Stephen Colbert wades into the Ground Zero cross debate, and Phil’s got a bone to pick with the new version of the old Carl Sagan mini-series, “Cosmos.” Can’t we cheer for science without jeering at religion?? Really??? Is it THAT hard?!?
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I went back and watched the referenced episdode of The Colbert Report and it was a very meaty interview. I was particularly struck by how agitated and aggressive NGT became when talking about the right to argue with science.
“Once a scientific truth emerges… it’s true whether you believe in it or not”
“You have the right to say things like ‘The world is flat’ because we… we have freedom of speech… but that freedom doesn’t guarantee that what you say is correct.”
His words echo what I’ve heard some Christians argue about absolute truth. (Well, rational Christians anyway.) Scientism sounds more and more like a religion every day.
Of course, the best line of the entire interview was the capstone.
“The idea of a multiverse sounds fascinating, but then again, so does the idea of ‘The Force’.”
Maybe a pile of rubble in the Trade Tower museum will help appease the angry atheists. That can be their religious symbol. Maybe Star Trek mugs help promote future science in a religious podcast. Stephen Colbert does like to poke at those who are anti (other than)-Catholic. I hope he had a good St. Patrick’s Day. Thanks for sharing a history lesson Phil on Bruno. It will be sad what future generations will see about angry Westboro people did too. Glad to see you research to try and find the facts to counter the Cosmos propoganda. If only we all would do that a little bit more.
Your point about Bruno is a good one and I do think that the Cosmos series over steps it’s bounds in certain areas. After all, when science starts making claims about the existence of God, it ceases to be science and drifts into cosmology/philosophy. You can’t prove or disprove God, so it exists outside the bounds of scientific inquiry. On Galileo, I would say we should be hesitant to over simplify the case. The Church did censor him and tell him explicitly not teach heliocentrism, saying “The first proposition was declared unanimously to be foolish and absurd in philosophy and formally heretical inasmuch as it expressly contradicts the doctrine of Holy Scripture in many passages, both in their literal meaning and according to the general interpretation of the Fathers and Doctors.” I LOVE your point that we can be for religion and science, but think we can also acknowledge that in a case like this the church as a human institution made a mistake.
Also to your point, citing Newton, Lemaitre (the big bang theory), you could also add Gregor Mendel the Father of Modern Genetics. Science and Religion Can Be Friends!
Just as a proud Okie (Oklahoman) just wanted to add that Westboro Baptist is in Kansas. 🙂
Love the show! I enjoy ever podcast.