darin
10-02-2014, 06:34 AM
I like the guy - Tyson. Few things he says I think are goofy - inimating somehow all creation just 'happened'...and life somehow 'magically evolved' - but he's brought Cool back to science...
Still - maybe he's let it go to his head?
Tyson says that right after Sept. 11, Bush asserted the superiority of “we” to “they” (i.e., Muslim fundamentalists) by saying, “Our God is the God who named the stars.”
Tyson can’t even begin to catalog all that’s wrong with this quote. He says that the God of Islam, Judaism and Christianity is the same God (a theologically contested claim, but put it aside).
He also says the passage is in Genesis, instead of Isaiah (but also put that aside).
Then, Tyson drops the hammer: Two-thirds of the named stars have Arabic names!
Get it? Bush wanted to denigrate Muslims for their God not excelling at naming stars, when it was really the opposite. It is the English-speaking Christian God who failed to keep up.
How stupid can one Bible-thumping, war-mongering, Muslim-hating president get? Tyson magnanimously allows that Bush didn’t know him yet, so he couldn’t call the astronomer to get word on just how idiotic this celestial put-down of Islam was.
This is an entertaining story, especially if you’re really tickled by how much smarter Tyson is than lesser mortals who don’t host TV shows popularizing science.
Evidently, no one yucking it up over this story knew enough to wonder how it possibly could be true. It’s only remotely believable if you are completely ignorant of Bush’s posture in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11.
He famously went out of his way to vouch for Islam and to call for tolerance. Here is part of his statement at an Islamic Center in Washington, a few days after the attacks:
The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Koran, itself: “In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil. For that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule.”
The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.
Note the absence of any taunts about the Muslim God not logging enough names of stars.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/the-cult-of-neil-degrasse-tyson-111540.html#ixzz3EzE3UAeB
Still - maybe he's let it go to his head?
Tyson says that right after Sept. 11, Bush asserted the superiority of “we” to “they” (i.e., Muslim fundamentalists) by saying, “Our God is the God who named the stars.”
Tyson can’t even begin to catalog all that’s wrong with this quote. He says that the God of Islam, Judaism and Christianity is the same God (a theologically contested claim, but put it aside).
He also says the passage is in Genesis, instead of Isaiah (but also put that aside).
Then, Tyson drops the hammer: Two-thirds of the named stars have Arabic names!
Get it? Bush wanted to denigrate Muslims for their God not excelling at naming stars, when it was really the opposite. It is the English-speaking Christian God who failed to keep up.
How stupid can one Bible-thumping, war-mongering, Muslim-hating president get? Tyson magnanimously allows that Bush didn’t know him yet, so he couldn’t call the astronomer to get word on just how idiotic this celestial put-down of Islam was.
This is an entertaining story, especially if you’re really tickled by how much smarter Tyson is than lesser mortals who don’t host TV shows popularizing science.
Evidently, no one yucking it up over this story knew enough to wonder how it possibly could be true. It’s only remotely believable if you are completely ignorant of Bush’s posture in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11.
He famously went out of his way to vouch for Islam and to call for tolerance. Here is part of his statement at an Islamic Center in Washington, a few days after the attacks:
The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Koran, itself: “In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil. For that they rejected the signs of Allah and held them up to ridicule.”
The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.
Note the absence of any taunts about the Muslim God not logging enough names of stars.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/the-cult-of-neil-degrasse-tyson-111540.html#ixzz3EzE3UAeB