tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post6815109423902715775..comments2024-03-28T00:23:01.632-04:00Comments on Lem's Levity: "How Carl Sagan Ruined Science"Trooper Yorkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978703998566102194noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-3897760461600435282017-04-24T13:39:02.724-04:002017-04-24T13:39:02.724-04:00Was that book ever made into a movie? If not, is ...Was that book ever made into a movie? If not, is it, pretty much, the only one of his books that wasn't?Amartelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11636450794507517534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-72490966194323439632017-04-24T13:38:11.542-04:002017-04-24T13:38:11.542-04:00Michael Crichton did a lot to squash AGW alarmism....Michael Crichton did a lot to squash AGW alarmism.<br />The bit about the cannibals eating the sanctimonious Hollywood AGW holy roller was PURE GOLD.Amartelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11636450794507517534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-55671366130770370062017-04-24T13:35:43.458-04:002017-04-24T13:35:43.458-04:00On the one hand, the internet makes it easier to r...On the one hand, the internet makes it easier to refute the TV talking heads, in real time. On the other hand, their celebrity (based on their personas rather than their ideas) has largely immunized them from criticism.Amartelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11636450794507517534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-56632221256263374912017-04-23T20:36:37.559-04:002017-04-23T20:36:37.559-04:00Well, I'll put it to you like this. I love wat...Well, I'll put it to you like this. I love watching popsci shows about astrophysics, physics, cosmology, etc. However, the usual players that get trotted out like Michio Kaku, Brian Cox, Tyson, et al. have become celebrities in the science sphere. These people don't really contribute to science much anymore. They don't do actual science anymore and are busy making money on the lecture circuit and TV appearances. This is what mass media has done to science in general. It's reduced it down to showcasing smart people vs. the dumb people and these are the priests of the dogma. Nevermind the fact that actual real science is being done every single day without an of these people getting credit or recognition in the face of the usual popsci celebrities glory-hogging it all. Methadrashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07828014989470539375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-89445623503478973522017-04-23T20:32:43.049-04:002017-04-23T20:32:43.049-04:00ndspinelli said...
I saw Michael Crichton give a s...<i>ndspinelli said...<br />I saw Michael Crichton give a superb speech about how environmentalism is secular progressive's religion. Went point by point comparing and contrasting.</i><br /><br />And now he's dead. COINCIDENCE?!!?!?!?!!Methadrashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07828014989470539375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-19162809816035385612017-04-23T20:21:10.516-04:002017-04-23T20:21:10.516-04:00State of Fear is a better story about modern Progr...State of Fear is a better story about modern Progressive/Socialist than Cosmos.Lelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09531159384688653131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-9001119230112455152017-04-23T20:03:38.882-04:002017-04-23T20:03:38.882-04:00I saw Michael Crichton give a superb speech about ...I saw Michael Crichton give a superb speech about how environmentalism is secular progressive's religion. Went point by point comparing and contrasting. ndspinellihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01446291993043775612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-70502008448883265042017-04-23T19:10:47.086-04:002017-04-23T19:10:47.086-04:00Quite a bit of blowback with the comments at the l...Quite a bit of blowback with the comments at the link, but they seem to be confirming the article's arguments.ampersandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17145013352755061465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-37260152507075922142017-04-23T14:17:57.039-04:002017-04-23T14:17:57.039-04:00I loved that show and bought the book (rather crap...I loved that show and bought the book (rather crap compared to the show). Watched the show multiple times. Know it by heart. <br /><br />How I loved it so.<br /><br />Back then. <br /><br />But I always wondered throughout why Carl Sagan wasn't merely atheist through the show, not just not religious, but actually anti-religion. Sagan attacks religion throughout the series. He makes an analogy at the beginning about believers conceiving the universe as giant clockwork. The universe viewed as a mechanical clock implies a clockmaker. But what would happen if you took away the clock maker and settled on having just the clock? And besides, the universe is not a clock.<br /><br />Religious thought and religious characters are the villains through the series. We get it, we get it, we get it, Carl Sagan does not like religion. To Sagan religion is anti-science and it's simple as that. <br /><br />While in the series Carl Sagan adapts the forms and the propaganda methods of organized religion and he does that very obviously.<br /><br />His Ship of the Imagination (what a fantastic contrivance), a dandelion puff ball that he blows off its stalk, rather TARDIS-like by being larger inside than outside, is a time and space ship with cathedral dimensions and unreasonably large porthole windows in copy of stained glass windows and the ship, although entirely white inside, looks like a church with a pulpit for pilot controls and its own altar and altar art, its oversized view-screen.<br /><br />The theory of evolution is reeled off beautifully with animation and serves as the church's catechism, read to rising crescendo accompanied by spiritually inspiring new age electronic music. <br /><br />See, Carl Sagan is against the church while copying the ways of the church while initiating his own little church of the religion of science.<br /><br />Picked up decades later by a weaker, phonier and less capable shadow of Carl Sagan, acolyte Neil deGrasse Tyson. Overpaid. Overly regarded. And exceedingly unnecessarily antagonistic. So he gets punched back. A lot. Because he's dumb.<br /><br />(Reinforcing my point about Sagan turning science into religion by adopting the surfaces of religion, looking for spelling of deGrasse I landed on USA Today: New series is the spiritual and intellectual successor to Carl Sagan's PBS original.<br /><br />It's spiritual and intellectual. It's the religion of science.<br /><br />If you cannot beat them, join them.<br /><br />"Make me one with everything." <br /><br />And he does! <br /><br />That's the whole point of the first Cosmos. "You are made of star stuff. You are the children of the universe." Chip Ahoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12597726289890879627noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-3013621945804656542017-04-23T13:10:01.977-04:002017-04-23T13:10:01.977-04:00LOL! Evi, you consistently have some of the funnie...LOL! Evi, you consistently have some of the funniest links. You have a great sense of humor. ndspinellihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01446291993043775612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-34572922123323939532017-04-23T10:40:34.637-04:002017-04-23T10:40:34.637-04:00Rumors was he was very, very gay...<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAWeJJ-aW1s" rel="nofollow">Rumors was he was very, very gay...</a><br /><br />Evi L. Bloggerladyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00371362907839227149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-79509924336937735942017-04-23T10:24:25.230-04:002017-04-23T10:24:25.230-04:00Wasn't Sagan a gay?Wasn't Sagan a gay? ndspinellihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01446291993043775612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-68718524819487818872017-04-23T10:06:04.228-04:002017-04-23T10:06:04.228-04:00Sagan was a big nucular winter, global warming typ...Sagan was a big nucular winter, global warming type and a professional atheist, to boot.edutcherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15033144261502435196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-48405328862168586122017-04-23T09:58:24.489-04:002017-04-23T09:58:24.489-04:00Sagan was a bit of a fraud. His "best known w...Sagan was a bit of a fraud. His "best known work" was supposedly in abiogenesis (according to two dubious references in his Wiki bio). This work appears wholly derivative of the classic work by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller%E2%80%93Urey_experiment" rel="nofollow">Miller and Urey</a> a decade earlier. The latter synthesized amino acids from the chemical elements and sparks. Note that Urey -- who personally knew Sagan -- came out against Sagan when he came up for tenure review at Harvard. That was a rare move on Urey's part.<br /><br />I never looked up to Sagan. Men like Linus Pauling and, before him, the long-forgotten <a href="http://acrazychicken.blogspot.com/2012/06/rumford-soddy-and-crash.html" rel="nofollow">Fredrick Soddy</a> were true pioneer scientists turned social warrior.<br /><br />I think a major problem today in science education is that kids are taught the overarching social goals before being encouraged to foster curiosity and doubt.chickelithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10773887469972534979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-717986195212622043.post-71299824953905630562017-04-23T09:37:26.030-04:002017-04-23T09:37:26.030-04:00Sagan always struck me as a child molester. Sagan always struck me as a child molester. ndspinellihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01446291993043775612noreply@blogger.com