Cosmos with Neil DeGrass Tyson

I haven't watched the latest episode yet, but saw this on Facebook:Loading...

quote:

---

Oklahoma Protesters Threaten to Secdee From Union if Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos is not Cancelled

​

Concerned Oklahomas gather to protest the airing of Cosmos, citing the show’s agenda is ‘clearly anti-Christian and biased against creationist values.’ Citizens have threatened to vote to ‘secdee’ [sic] from the United States during the 2014 gubernatorial and ballot issue election if Cosmos is not formally removed from all Oklahoma based television networks.

​

The first protests againstCosmosin the community took place some two weeks ago, after a local paper claimed an airing ofCosmosin a school caused several children to experience ‘demonic possession’. Parents cite one kid became completely enamored with the show during a terrifyingly supernatural event linked with Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s narrative explaining the God of the Gaps theory.

​

Several weeks ago,citizens accused Tysonof using hisCosmosprogram to forward other agendas, not limited to a ‘homogay’ agenda, wizardry/haroldry, astrology and other vehemently anti-Christian teachings.

​

Concerned parents have accused Neil DeGrasse Tyson of ‘Ra’ worship and iconography, going as far as saying the titular narrator may be involved in a Wiccan Sun occult.

​

Delores Simmons, whose child was involved in the prior airing ofCosmosthat precipitated the anti-science scare in Oklahoma, claims petitions are already going about to elect pro-Creation candidates for upcoming elections.

​

If we allow this Tyson to keep publicly airing his beliefs, God just may strike us down with a cosmic meteor this summer. That would be ironic justice if you ask me, so we should just take this show off now before that happens.

​

Other citizens in Oklahoma agree. The latest Rasmussen polls on the subject show that over 64% people in Oklahoma feelCosmosis dangerous and carries a strong anti-theist and Creation message.

---

I wish them sucdess in altering reality ...Where do they get this drivel?Edited by RAZD, : Also see Loading...

Scenes like this tell me that the US really stuffs itself as time progresses in the twenty first century. It shows that maybe it is more realistic for my country to be aligned with China? The super power of the future. It seems as if the US might be left behind as a quaint relic of the past.Edited by Pressie, : No reason given.Edited by Pressie, : No reason given.

There is likely quite a bit of truth in the above statement. I'll bet the kid does like the show. Now how many people would find that to be a tragedy? Really? Astrology? Witchcraft? What show are these fools watching? What's gay about the show?Nothing else can get secession talk started the way a black man does without even trying. Is someone watching Fort Sumter?ABE:I think we've missed a joke. This is likely satire.Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

Well done. You should see some of the other stuff they have ...

With declining numbers in their congregations, I think many christians are starting to realize a simple fact. Requiring people to abandon basic observations and reason in order to be a christian is a losing battle. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube . . . You can't unring a bell . . . pick your saw. The science is out, and it is way too late to save creationism.

Harold, are you messin' with those witches again? You get your young ass home right now!--Maude

I caught a bit of Your Inner Fish last night. They were talking about the size of the mammalian brain. I thought that it was peculiar that they would say that the fact that mammals were processing so much information caused their brains to grow.Is that right? If I do lots of calculus will my children have bigger brains?

I haven't seen the second installment yet...But even very good scientists slip into teleological shorthand explanations; for example, making it sound as though a need for a bigger brain caused it to evolve, rather than more carefully explaining that an environment which conferred survival advantages on a larger, more efficient information-processing brain created selection pressures which favored mammals with that trait. Bigger than what?

Of course the Lamarkian explanation is going to be wrong. More likely that if you are included to be doing calculus, you've got the big brain gene. But if you try to force it, you just get a head ache and some kids who struggle with Algebra.There has to be some kind of selection criteria for big heads. RAZD will tell you that it is predominately sexual selection, but no woman in her right mind would want to deliver big headed babies. .I think it is a mixture of sexual selection and the fact that math skills are valuable life skills. Edited by NoNukes, : No reason given.

I suppose in passing conversation but I wouldn't expect it to make it past the editors. It seems a pretty fundamental difference in the description of a process.I wonder as well what would cause the mutation for a slightly larger brain to keep showing up again and again. In fact wouldn't an increase in brain size require simultaneous mutations in many genes and given that the increases would be small it would mean that the same combination of mutations happened many times. It seems likely that there would be some driver that was causing the sustained incremental increases. Just bigger than my lizard brain.

I can see the sexual selection for intelligence as opposed to head size.Have our brains gotten any larger in the last 200k yrs and is brain size proportional to intelligence?

They were surprised by the size of the brain relative to the size of the animal and compared to other reptiles of that time. Cute animations btw. Yes, for humans, not necessary for other organisms.In humans it was likely sexual selection for creativity that led to larger brains (compared to other apes) in a Fisherian feedback process until childbearing became problematic. Evidence of such feedback systems is that they progress to an extreme degree that further development endangers life. Like a peacock's tail. So the selection is obviously not for head size but for some other factor, and head size has come along for the ride as a result.In the case of those early mammals, it would be due to more complex behavior that enabled better survival in a dangerous environment. This would also be self-reinforcing where brain size would increase as a result (go along for the ride).Curiously I am finding this series much more interesting than Cosmos, perhaps because my interest is more in evolution and biology than in physics and astronomy.Edited by RAZD, : clrty

Obviously. My comment was not meant to be taken seriously.

Other people.

I think our brains have already evolved to perform calculus. Maybe if they did higher levels of computing or processing they might? I don't know.- Oni