Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson just two smart people hanging out on the roof talking science.

Courtesy of the YouTube page:

"Dear Citizen of Planet Earth," 

That's how Carl Sagan addressed the public in an introductory letter about the Planetary Society back in the 1980s. Now Bill (CEO) and Neil (Board Member) reminisce about those days, talk about what we should call people from planet Earth, discuss how Neil's Cosmos TV show stressed Bill out, and tell us who will the first humans will be to orbit Mars.

You know sometimes I just post things because they make me smile.

This made me smile.

Watching these two great men "Nerding out" on that rooftop made me kind of wish I could have joined them.

Kinda reminded me of an episode of "The Big Bang Theory" actually.

And 34 years later we are still engaged in meaningless self destruction.

From the first episode of Cosmos, which aired in 1980.

Now in 2014, it's message continues to struggle in finding purchase with a species that seems committed to its own premature extinction.

(Source.)

Have Conservatives abandoned science altogether?

Courtesy of Salon:  

The recent reboot of the show Cosmos on Fox further demonstrated how partisan the very idea of science and empiricism has become. The show, which features astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson taking over the host role from the original’s Carl Sagan, was aggressive in defending science, curiosity, and following the evidence from people who would rather rely on faith or authority, but it took no partisan positions. Nonetheless, it was immediately understood by Americans both left and right as a “liberal” show, merely for its strong insistence that facts should not be ignored in favor of wishful thinking. 

Even though the show was hosted on the Fox network channel, Fox News, the conservative cable channel, did not hold back in the slightest from attacking Tyson for perceived liberalism. In a shockingly racist segment, host Greg Gutfeld and guest Gavin McInnes dogged relentlessly on Tyson, insinuating that he can’t really be an astrophysicist and making fun of “white liberals” for being enthusiastic about Tyson and his work. It only grew uglier with McInnes claiming that Tyson deserved to be mistreated based on his race when he was young because he “fit the profile” by having “a huge afro.” 

While that was the ugliest example of race-baiting, overall conservative media had a tendency to treat Cosmos like its insistence on empiricism and rationality was inherently a culture war issue, so much so that many Christian conservative media outlets attacked every episode in the series with fervor. It wasn’t just when it came to Tyson’s acceptance of evolutionary theory, either. Christian conservatives threw a fit because the show told the story of how Giordano Bruno, a 16th century monk, was burned at the stake for free-thinking. Even though the story fit directly into the larger argument the show made about the dangers of repressing free inquiry, Jay Richards of the Discovery Institute felt that criticizing the church for torturing a man to death should be off-limits because the man in question was a monk, not a scientist. 

Or, even more hilariously, when Tyson mentioned in passing on the show that Christmas was established by the church not because it’s actually Jesus’s birthday but because the church needed a holiday to compete with the popular pagan Saturnalia, Richards completely exploded in rage and denial. “We learn that the holiday celebrated by a couple billion Christians is really a camouflaged take-over of Saturnalia, the High Holy Day when ancient Romans celebrated Saturn, the god of agriculture,” he whined. The only problem is that when Christmas was established, Christianity wasn’t a religion with two billion followers. It was an upstart faith and Saturnalia was, in fact, one of the hands-down most popular days of the year for the followers of the pagan faiths that had been dominate for thousands of years. None of this requires math to understand, but now the right has gone so anti-evidence that even boring old history is considered up for debate.

Part of what I loved about the new Cosmos is that it so fearlessly discussed facts that I knew were going to cause the Religious Right and conservatives to rend their clothing in response.

And it did so with such nonchalance, as if it were simply stating the obvious and suggesting that those who rejected the reality were simply afraid to let go of the comfort provided by fairy tales told to a child.

It also helped to illustrate just how deeply the divide is between those who rely on faith to navigate through life, and those who rely on reason.

A divide that may have been best characterized by the show's creator Ann Druyan. (The late Carl Sagan's widow):

During my all-too-brief phone conversation with Druyan, we also discussed her brilliant rereading of the story of the Garden of Eden, which she sees as the story of humanity’s escape from “a maximum-security prison with 24-hour surveillance.” Adam and Eve’s capital offense is that they seek knowledge and ask questions, precisely the qualities that define the human species. At least in that story, God appears to demand a subservient and doctrinaire incuriosity, and many of his followers continue to insist on that path to this day. 

The show simply HAD to be attacked by the conservatives who desperately need a populace that makes decisions based on fear and ignorance, rather than facts and intelligence.

Personally I hope the success of the show opens the door to a whole new era of similar programming that will help educate a populace whose public school system is right now under attack by those who cannot abide a well educated citizenry. 

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is at the end of his patience: "Don't tell me 'Oh let's fix the kids and everything will be fine.' Fix the adults then the kids will be fine."

This is from an interview with the National Geographic Daily News.

This may be the most frustrated that I have ever seen Professor Tyson,

And really who can blame him?

He is watching the thing he loves, science, under constant attack by politicians and religious leaders, while also seeing that one of the attacks comes in the form of the dumbing down of education in this country.

If I were him I would be yelling about this everyday.

Hell I'm not him, and I still do my fair share of yelling about it.

Sunday night's Cosmos finale asks the question in defense of science that the show has been leading up to all season. “What will happen the next time the mob comes?”

Show producer Seth MacFarlane and Neil deGrasse Tyson

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

“What will happen the next time the mob comes?” Neil deGrasse Tyson asked at the beginning of the finale episode of “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” which finished its meditation on the universe on Fox last night. Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, was referring to the destruction of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 

While “Cosmos” has ranged through scientific history and across the universe, this latest stop in the timeline, like many others Tyson has made during the run of the show, was really about our present moment. 

From its first episode to its last, “Cosmos” has staked out the idea that the pursuit of science can be an act of faith. “The Old Testament Bible comes down to us mostly from the Greek translations made here,” Tyson said last night of the Library of Alexandria, reminding viewers that the secular pursuit of knowledge can have benefits for believers, too. 

He emphasized that his devotion to science had an element of religious awe to it. ”Some of us like it small. And that’s fine. Understandable. But I like it big,” he explained in the conclusion to the episode. “It matters what’s true.” 

The final episode also suggested that science, in its own way, carries fewer risks for those who believe in it than religion does. ”It’s one of the things I love about science,” Tyson said. “We don’t have to pretend we have all the answers.” 

“Cosmos” spent its last episode making clear that scientific thinking faces real threats in the political climate. “Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what’s really there,” Tyson told audiences.

I have felt all along that this was the point that the show was trying to make all along.

That science is under constant attack by religious fundamentalists who want to keep the world small, and questions about it kept simplistic, so that curiosity can be placated with simple fables that anesthetize the brain and keep the sheeple content and in line.

However as Professor Tyson pointed out last night, we are still learning new, and complicated things, every day. And when we pretend to have all of the answers we render ourselves intellectual impotent and unable to reach beyond our own comfort zones and into the mysteries that lie beyond.

At the end of the broadcast Cosmos once again played Carl Sagan's famous Pale Blue Dot. To remind the viewers how little we are in the vastness of space, and how large our imaginations must grow in order to someday understand that which puzzles us today.  

Take a moment to watch it for yourself. Believe me it is well worth your time.

Neil deGrasse Tyson challenges Abrahamic religions head on.

For some time I have been under the impression that Professor Tyson is subtly trolling the Creationists, with the stories he tells, and research he reveals, on the show Cosmos.

He has rubbed Fundamentalist noses in evolution in the second episode, helped to explain the workings of the universe in an episode aptly named "When Knowledge Conquered Fear," and last night he took on one of the most famous of all Biblical stories.

Noah's Ark.

Only Tyson does not relate the version we are all most familiar with, he shares the one related in the Epic of Gilgamesh, a thousand years earlier. 

Of course those of you who are fans of IM, know that we dealt with the stories that proceeded Noah earlier this year. Of course that is the kind of thing I like to explore here on this blog.

However having the story transmitted into American households by such a popular new show is definitely going to cause bigger shock waves than anything we do here.

And if suggesting that one of the most famous Biblical stories was the result of plagiarism were not enough, then Professor Tyson went on to suggest that life on this planet may not have been the result of a supreme being suddenly snapping his fingers but instead simply the result of microbes hitching a ride on an asteroid.

In other words he opened the door for Panspermia, the idea that life on this planet originated elsewhere and then hitched a ride here on meteorites.

I think there is very little doubt that the producers of Cosmos and Professor Tyson are purposefully goading the Fundamentalists and Creationists into responding, and that they are prepared to continue challenging Christian mythologies moving forward, in what I would assume is an attempt to address the attacks on science, and public education, in this country by religious zealots. 

So far I have found no response online from the Creationists. But since they have demonstrated an overwhelming need to refute the facts shared on this show in the past, I have to imagine they are typing their fingers to the bone in response to this one.

Have I mentioned before how much I love this show? Because I most certainly do!

Cosmos host Neil deGrasse Tyson gives Creationists a scientific beat down.

A little Neil deGrasse magic at the Grand Canyon.

Courtesy of the LA Times: 

Many scholars over the centuries had pondered just how old our Earth might be, including an Irish archbishop named James Ussher. Ussher started with the Bible, specifically the account of the death of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in the Second Book of Kings. By tracing the various biblical genealogies — what host Neil de Grasse Tyson calls “counting the begats” — he triumphantly declared that the Earth was born on October 22, 4004 BC, at 6 p.m. on a Saturday. 

That is certainly specific; it is also spectacularly wrong. One is reminded of Galileo’s observation about the dangers of using the Bible as a guide to scientific questions. Loosely paraphrased: The Bible teaches us how to get to heaven; it is not a treatise on how the heavens move. 

Later scholars turned to the book of nature to unlock secrets that would shed light on Earth's age, specifically the many layers of rock and sediment that represent various epochs in Earth’s geological history. Instead of counting the begats, scientists could count the layers. But even that method didn’t prove accurate enough. 

A fragment of meteorite retrieved from Canyon Diablo held the answer. Such objects are relics from the formation of the solar system, including Earth, and they contain many different elements, notably uranium, a radioactive substance that over time decays into lead. In the 1940s, a physicist at the University of Chicago named Harrison Brown thought it might be possible to determine the age of the Earth by counting the lead isotopes in such a meteorite. 

Brown tasked his protege, Clair Patterson, with the experiment to determine the age of the earth, and after overcoming numerous obstacles, he finally did.

The episode demonstrated with great detail the process by which Patterson reached the conclusion that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, and then compared it to the completely unscientific counting of "begats" performed by Archbishop Usher, using the Bible as his sole source of data.

This served to illustrate just how meticulous the scientific process had been, especially when compared to what was essentially uneducated guessing.

Interestingly enough his work with determining the age of the earth, revealed to Clair Patterson that there was an inordinate amount of lead in the environment. Which was a deadly toxin to human beings.

This realization ultimately led to him discovering that the most egregious source for this poison was the exhaust pipes of our very own automobiles.

Of course this led to conflict with the gas companies who brought in their own experts to discredit him, he lost his funding, and was the victim of character assassination for years. (Sound familiar?)

Ultimately, as we all know, the lead was removed from our gasoline, our paint, and many other products in order to protect the environment and protect us as well.

I felt that Cosmos did a great job of undermining the Creationist argument for a young planet, while providing evidence for how those with a vested interest in arguing against certain scientific findings are willing to spend vast amounts of money, and utilize political muscle, to change the narrative.

It was a very good, and very important, program. Which should inspire some fundamentalist backlash in 3..2..1

Sounds reasonable.

And then if the disagreements are deemed worthwhile I am sure that God will be happy to forward them to Neil deGrasse Tyson.

If it doesn't happen fast enough then I suggest the fundamentalist community simply pray harder.

Ray "The banana man" Comfort explains why Neil deGrasse Tyson is wrong that the Bible is not a reliable source of science. Uh huh.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Creationist Ray Comfort complained that Neil deGrasse Tyson had misrepresented the Bible. 

The astrophysicist and host of Fox’s “Cosmos” said recently that using the Bible as a scientific source was problematic, because no one had ever scientifically proven a theory based on scripture. 

Comfort said last week on his online “Comfort Zone” program that Tyson wasn’t qualified to make that determination because he’s not a theologian. 

“You know, the word ‘science,’ it’s kind of a magical word,” Comfort said. “‘I believe in science.’ It just means knowledge, that’s all it means. There’s different areas of science, different areas of knowledge. When you say the Bible is not a science book, you’re saying it’s not a knowledge book? It tells us how God created the Earth!” 

Knowledge, of course, is not quite all that defines science, which is characterized by systematic methods of observation in pursuit of new understanding. 

But Comfort insisted the Bible was a science book because it described the origins of the universe. 

“It gives us the basis for all creation, and it passes the scientific method,” he said. “It’s observable – Genesis – and testable. Evolution is not. You can’t observe something 60 million years old, but you can observe what Genesis says.”

So to be clear, this idiot is saying that Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, cannot judge the scientific merit of the Bible because he is not a theologian, that science itself is a "magical" word, and that the Bible does indeed describe the origins of the universe.

Here let us examine this incredibly detailed description of the beginning of our universe, as explained in the Bible, shall we?

From the book of Genesis:

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. 

6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. 

Wow, that really does describe exactly how the universe came to be, how it functions, what it is made up of, it's dimensions, it's age, and everything right? Um, not exactly.

So according to this there was an earth BEFORE there was the light of the sun? But are we not trapped in the orbit of the sun?

And the sky is made up of water? Water?

What about the stars?

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

So the stars are trapped in the "vault of the sky," which is made up of water, and are there simply to "mark sacred times?"

And the moon is a "lesser light to govern the night," and NOT simply a satellite trapped in earth's orbit which reflects the light of the sun back to earth?

Really?

But what about dark matter, gravity, super novas, black holes, the Big Bang?

The Bible addresses none of that. In fact, and I hate to be a skeptic here, it is as if the people who wrote the Bible only had a fundamental, and perhaps illogical, understanding of the world around them.

Do you know what might help to clear up any questions that might remain, AFTER reading the Bible?

Science.

In fact it does not appear that there are really any actual factual explanations about the world, its people, and the universe in which we live, that cannot be answered WITHOUT the Bible.

I'm just saying.

And I would assume that as science moves forward and continues to answer heretofore unanswerable questions, the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran, will be looked to less and less for answers that can now be factually explained, with evidence provided to back them up.

And that's really the problem that Ray Comfort has with this Cosmos program isn't it?

He knows in his dark little heart that the more people turn to education and science to find answers, the faster charlatans like himself, and Ken Ham, Kent Hovind, and William Lane Craig will be out of a job.

P.S. For those who may wonder why I call Comfort the "Banana Man" take a moment to learn why NOBODY should take this guy seriously about anything.

Creationists demand equal airtime to refute Neil deGrasse Tyson's Cosmos.

"Science is not there for you to cherry pick."

Courtesy of Raw Story:

Creationists held a pity party for themselves Thursday because “Cosmos” isn’t being fair and balanced to their beliefs. 

“Creationists aren’t even on the radar screen for them, they wouldn’t even consider us plausible at all,” said Danny Falkner, of Answers In Genesis, which has previously complained about the show. 

Falkner appeared Thursday on “The Janet Mefford Show” to complain the Fox television series and its host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, had marginalized those with dissenting views on accepted scientific truths, reported Right Wing Watch. 

“I don’t recall seeing any interviews with people – that may yet come – but it’s based upon the narration from the host and then various types of little video clips of various things, cartoons and things like that,” Falkner said. 

Mefferd said the show should at least offer viewers a false compromise. 

“Boy, but when you have so many scientists who simply do not accept Darwinian evolution, it seems to me that that might be something to throw in there, you know, the old, ‘some scientists say this, others disagree and think this,’ but that’s not even allowed,” she said.

I do not personally represent Cosmos, nor Professor Tyson, but I would like to answer this request on behalf of all critically thinking science lovers. 

Oh HELL no!

There is not one scintilla of true scientific knowledge contained in the "research" of Creationism.

The entire movement is based on misunderstanding, misrepresenting, and misappropriating scientific terms in order to cobble together a presentation that fools small children and addle brained adults.

If every ounce of scientific discovery made by a so-called Creationist were suddenly transformed into dynamite it would not add up to enough explosive force to equal an ant fart.

These people are charlatans and should be tar and feathered, and run out of town to protect our children from their brain cell murdering nonsense.

And I am pretty sure Professor Tyson agrees with that.

“You don’t talk about the spherical Earth with NASA, and then say let’s give equal time to the flat Earthers,” Tyson told CNN. “Plus, science is not there for you to cherry pick.”

It is time for these superstitions dipshits to read the writing on the wall. Their time is rapidly coming to a close, and the new religion is science. Which, by the way, does NOT require a suspension of critical thinking skills either.

In fact, it requires just the opposite.

For those who think that America has completely turned against science.

Numbers are in: 12 million Cosmos viewers in the US alone, 17.5 million with DVR! Thanks to you all!
— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) March 11, 2014

Many were quick to point out that the numbers were underwhelming for this debut, but considering it was up against the hit shows "Resurrection," "The Walking Dead," and the finale of the HBO series "True Detective," I think it did surprisingly well.

And through the advances of science viewers were able to DVR the show to watch at their convenience.

That is for those of us not terrified by progress that is. 

And this last Sunday Neil deGrasse Tyson addressed the current "war on science."

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

In an interview on CNN’s Reliable Sourcs, host Brian Stelter asked Tyson how to go about brokering a peace in the “war on science.” 

“Our civilization is built on the innovation of scientists and technologists and engineers who have shaped everything that we so take for granted today,” Tyson pointed out. “So some of the science deniers or science haters, these are people who are telling that to you while they are on their mobile phone.” 

“They are saying, ‘I don’t like science. Oh, GPS just told us to go left,’” he laughed. “So it’s time for people to sit back and reassess what role science as actually played in our lives. And learn how to embrace that going forward, because with out it, we will just regress back into the caves.” 

Stelter observed that the news media often tried to balance the climate change debate, even when the two sides were not equal. 

“What responsibility do you think the members of the media have to portray science correctly,” the CNN host wondered. 

“The media has to sort of come out of this ethos that I think was in principle a good one, but it doesn’t really apply in science,” Tyson explained. “The principle was, whatever story you give, you have to give the opposing view. And then you can be viewed as balanced.” 

“You don’t talk about the spherical Earth with NASA, and then say let’s give equal time to the flat Earthers,” he added. “Plus, science is not there for you to cherry pick.” 

Tyson recalled that he once said that “the good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” 

“You can decide whether or not to believe in it, but that doesn’t change the reality of an emergent scientific truth,” he noted.

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” Very well said, and THAT is why he is the perfect host for the relaunch of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series.

And speaking of "Cosmos" I finally have a link to the show that will work.

If you have not seen it trust me when I tell you it will be the best 44 minutes you will waste all day.

The return of Cosmos, last night was phenomenal and sent audiences reeling. Some in awe, and some in fear.

Courtesy of CNN:

 "Cosmos," the new, updated version of Carl Sagan's popular 1980 documentary series exploring the hows, whats and whys of the universe, premiered Sunday night on Fox, the National Geographic Channel and various corporate cousins. 

Its "ship of the imagination" -- a vehicle to take viewers through wonders large and small -- now has a new captain, astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson, but the reaction to the show's debut shows that entertaining, informative science never goes out of style. 

"I'll be eagerly tuning in for future episodes," wrote the Los Angeles Times' Jennifer Ouellette, praising Tyson as "affable" and "engaging" and noting the debut episode's lively use of ideas -- such as the "powers of 10" -- that could turn to cliché in other hands.

I am embarrassed to say that I actually missed the premiere last night (I was instead exercising my guilty pleasure of watching the zombie apocalypse on  the Walking Dead.), however I did catch it today on YouTube which unfortunately for this post has been taken down now.

The show did not shy away from pointing out the negative impact that superstition and religion have had on space exploration and recognizing our rightful place in the universe.

For me that was extremely gratifying, but for others not so much:

Oh yeah this show is going to drive these people out of their ever loving minds!

As I said I cannot show you the whole episode, since Fox had it taken down from You Tube.

However all is not lost as the wonderful introduction done by President Obama IS still available.

Somehow I think that having the President associated with this program did not exactly help with its acceptance among those folks who "cling to their Bibles, and their guns" do you?

President Obama to introduce the return of Cosmos to our television screens.

Courtesy of Hollywood Reporter:  

President Barack Obama is putting his stamp on Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. 

The president will offer an "inspiring" introduction ahead of Sunday's series premiere at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Fox announced Saturday. In the video message, Obama invites a new generation to embrace the spirit of discovery and inspires viewers to explore new frontiers and imagine limitless possibilities for the future. 

The 13-episode Cosmos, produced by Cosmos Studios and Fuzzy Door Productions, tells the story of how we discovered the laws of nature and found our coordinates in space and time. Ann Druyan, Seth MacFarlane, Cosmos Studios president Mitchell Cannold and Brannon Braga are executive producers, with Jason Clark co-executive producing. 

Obama's support behind Cosmos is no secret as a screening was held at the White House as part of the first White House Student Film Festival on Feb. 28, celebrating his commitment to technology in the classroom. During the festival, Obama detailed the progress toward his ConnectED goal of connecting students to broadband and wireless technology within five years. 

And just when I did not think this show, now hosted by the great Neil deGrasse Tyson, could get any cooler.

Here is the trailer.  (If that doesn't fire you up, you better check your pulse.)

Bill Nye: The Joy of Discovery.

This was taken from the recent debate between Nye and Ken Ham.

"We are, you and I, at least one of the ways that the universe knows itself."

I have been saying some version of this for years and I find it so much more profound and inspiring than anything I have ever read in any religious book.

We have a duty to strive to understand, and appreciate, and stand in awe of, the majesty that surrounds us.

Because if we don't then who will?