::headdesk::

[marag]

I'm beginning to consider the possibility that I'm secretly a masochist. I can't come up with any other explanation for why I would end up in a debate on FB with a childhood friend about evolution and creationism

Comments

[ladyelaine]

There's an hour-long talk by Neil deGrasse Tyson up on i09.

It always helps when a looker is brainy, too! I always crack up whenever he starts sputtering over space and education.

[marag]

He's a geek and not ashamed! Love him :)

[maiac]

It's just wrong that someone you were friends with growing up believes something completely nonsensical, y'know? It's hard to just let it pass.

(Me, I'd be shocked if more than three other people in my high-school class didn't believe in creationism, because I can only remember three who had good sense back then and I don't expect the rest of them to have improved any.)

...I'd heard Neil de Grasse Tyson in many a podcast, but hadn't seen a photo until yesterday. Oh my. I need videos now, please.

[wiliqueen]

The fact that it was apparently convenient enough for him to show up on The Daily Show for less than a minute the other night gives me hope that we'll see more of him. I think they're trying to figure out how many places they can fit him in, and wondering if it's possible to steal him full-time. :-D

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-25-2012/space-innovators

(Scrub to about 6:50 for Neil.)

[marag]

Heh. Neil is awesome and smart. And also hot, which is never a bad thing. I know he's got lots of videos linked off his Facebook page. I enjoyed the one where he has a long Q&A with Stephen Colbert (out of character).

And I'm shocked at finding a creationist from where I grew up because I grew up in a formerly hippy but still pretty darn left-wing enclave in a very blue portion of a generally blue state! I knew she'd become an extra super special delux Christian, but I hadn't realized how much :(

[morganminstrel]

If it makes you feel any better, and speaking as a NON-Atheist, she's completely wrong. Both as to science and the attempt at distinguishing scientific nomenclature. ("Law of Gravity" is just an idiom and holdover from pre-19th century science; gravitation is as much a theory as evolution is.) I thought about wading in, but figured it'd only make things worse...

[marag]

Thanks. I just...I kept thinking she was going to say "Ha ha, fooled you! You actually believed I'm a creationist!"

::boggles::

[morganminstrel]

I'm not absolutely convinced that she is; I think she's just swallowed the whole "teach the controversy" bullshit.