Today America marks the eleventh anniversary of the death of scientist and science advocate, Carl Sagan.
Sagan did much to improve the public’s understanding of and appreciation for science.
His landmark television series, Cosmos, was for many a landmark event and his many books excited both minds and imaginations.
Of all of his books, The Demon Haunted World represented a defining moment for many. This book was a brilliantly and forcefully argued case for reason and the scientific method over superstition and irrationality.
Unfortunately, since his death, the ascendancy of conservative religious politics and a decade of running down public education in the US has left science and rationality in a parlous state. Fortunately for Sagan, he never got to see the current American government willingly drive public policy into the dark ages.
Tags: usa
December 21, 2007 at 2:37 pm
He’s like sherlock. Sherlock never said “Elementary, my dear Watson”, and Sagan never actually said “billions and billions”.
December 21, 2007 at 3:10 pm
What is it about differing opinions that the left dislike?
Is it your intention to control what we say, think and do?
December 21, 2007 at 3:20 pm
your delusions of persecution suggest you ought to seek professional help BB. nobody is really that interested.
December 21, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Oh crikey, CREATIONIST ALERT
Differing opinions I welcome, ignorant ones I do not.
December 21, 2007 at 3:56 pm
I’m with fighter… people who deny evolution have a right to their view and are entitled to a polite, albeit incredulous, audience. BB, if you want to run that argument here, we offer you no protection from the inevitable scorn.
Incidentally, the whole Huckabee/Chuck Norris phenomenon got a thorough going over by the BBC’s Now/Friday show (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/fricomedy/) which included the line…
“there’s no such thing as evolution, just animals that Chuck Norris has left to live”.
December 21, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Mardy
As I have said before I have no interest in middle eastern superstition however that does not mean I think it makes anybody who does believe in that rubbish my enemy (unless they like crashing planes into buildings)
We all have a choice, some choose to believe in religion and others do not, what I dislike is the attitude of fools like Figherpilot who by his statement seems to act in the same evangelical manner as the people he seems to despise.
December 21, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Equating religiosity with the denial of evolution is ridiculous - that is reductum ad absurdum.
I don’t think Fighter’s comments were intolerant of anyone’s religious beliefs, they were appropriately skeptical of the advocates of willful ignorance.
December 21, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Mardy
At the risk of repeating myself I did not deny evolution, I happen to agree with you.
However that does not mean that I feel it is right to persecute anybody who is religious, I am aware that persecuting religious people is the new fad among those from the left but it is something that I find distasteful and simply highlights the increasing level of intolerance in this corrupt govt.
December 21, 2007 at 4:56 pm
and simply highlights the increasing level of intolerance in this corrupt govt.
Which simply highlights the increasing level of being out of touch with reality that bb has
December 21, 2007 at 4:58 pm
BigBruv, I think your last comment illustrates what I find disagreeable with your comments - you make an assumption about “the left” as if it were a singluar entity “I am aware that persecuting religious people is the new fad among those from the left” and then relate it to the current government as if it had anything in the slightest to do with it “it is something that I find distasteful and simply highlights the increasing level of intolerance in this corrupt govt“.
You’ll notice there’s actually no link whatsoever between the government and the preceeding comment. Sloppy work.
My comment was a joke btw, regarding creationism, but the other part stands - I welcome all well thought through positions. Ones such as
“What is it about differing opinions that the left dislike?
Is it your intention to control what we say, think and do?”
fall outside that category.
Oh while I’m at it, you say “However that does not mean that I feel it is right to persecute anybody who is religious” but feel free to categorise, stereopype and villify “the left” without any form of justification, on a daily basis.
I guess I like hypoccrites as much as I like willful ignorance.
December 21, 2007 at 5:11 pm
“you make an assumption about “the left” as if it were a singluar entity …” etc
well put fp.
and then there’s the part where any characterization of the right is meant to include myriad shades of sublety and invisible caveats. a boring style but effective for a stupid audience.
December 21, 2007 at 5:52 pm
I’d comment but I’ve nothing to add to what FP and the sprout have said - very nicely and succinctly put.
December 21, 2007 at 6:20 pm
I enjoy the panache and sheer style of some US bloggers. Some of them are real pros.
Regarding Mike Huckabee and the fundie Christians whose votes the Repugs have been happy to court these last few decades:
“I write that not in defense of Christian fundamentalists in politics. God knows — I guess? — that I have the same, deep-seated antipathy toward people who don’t know Galileo from Darwin but nevertheless want to impose their primitive demonologies on others who’ve read more than one book.
No, I write that because I strongly suspect that conservative writers such as Rich and Lowry indeed share my bias — and fears — although they’ve been more than willing to exploit this crowd for what’s going on several decades now. They want those fundamentalist voters, but also want to keep them in the closet, as an embarrassment, and they especially shrink from any of their embarrassing ballyhooers on the stump. ”
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2007/12/those-brei-eati.html
And BB, just in case you missed one of my earlier posts, not all lefties are athiests planning to tear down the Churches and burn all the Books. In fact I attend church most Sundays. On the other hand as you might guess, I have little patience for fundamentalists of any type.
“Maybe then both sides could get off this religious kick and stop counting the number of angelic Huckakees on pinheads and get back to honestly debating the real ideological differences between real conservatives and liberals.”
Priceless.
December 21, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Red, thanks for this post. I get more than a little sick of the characterisation of all on the left as atheists… I respect people who have different views to mine, religious and/or political and, somewhat like you, am comfortable in the liberal Christian tradition.
December 21, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Us Greens are spiritual
December 21, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Your outing yourself OOB… nice to have a Green, spiritual or otherwise, here… we’re a broad church (with apologies to mikeportaon who warned me against obvious puns).
December 21, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Mardy is catholtic in his acceptance of others.
December 21, 2007 at 10:11 pm
zing!
December 21, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I thank Wat for introducing me to the dark underbelly of the word’s usage and my keyboard for helping me screw up possibly the only time I’ll ever use it in that sense.
December 21, 2007 at 11:35 pm
So it was a typo.
I thought it was a really clever play on words that I couldn’t understand
December 22, 2007 at 12:41 am
I don’t like christians.
December 22, 2007 at 12:57 am
Lions do though
December 22, 2007 at 12:58 am
Faith makes meat tender
December 22, 2007 at 1:10 am
Ah… tender christians…
December 22, 2007 at 1:21 am
I eat lions.
December 22, 2007 at 2:39 am
I drink lions
(it tastes like crap)
December 22, 2007 at 9:09 am
…a decade of running down public education in the US…
Which could not be more wrong.
December 22, 2007 at 11:01 am
Ummm…Matt where’s the reference to funding? The quote was “running down public education”. It’s absolutely a fact that despite funding increases, American schools are increasingly failing. There are all kinds of reasons but a lot to do with the insertion of ideology into pedagogy. Read up about the woeful state of American text books. Read up about school boards diminishing science education because of misguided religious reasons. Read up about the disparity of resources between inner city schools and suburban schools. I think you’ll find that is what was meant about running down schools.
December 22, 2007 at 11:41 am
“I thank Wat for introducing me to the dark underbelly of the word’s usage and my keyboard for helping me screw up possibly the only time I’ll ever use it in that sense.”
yeah i never knew that either til Wat said. isn’t it a bugger when that happens though nih? you save these words only to be betrayed by an errant keystroke. genuis and misspelling are fiendishly close to each other.
thankfully National will provide plenty of opportunities to use “floccinaucinihilipilification”
March 10, 2008 at 1:27 am
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