Cosmos with Neil De Grasse Tyson Premieres Tonight

[MJ the Skeptical]

How do you figure?

Tyson instead of attacking religion directly with arguments people heard 100 times simply tells about evolution, cosmos, science etc.
He also tells it in such a way that religion simply collapses under the weight of knowledge.
I won't be surprised if many people will be deconverted because of this show.

I understand where you're coming from but...


1) People will continue to believe in magic stories if the religions are not questioned.

2) People can just assume their god was behind whatever they show in Cosmos.

3) Neil refuses the Atheist label even though he basically is one.

4) I doubt this show will deconvert lots of people. But maybe.

[Marsellus Wallace]

Speaking of piracy... You know what? I don't feel the least bit guilty "pirating" something that's broadcast over the air, or on the cable TV that I pay for.

I can hear the networks screaming "but then we can't make you watch the advertising!"

"Precisely."

I feel guilty when I download it via torrent , cuz how are these cable companies gonna pay for the shows then ??

no views ===> no commercials ===> no money.

[Jackalope]

Speaking of piracy... You know what? I don't feel the least bit guilty "pirating" something that's broadcast over the air, or on the cable TV that I pay for.

I can hear the networks screaming "but then we can't make you watch the advertising!"

"Precisely."

I feel guilty when I download it via torrent , cuz how are these cable companies gonna pay for the shows then ??

no views ===> no commercials ===> no money.

They probably hate my DVR too. I fast forward through all the shit. They can insert the ads, but they don't get my eyeballs.

As to how they're going to pay for shows - I sure as fuck don't pay them over a hundred bucks a month for the advertising content. Their business model may dictate that they need to sell advertising - but they're not ever going to force me to watch it.

Oh - and the networks who don't allow fast-forwarding through on-demand programming, even through portions that have already been watched, fuck you, you don't get my eyeballs at all. I'm looking at you, Fox. The first time you prevented me from fast forwarding through shit I had already watched when my remote went nuts and rewound too far, well, that's when you lost my eyeballs.

[Clueless Morgan]

3) Neil refuses the Atheist label even though he basically is one.

IMO, he does this for precisely the reason I gave in my last post: openly atheistic scientists often become lightening rods of controversy, and NdGT wants the conversation to be about the science, not about whether or not he's an atheist.

It would be fantastic if he were to publicly announce that he's an atheist, but I think that would hurt his ability to get people excited about science and that's his main goal.

[MJ the Skeptical]

3) Neil refuses the Atheist label even though he basically is one.

IMO, he does this for precisely the reason I gave in my last post: openly atheistic scientists often become lightening rods of controversy, and NdGT wants the conversation to be about the science, not about whether or not he's an atheist.

It would be fantastic if he were to publicly announce that he's an atheist, but I think that would hurt his ability to get people excited about science and that's his main goal.

And there are Atheists Scientists who don't fall into controversy...

But I agree, it would hurt his reputation, because there are so many bigoted assholes towards Atheists.

[Clueless Morgan]

And there are Atheists Scientists who don't fall into controversy...

But I agree, it would hurt his reputation, because there are so many bigoted assholes towards Atheists.

Yes, there are, but NdGT is such a public figure that I think, as you say, it would damage his reputation in an irrecoverable way for him to announce that he's an atheist.


But who knows? Maybe he's a deist and he's fooling us all!!!

[Minimalist]

Interesting p-o-v.

http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/03...on-cosmos/

Creationism Is Not Being Ignored On ‘Cosmos’ — It’s Actually The Focus

Tyson isn’t ignoring creationism. Creationists wish Tyson were ignoring creationism. Tyson is instead standing on creationism’s home turf and playing by their rules. (Every episode we’ve seen so far has contrasted the Church’s approach to these issues with science’s approach. I’ve read some complaints that Cosmos is too much in love with that old story where everything happens in Europe until white people arrive in the Americas and then some stuff gets to happen here too. But I think that complaint also misunderstands that the history of Christianity as its taught to American Christians is, by and large, that story — everything happens in Europe until some stuff starts to happen here). Tyson is taking creationists’ claims deadly seriously, and showing all the ways they’re wrong.

[tor]

What the fuck was tyson talking about worlds inside black holes?

[Jackalope]

What the fuck was tyson talking about worlds inside black holes?

I haven't watched it yet. Do you have any context?

[pocaracas]

What the fuck was tyson talking about worlds inside black holes?

Speculation... the singularity that gave rise to the big bang could be similar to the singularity in a black hole, thus spawning its own universe...