Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Fri Jun 13, 2014, 04:56 AM Jun 2014

13 Ways Neil deGrasse Tyson's Cosmos Sent Creationists into Total Freakout Mode

http://www.alternet.org/belief/13-ways-neil-degrasse-tysons-cosmos-sent-creationists-total-freakout-mode



Episode 1: "Standing Up in the Milky Way"

Tyson wasted no time inspiring the world with the opening episode, telling a story about meeting Carl Sagan and the impact it had on his life. Introducing viewers to the cosmic calendar that would often be used throughout the show, we are given a 12-month calendar that shows the history of the cosmos, immediately setting off creationists because the calendar shows a universe that is 13.8 billion years and an earth that is 4.5 billion years old.

***SNIP

Episode 2: "Some of the Things That Molecules Do"

Evolution is a fact, and Tyson did not hold back his words or feelings when expressing this. He tore down the one argument creationists and intelligent design proponents have attempted to hold onto for years: Irreducible complexity, the idea that some functions or organs are too complex to have been built from scratch. The most notable organ used in this debate? The eye.

***SNIP

Episode 3: "When Knowledge Conquered Fear"

The world almost never knew the greatest works of Isaac Newton. The Royal Society was financially failing, books were not selling and new books could not be published and claims of plagiarism were running wild. Newton’s most notable work, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica was basically dead before it was born.

***SNIP

Episode 4: "A Sky Full of Ghosts"

How do we know the universe is not young? Cosmological constants, such as the speed of light, help us map the universe back to its very beginnings, the Big Bang, which took place some 13.8 billion years ago
2 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
13 Ways Neil deGrasse Tyson's Cosmos Sent Creationists into Total Freakout Mode (Original Post) xchrom Jun 2014 OP
xchrom Diclotican Jun 2014 #1
I recorded the entire series. alphafemale Jun 2014 #2

Diclotican

(5,095 posts)
1. xchrom
Fri Jun 13, 2014, 05:31 AM
Jun 2014

xchrom

I think Neil Degrease Tyson did an excellent job of promoting Cosmos, and all its wonder who is up there - and he was also very good at explaining how things are connected into each other...

And if he in the proses made people think for them self - about their place - and what have become before them - in the past, so much better - curiosity is one of the greatest tool we humans have - to explore what we do not know yet... And many seen to not know to much about it all it sees... It is therefore so much more important for people like Degrease Tyson to do his job - educated and make people wondering about the past - that be in the way back times way before everyone on earth was even thinking about why things are as they are - or when man began thinking about the universe - our place in it - and the world at large...

And I can understand something like explaining Big Bang could make some people crossed or even annoyed - their little specially place in the universe is suddenly revoked into a whole different set of world wiew.... In fact the universe is not 6-7000 year old - but over 13 billion years old - and our own planet - the only place where we know life exist -is 4.5 billion year old - plus-minus a few million years - we do not know exactly how old our planet is.. But it is a god guess as anyone to say our planet is 4.5 billion year old.. And this little rock of ours have experiences a lot of different things over the eons - everything to planet size objects who have crashed into it - Volcanoes who have swallowed whole continents - the invention of water, who cooled the planet down somewhat - in fact at some time all of earth was flooed with the new substance - and most of what we do know as earth was nowhere to se... It have experienced great ice ages - and the opposite - great heating parts where most species died out - our little planet have had at least 5 known atmosphere's, some poisoned, some with a lot more oxygen than we have to day - and have also experienced times when life was flourishing in great numbers - just to be hit by something catastrophic who ended this great times - but for some reasons life survived - and made it into our own times... And humans is a result of the last great catastrophe where vulcan eruption - and a city wide rock hit earth - and killed off most of the then supreme species-es - just so our early forefathers could get into the fry - and explore and diverse its genes into what is known as mammals..

And there we are - DeGrasse Tyson did a good job in explaining it all - and I have to wonder why anyone could doubt it - it was solid sience - not finction - or story telling from a pepole who was right out of bronze age - and who was wondering about the same thing like we do - but who had many other ways to explain it... Something I kind of suspect many who belive the world is just 6000 year old have forgotten in all of it - that humans tend to explain things, as they know it - in time - maybe 1000 year from now - when our is descendants islooking back to our time - they might think about us the same way we think about our forefathers - kind - lowing pepole who was just waay out there with the fact....

Diclotican

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»13 Ways Neil deGrasse Tys...