Cosmos and the religious backlash against it.

I have been watching the reboot of Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson and I have really been impressed and awed at the wonders of our universe.
But I and many have noticed a massive backlash against the show from religious folk saying it is all BS....
Why? why can't god have done all this? why do people deny science? It doesn't promote atheism it just promotes science and the wonderful capability that we have to find out the truth about the universe we live in.



If you have not seen it btw do try it is amazing.

So do any of you outright disagree with everything on the show? If so why?.
Oh and Humanty ftw!!

reply to post by boymonkey74


Hi boymonkey!
I just watched a couple of episodes the other night....I thought it was fabulous!
Very well put together, and explained things in a way that were easy to understand.
Why does there have to be a religious backlash? Can't us science nerds get some peace? lol

Sorry, that's all I've got right now....need more coffee to communicate properly.
Hope you're having a good day!

jacygirl

boymonkey74
I have been watching the reboot of Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson and I have really been impressed and awed at the wonders of our universe.
But I and many have noticed a massive backlash against the show from religious folk saying it is all BS....
Why? why can't god have done all this? why do people deny science?

It's even worse than that, they don't just stop at "God did it, the end, stop talking about it". They go further... "MY God did it, the end, stop asking questions, it's in my holy book, I feel it in my heart, the end."
Religions are like #$%holes, we all have one, and they all STINK.

If I had a band it would be called "Taking back Sunday"

reply to post by boymonkey74


I think that for some people they can accept the religiously conditioned idea that God created this world and them in his likeness, but when they have to look at the cosmos and its immenseness it simply blows their minds. Then their logical side comes in and its easier to avoid the hujge change in their perception outside of 'what we know' which is our tiny world and solar systemt.

To think that a Father/God created the universe beggars the question in their minds that with all that to look after, how does he have time to concentrate on us?

Why would he be bothered with a little planet on the outer edge of our galaxy etc etc

Programmes like this move the envelope for the religious world. It depends on how big a perspective they can give to their particular God.

reply to post by boymonkey74


Could you provide some examples of the religious backlash you're talking about? I know there are people out there who are generally opposed to science due to religious fundamentalism and I don't doubt your claims, I am just curious and would like to know what some of these people are saying, as I generally can't seem to understand where they are coming from. As a Christian, I don't believe that science and spirituality are incompatible, and I think that the bible indicates people should embrace wisdom and knowledge. Science is the pursuit of knowledge, and although worldly in nature, allows us to understand the workings of the world we live in and indeed the universe around it. We aren't all anti-science.

Perhaps they are miffed about the idea of the big bang? Personally I agree with one of the statements you made in your OP: "Why couldn't God have done it?"

reply to post by DeadSeraph


The twitter feed has many people saying stuff against the program.

Here is a dude who explains more.



A few naughty words btw in the vid.

I love it. Cosmos is such an epic show, each new episode gives me shivers.

I also love that they got the religious jimmies russled.
In this day and age, its making them look like fools and only hurting their credibility (not that there is much).

Religion is great, believe whatever. But science is a fact. Its not a belief.
Its hypocritical to pick bits and pieces of science to believe and not (like electromagnetism, the hardcore religious have no problem using electricity, an invention of science).

You can not believe all they want, but that doesn't deter the fact that it's there. I guess its the same thought process as a hardcore believer in god, only science has benefit to society.

Its mostly the 6500 year creationists that have an issue with cosmos.
Embrace the chaos i suppose, creationists have nothing to do with science and shouldn't be included in discussions of scientific matters.

(Read an article that they wanted to get time on cosmos for their stories, lol) demanded time more like.

All the christians I have spoken to think it was a great program too. Not sure where this backlash is coming from but to be honest I reckon 95% of christians enjoyed the program. They may not agree with it entirely but its still a eye opening insight to the wonders of the universe.

reply to post by AzureSky


You can pick and choose science, otherwise you believe everything in science is true first time.....not so, most scientists will tell you the greatest discoveries are made by mistakes. Not all science is accurate, we are not that perfect yet.

science tells us GMO's are safe, all vaccinations are safe and nuclear power is safe. I love science but am not open enough to believe everything scientists tell me.

BTW, I thought Cosmos was great too.

greavsie1971
science tells us GMO's are safe, all vaccinations are safe and nuclear power is safe. I love science but am not open enough to believe everything scientists tell me.

BTW, I thought Cosmos was great too.

I'm not saying that there isn't bad science. there is of course bad science. paid for science as well (brought to you by monsanto), those are flaws in the system of scientific discovery or lack of independent review (in the case of GMOs)

I don't believe everything scientists tell me either, some things are wrong of course.
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to figure it out!

Which is where the creationists backlash comes in, they dont want to figure it out. the bible has all the answers.

I think cosmos will spur a new generation of scientists, renew interest in the cosmos. I think it will be a world phenomena and people will start edging towards a future of peace and coexistence with the joint venture of space travel and exploration. If the worlds countries banded together and worked towards that as a planet. we'd be there in our lifetimes.

There was one moment in episode three where NDT looks at the camera and says "question everything", shivers

Family Guy saw this coming....

I was talking to a devout Christian last night, and he confessed to having been deeply struck by the show...and not in a bad way either.

reply to post by blupblup


I always get a kick out of this,
Thats a reference to the original cosmos and some states edited it back then (the 70s or 80s).

"If we examine the bones of a -jesus-"

reply to post by DeadSeraph

As a Christian, I don't believe that science and spirituality are incompatible,

What part of spirituality is compatible with science? Science has absolutely nothing to say about it. Where is there a scientific model of spirituality? The foundation of any science is based from observation. You must start there.

There has always been a heavy push by the religiously minded to twist scientific data to further their agenda. The heat that Cosmos is drawing is just another example of ignorant people refusing to listen (or perhaps unable to understand) what they are being told.

Im sure it is no surprise to the producers of this series.

I enjoy watching it too. I could listen to Neil DeGrasse Tyson talk forever, I would love to sit down with him and pick apart his brain.

It does not bother me at all that some religious folks deny science, it has been proven wrong many times. However I see no reason for them to try and take over this show or protest it. They have many, many shows of their own and do not need to ruin a science based show.

I would be just as irritated if those "bible stories" hosted by Charleton Heston that used to play late at night were taken over by scientists and retold from a science perspective, its the same thing. They risk opening a can of worms and creating a backlash.

greavsie1971
science tells us GMO's are safe, all vaccinations are safe and nuclear power is safe. I love science but am not open enough to believe everything scientists tell me.

BTW, I thought Cosmos was great too.

Well i dont think it is "science's" viewpoint that these things are safe. This is gov, corp, and media.

If anything, it is science that is disagreeing with the "safe" platform. When you feel like you are being mislead, you must use science to find the facts.

reply to post by boymonkey74

But I and many have noticed a massive backlash against the show from religious folk saying it is all BS.... Why? why can't god have done all this? why do people deny science?

Who says that we do?

"Massive backlash"? Hyperbole much? Taking a vocal minority and applying them to a group as a whole is a form of bigotry, and the majority of Christians are not anti-science Young Earth Creationists.

Historically, Catholics are numbered among the most important scientists of all time, including Rene Descartes, who discovered analytic geometry and the laws of refraction; Blaise Pascal, inventor of the adding machine, hydraulic press, and the mathematical theory of probabilities; Augustinian priest Gregor Mendel, who founded modern genetics; Louis Pasteur, founder of microbiology and creator of the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax; and cleric Nicolaus Copernicus, who first developed scientifically the view that the earth rotated around the sun. Jesuit priests in particular have a long history of scientific achievement; they contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes and microscopes, to scientific fields as various as magnetism, optics and electricity. They observed, in some cases before anyone else, the colored bands on Jupiter's surface, the Andromeda nebula and Saturn's rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood (independently of Harvey), the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon affected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light. Star maps of the southern hemisphere, symbolic logic, flood-control measures on the Po and Adige rivers, introducing plus and minus signs into Italian mathematics — all were typical Jesuit achievements, and scientists as influential as Fermat, Huygens, Leibniz and Newton were not alone in counting Jesuits among their most prized correspondents.

The scientist credited with proposing in the 1930s what came to be known as the "Big Bang theory" of the origin of the universe was Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian physicist and Roman Catholic priest. Alexander Fleming, the inventor of penicillin, shared his faith. More recently, Catholics constitute a good number of Nobel Laureates in Physics, Medicine, and Physiology, including Erwin Schrodinger, John Eccles, and Alexis Carrel. How can the achievements of so many Catholics in science be reconciled with the idea that the Catholic Church opposes scientific knowledge and progress? (Source)

reply to post by boymonkey74


There really isn't a way to make science and religion mesh.... At least not the biblical account....unless you squint reall hard.....while drunk....and change some stuff around.



P.s. The show is amazing I cheered when he stated evolution is a fact.

reply to post by boymonkey74


I love the new Cosmos!

However, since I am against socialist totalitarianism and believe in the free market, I have decided that I hate it because he is black.