good or truth. Stick to "accurate" or "beneficial". It forces the arguers to edit the bombast and rhetoric.