3/14/14 9:44 PM

Anyone else see this. A lot if awesomeness...

3/16/14 11:57 AM

I also did not realize Seth MacFarlane is the Exec-Producer of COSMOS 2.0 until last night.

3/16/14 2:41 PM

Yep. He is paying back society for his past programming like Family Guy.

He is fronting most of the money.

3/17/14 9:23 AM

Well said, Erik. Seth McFarlane is one of the richest people in show business.

BTW, last night's Cosmos episode on evolution was terrific. The more I listen to NdGT the more I like him.

3/17/14 3:22 PM

It was very good and teaching evolution by using dog breeds was brilliant.

People can't really argue with that. Well, they can but then they show just how stupid they are.

NDT is a very good teacher. I have listened to him on PBS quite a few times over the years as a presenter on NOVA Science Now and briefly met him at the NHM in NYC where he is in charge of the planetarium. Very personable to the patrons who flocked him after they realized who he was.

3/18/14 9:18 AM

I've mostly seen him on the Daily Show and Colbert, where he is always fun, and really does come across as a wonderful teacher.

3/18/14 10:25 AM

Watched 'Some of the Things That Molecules Do' last might. Cleverly presented to be sure.

3/18/14 10:52 AM

The arguments are not new, of course, but I liked the way it presented the response to some of the favorite arguments of the intelligent design/creationist proponents.

First, that you can't get more complexity starting with something simple. Well, yes, you can; a DNA molecule with a 4-letter alphabet codes for the synthesis of thousands of proteins that cause a single cell to proliferate into hundreds of different types, and billions of copies of them, all working together to make one organism. It happens every damn day, and every time it starts with a single cell.

Second, that some structures are just too complicated to have arisen by natural selection, because the intermediate structures would have no survival value (so somebody must have stepped in and directed the "desigh"). The eye is their favorite example, and the program did a nice job showing how the eye could have evolved, and how there are creatures with some of those intermediate stages around even now.

3/18/14 11:31 AM

Agree, the Eye and Dog presentation methodologies very good.

3/18/14 6:06 PM

From what I can gather, he writes much of the copy along with Anne D. Carl Sagan's widow.

The dog thing was brilliant! As a creationist may try to argue yet look down at their fuzzy poodle and have to have the gears churning in their minds.



Diatribe below.

I have noticed that since a came to the realization that I was atheist I see just how silly theist are and how many very smart people erect a wall in their minds between their beliefs and facts. They are fully on board with the requirement for evidence in all aspects of their lives yet don't require it for their religions.

I told a coworker who is also a pastor that if I was ever on trial for anything I would not let him be on my jury because he did not require evidence in all aspects of his life.

He also stated to me if his daughter came to him pregnant and she said god did it he would believe her......

I read the first 2 chapters of genesis after the show and puked a little in my mouth as I thought I used to believe any of it. I used to try my best to make the science facts and book match, instead of just accepting it was all a fabrication.

No idea of evolution, people that lived 800+ years, woman from a rib, I could go on but just say read it for yourself.

3/18/14 6:19 PM

"He also stated to me if his daughter came to him pregnant and she said god did it he would believe her"

"Boy, if I had a nickle for every time I heard that in the confessional"

3/19/14 10:17 AM

I can see a scientist having a belief in a God and being able to keep the physical realm separate from the philosophical realm. It's all the trappings that humans have hung on the concept and conceits that are irrational and troublesome.

3/19/14 2:38 PM

Parkin, Stephen Jay Gould argued for s similar notion of a separation between the scientific truths you seek in that realm, and other things you seek to learn from religion or philosophy. His term was "non-overlapping magisteria. It made a some sense, at least as a starting place for how to think about things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocks_of_Ages

3/19/14 3:31 PM

Exactly, I am a very spiritual person without a belief in a "god". I am deeply moved and in awe of the universe we live in and see no need to attach Bronze Age book of who knows what to guide me.

Science is the pursuit of truth, there is nothing more spiritual than that.

3/19/14 4:12 PM

"see no need to attach Bronze Age book of who knows what"


And interpreted from languages, well... that is a long grape vine is my point...


'Show me' people are no so apt as far as blind faith goes either.. ;)

3/19/14 7:02 PM

40+ years ago I read a comment from a "leading Catholic theologian" that God was the "force behind the universe" so everyone had to believe in God - there could be no atheists. In retrospect he was saying that God was astrophysics, though I'm sure that's not what he was trying to accomplish.

I do believe in astrophysics (not sure about the multi-verse but hey, you have to make the equations work, right?). But that has nothing to do with which town gets hit by a tornado or who was lucky enough to avoid hitting the deer on the highway. Just saying.

3/20/14 5:28 AM

...astrophysics has nothing to do with random-chance events on Earth. There doesn't need to be a plan, a reason or a puppet master pulling the strings. $hit happens, plain and simple.

3/20/14 4:41 PM

Yep hurricanes hit costal cities the well know corridor, earthquakes hit in fault filled areas near areas of Teutonic plate movement etc. Those type of things are just facts of nature on our planet and are totally understood. No deities are involved nor have there ever been.