via Left Action:
"It's no surprise that Neil deGrasse Tyson has become one of today's most popular scientists, with his combination of brilliance, humor, and passion for knowledge making even the driest subjects come to life in a wonderfully engaging way. But what makes especially important is his willingness to boldly take on and debunk anti-scientific nonsense, even in controversial areas others would be afraid to touch. He has taken on those who claim the Earth is only a few thousand years old, refuting the claim by pointing out that it would necessitate ignoring the vast majority of the known universe (given the time it takes light to travel). He has taken on the anti-evolution crowd, and the climate-change skeptics as well, each time using the power of the scientific method to politely but firmly make his point.
Speaking out for the truth has led to a backlash against Tyson, with opponents demanding that his show, Cosmos, be cancelled. But he has continued to speak out for the truth. And in a time when anti-scientific nonsense is accepted as truth by a frighteningly high percentage of the population, Tyson deserves to be thanked for this."
INFIDEL753's LINK ROUND-UP
4 comments:
"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
- attributed to Karl Rove
Unfortunately not even a man as intelligent as Tyson can make much headway against the solipsistic attitude prevalent on the right these days, which treats reality itself as something to be judged by ideological litmus tests. Once people have decided that the belief that the Earth is 6,000 years old is a viewpoint worthy of serious consideration, they're pretty much unreachable.
People, some but certainly not all, work diligently at creating the world and reality they WANT to live in rather than the world and reality that really exists.
What we have here is the Thermadorian Reaction of Anti-Matter, a resurgence of highly politicized sub-atomic particles that resent being in the minority for so long after the Big Bang. When knowledge takes over, along comes the ignorati of bosons and morons, and then everything cancels out.
I heard that this whole climate change thing is a conspiracy perpetrated by scientists that are liars and idiots. Apparently lies like climate change are hatched when when science and government crawl into bed together. If you're the kind of person that believes that, then Neil deGrasse Tyson must be one of the lying idiots.
Post a Comment