• In total there are 9 users online :: 0 registered, 0 hidden and 9 guests (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)
    Most users ever online was 616 on Thu Jan 18, 2024 7:47 pm

A voice for reason

Engage in discussions encompassing themes like cosmology, human evolution, genetic engineering, earth science, climate change, artificial intelligence, psychology, and beyond in this forum.
Forum rules
Do not promote books in this forum. Instead, promote your books in either Authors: Tell us about your FICTION book! or Authors: Tell us about your NON-FICTION book!.

All other Community Rules apply in this and all other forums.
User avatar
johnson1010
Tenured Professor
Posts: 3564
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:35 pm
14
Location: Michigan
Has thanked: 1280 times
Been thanked: 1128 times

Re: A voice for reason

Unread post

http://www.wimp.com/worldreacting/

Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking about the impact of Nasa.
In the absence of God, I found Man.
-Guillermo Del Torro

Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?

Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?

Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
User avatar
johnson1010
Tenured Professor
Posts: 3564
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:35 pm
14
Location: Michigan
Has thanked: 1280 times
Been thanked: 1128 times

Re: A voice for reason

Unread post

The Future is what we make of it.

http://www.wimp.com/futureours/
In the absence of God, I found Man.
-Guillermo Del Torro

Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?

Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?

Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
User avatar
Cattleman
Way Beyond Awesome
Posts: 1141
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:19 pm
11
Location: Texas
Has thanked: 474 times
Been thanked: 507 times

Re: A voice for reason

Unread post

Concerning Sagan and Tyson:

I admired Sagan for his intellect, but often found him a bit arrogant when some one disagreed with him. Tyson on the other hand, seems more down to earth and not so prickly. Just my personal thought - please don't turn this into a flame war.
Love what you do, and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. -Ray Bradbury

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. -Robert A. Heinlein
User avatar
johnson1010
Tenured Professor
Posts: 3564
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:35 pm
14
Location: Michigan
Has thanked: 1280 times
Been thanked: 1128 times

Re: A voice for reason

Unread post

cattleman you son of a bee's hind!

haha!

No, i know what you are saying. it can be frustrating trying to communicate when people are giving you the hear-no-evil treatment.

Tyson does a great job of reaching out and trying to include people. A talent i have in short supply.

That's something i pointed out in my original couple of posts in this thread, is the need to be sensitive, in a way, to where people are starting in this discussion.



Tyson speaks on the point.
In the absence of God, I found Man.
-Guillermo Del Torro

Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?

Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?

Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
User avatar
Cattleman
Way Beyond Awesome
Posts: 1141
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:19 pm
11
Location: Texas
Has thanked: 474 times
Been thanked: 507 times

Re: A voice for reason

Unread post

Looks like an apolog is in order here. I have read several of Sagan's books; watched Cosmos when it ran on PBS, and wept when he died. If he took umbrage with his critics, that only made him human, like the rest of us. So if I have offended anyone by my prior post, I sincerely apologize.
Love what you do, and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. -Ray Bradbury

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. -Robert A. Heinlein
User avatar
Cattleman
Way Beyond Awesome
Posts: 1141
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:19 pm
11
Location: Texas
Has thanked: 474 times
Been thanked: 507 times

Re: A voice for reason

Unread post

I was surfing (the net) earlier this morning, and ran across a round table discussion between Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, and Arthur C. Clarke. Not sure exactly when it was taped, but it was around 1988-89; some clues; Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" had just been published and the Hubble space telescope had not yet been launched. Hawking was already confined to a wheelchair, and had lost the ability to speak, using a voice synthesizer.

Who would have believed, 20+ years later, that of the three, Hawking would be the survivor?
Love what you do, and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. -Ray Bradbury

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. -Robert A. Heinlein
User avatar
johnson1010
Tenured Professor
Posts: 3564
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:35 pm
14
Location: Michigan
Has thanked: 1280 times
Been thanked: 1128 times

Re: A voice for reason

Unread post

yep. Hawking's chair is running on duracels.

It's ok if you don't particularly like Sagan. Everybody has their own tastes in personalities.

I like Sagan quite a lot, but i'm not going to get all rooster if you don't.
In the absence of God, I found Man.
-Guillermo Del Torro

Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?

Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?

Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
User avatar
johnson1010
Tenured Professor
Posts: 3564
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:35 pm
14
Location: Michigan
Has thanked: 1280 times
Been thanked: 1128 times

Re: A voice for reason

Unread post

Bank bailouts vs science funding.

http://www.dump.com/bankbailouts/
In the absence of God, I found Man.
-Guillermo Del Torro

Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?

Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?

Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
User avatar
Cattleman
Way Beyond Awesome
Posts: 1141
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:19 pm
11
Location: Texas
Has thanked: 474 times
Been thanked: 507 times

Re: A voice for reason

Unread post

This may have already been noted here, but I will take a chance and post it anyway. It is one of my faorite quotes:

"The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." -Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain (1979).
Love what you do, and do what you love. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you not to do it. -Ray Bradbury

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. -Robert A. Heinlein
User avatar
johnson1010
Tenured Professor
Posts: 3564
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:35 pm
14
Location: Michigan
Has thanked: 1280 times
Been thanked: 1128 times

Re: A voice for reason

Unread post



Feynman on curiosity.

Part 3 of the Feynman series.
In the absence of God, I found Man.
-Guillermo Del Torro

Are you pushing your own short comings on us and safely hating them from a distance?

Is this the virtue of faith? To never change your mind: especially when you should?

Young Earth Creationists take offense at the idea that we have a common heritage with other animals. Why is being the descendant of a mud golem any better?
Post Reply

Return to “Science & Technology”