Opinion of Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Question: Opinion of Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Author Topic: Opinion of Neil DeGrasse Tyson  (Read 6398 times)
JRP1994
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« on: July 31, 2014, 08:26:07 PM »

Vote!
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Vega
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« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2014, 08:30:26 PM »

Freedom Person.
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Mr. Morden
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« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2014, 08:38:40 PM »

Freedom Fighter overall, though I don't like his disparaging of philosophy.  But that's a minor complaint.
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Paul Kemp
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« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2014, 08:48:24 PM »

Seems like a pretty cool dude and very smart but his neckbeard followers make it difficult to like him.
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Harry
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« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2014, 08:49:25 PM »

Awesome FF (normal). Loved Cosmos and hope they do another season.
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20RP12
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« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2014, 10:29:54 PM »

The consummate FF
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Nathan
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« Reply #6 on: July 31, 2014, 10:45:24 PM »

Neutral overall. I don't like his disparaging of philosophy and unlike for Mr. Morden for me it's a huge and glaring complaint. He seems to be a good scientist and a likeable guy.
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H. Ross Peron
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« Reply #7 on: July 31, 2014, 10:53:27 PM »

Massive FF as a scientist
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DemPGH
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« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2014, 06:37:31 AM »
« Edited: August 01, 2014, 09:38:13 PM by DemPGH, President »

Massive FF across the board. He's engaging, funny, and obviously smart without putting people down who he disagrees with. The only complaint I could have would be the lengthy tangents he goes off on, but he's so geared toward performing that sometimes the tangents are as good as the main point! His TED themed talks are brilliant and his "I remain unabducted" criticism of UFO and aliens b.s. was gold. "The God of the Gaps" talk was wonderful.
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muon2
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« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2014, 02:03:28 PM »

The Pluto Files was airplane reading for me earlier this year. I enjoyed it, and particularly appreciated the way he put science ahead of sentimentality, and did so with humor.
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dead0man
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« Reply #10 on: August 03, 2014, 04:30:13 PM »

Walks well in Sagan's shoes, obvious FF.
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Harry
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« Reply #11 on: August 03, 2014, 05:39:53 PM »

Can someone expound on his "disparaging of philosophy" ?
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Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee
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« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2014, 01:43:02 AM »

I first saw him on the show The Universe I think, about six years ago. I generally find him engaging and creative with his delivery.
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RI
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« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2014, 01:30:00 PM »

Outwardly, he seems likeable enough, but I just get this feeling that there's something really hollow, really rotten with Tyson and his contemporaries. Tyson, more salesman than scientist, pitches a painless, consumable simplification of 'science' as pretty pictures and flowery quotes against the backdrop of the 'science'-and-'progress'-as-instruments-of-secular-salvation metanarrative. Tyson bashes religion and philosophy as distractions at best and militant enemies of 'progress' at worst, creating and feeding divisions that need not, and really can not, exist.

Tyson detracts from the actual practice of science by taking the frustrating, often dead-ending, enormously challenging, and humbling field and reducing it to a series of fashionable, empty, dumbed down, and easily consumed facts, pictures, and platitudes. Almost anyone actually attracted to science by his efforts would likely get quickly frustrated by how mind-numbingly difficult and boring it is. Furthermore, Tyson's efforts create more people with a "let's get high and look at pictures of space" attitude (e.g. the "I fucking love science" Facebook page) and/or a "I heard quantum mechanics sort of explained once, so now I know everything" attitude than a "let's actually work for years in hope of some slight advance in our field that may or may not be a wrong turn in a maze that may or may not have an exit" attitude.

Tyson himself is exactly like his narrative. Tyson has taken the easy way out in his career, doing little actual science1 in favor of popularized 'scientific' evangelization. Why slave away doing the hard work of science when you can get rich and famous doing easy work in the name of science's shallow artifice?

1It's been 21 years since Tyson was last lead author on a published scholarly paper. It's been 16 years since his last "real" scientific paper publication.

Can someone expound on his "disparaging of philosophy" ?

http://theweek.com/article/index/261042/why-neil-degrasse-tyson-is-a-philistine
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dead0man
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« Reply #14 on: August 04, 2014, 01:51:00 PM »

Who do you think Tyson is talking to?  You seem to think he should be introducing science to people that are already scientists and that's just silly.  His "job" is introducing science to lay people, why would he give them the "frustrating, often dead-ending, enormously challenging, and humbling field" aspect of science?  That's going to turn lay people away.  His "job" is to fight ignorance and explain science in ways that children and ignorant adults can understand and enjoy.  He does just fine at that.
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DemPGH
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« Reply #15 on: August 04, 2014, 03:38:51 PM »

A lot of people have taken up an academic interest in science because of Sagan, Tyson, etc. What in the world is wrong with breaking down science into terms that everyone can understand? The more scientifically literate our society is, the better. Carl Sagan often if not always took questions from children first, and that's the point. Someone has to do that. A lot of scientists don't have the patience or desire to do what Sagan, Tyson, etc. do because their lab is where they'd rather be.

Oh, and Plato and Aristotle are wonderful, but scientists investigate nature. At one point, "natural philosophy" was science. Indeed, the discipline has progressed beyond that with telescopes and microscopes and DNA.

The Arts are fighting for their lives, I know that, and I'm sympathetic. But at what point do Plato and Aristotle become a hobby instead of a track of study?
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afleitch
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« Reply #16 on: August 04, 2014, 03:48:30 PM »

If you like NDGT, try Professor Brian Cox Cheesy
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Nathan
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« Reply #17 on: August 04, 2014, 05:08:48 PM »

Neutral overall. I don't like his disparaging of philosophy and unlike for Mr. Morden for me it's a huge and glaring complaint. He seems to be a good scientist and a likeable guy.

What is your opinion of Sagan?

Positive. I think Sagan had a somewhat lighter touch than Tyson in a lot of ways. Although on further consideration I guess my opinion of Tyson errs on the side of positive too, so I'm voting FF.

The real scientific hero of my childhood was Gould, but that may have been just because I was more into dinosaurs than I was into space. My adulation of him probably had more influence on my views on the interrelation (or lack thereof) between religious and scientific claims than the other way around.
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Goldwater
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« Reply #18 on: August 04, 2014, 06:56:47 PM »

FF.
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Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck
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« Reply #19 on: August 04, 2014, 10:49:24 PM »

Outwardly, he seems likeable enough, but I just get this feeling that there's something really hollow, really rotten with Tyson and his contemporaries. Tyson, more salesman than scientist, pitches a painless, consumable simplification of 'science' as pretty pictures and flowery quotes against the backdrop of the 'science'-and-'progress'-as-instruments-of-secular-salvation metanarrative. Tyson bashes religion and philosophy as distractions at best and militant enemies of 'progress' at worst, creating and feeding divisions that need not, and really can not, exist.

Tyson detracts from the actual practice of science by taking the frustrating, often dead-ending, enormously challenging, and humbling field and reducing it to a series of fashionable, empty, dumbed down, and easily consumed facts, pictures, and platitudes. Almost anyone actually attracted to science by his efforts would likely get quickly frustrated by how mind-numbingly difficult and boring it is. Furthermore, Tyson's efforts create more people with a "let's get high and look at pictures of space" attitude (e.g. the "I fucking love science" Facebook page) and/or a "I heard quantum mechanics sort of explained once, so now I know everything" attitude than a "let's actually work for years in hope of some slight advance in our field that may or may not be a wrong turn in a maze that may or may not have an exit" attitude.

Tyson himself is exactly like his narrative. Tyson has taken the easy way out in his career, doing little actual science1 in favor of popularized 'scientific' evangelization. Why slave away doing the hard work of science when you can get rich and famous doing easy work in the name of science's shallow artifice?

1It's been 21 years since Tyson was last lead author on a published scholarly paper. It's been 16 years since his last "real" scientific paper publication.

Can someone expound on his "disparaging of philosophy" ?

http://theweek.com/article/index/261042/why-neil-degrasse-tyson-is-a-philistine

1. Uhhh... religion IS a distraction at best and a militant enemy of progress at worst.

2. We absolutely do need division between proponents of religion and those who oppose it.  You think that belief systems that rely on the willful relinquishment of rational thought can be fought effectively with politeness?  Let me go have a nice, quiet discussion with a member of Al Qaeda about how I think Allah does not exist.  We'll see how THAT goes. 

3. Good.  I'm glad Tyson is making important scientific discoveries easy to digest for the poor little tykes whose parents are endlessly filling their heads with Bronze Age hogwash. 
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Eraserhead
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« Reply #20 on: August 04, 2014, 11:30:08 PM »

Seems like a pretty cool dude and very smart but his neckbeard followers make it difficult to like him.

Agreed.
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« Reply #21 on: August 05, 2014, 08:41:40 AM »

1. Uhhh... religion IS a distraction at best and a militant enemy of progress at worst.

2. We absolutely do need division between proponents of religion and those who oppose it.  You think that belief systems that rely on the willful relinquishment of rational thought can be fought effectively with politeness?  Let me go have a nice, quiet discussion with a member of Al Qaeda about how I think Allah does not exist.  We'll see how THAT goes. 

3. Good.  I'm glad Tyson is making important scientific discoveries easy to digest for the poor little tykes whose parents are endlessly filling their heads with Bronze Age hogwash. 

At a risk of sounding like a moderate hero, I don't think scientists should cast religions as "a millitant enemy" of "progress" (whatever that really means anyways). I do think faith is an unscientific concept, but most people are perfectly able to compartmentalise faith and logic into different parts of the mind. Nobody can claim to be a completely logical person - if religion gives comfort to people, who are we to judge? As an atheist; I probably have all sorts of ludicrous, yet contenting delusions myself.

It would be fruitless to pretend that by being high and mighty didactic science warriors religions will crumble. Indeed, the rise of the "New Atheists" has simply led to overdefensiveness from religion people. I agree with Dawkins in many ways (e.g. his views against religious labelling of children), but his showboating has fed the hysteria of the creationist right, not a general rise in atheism. Organised religion is dying a natural death by and large. Its downfall comes with prosperity, integration and education; not through the screeds of the angry atheists.

Your last point is an unfair dismissal of a salient point. Tyson is in grave danger of promoting Pop Science and neglecting the reality of the scientific method. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the fact that more people (claim to be) more interested in science. But sometimes this "Science is ing cool" meme gets lost in its own world of macros and factoids.
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ingemann
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« Reply #22 on: August 05, 2014, 11:42:31 AM »

Outwardly, he seems likeable enough, but I just get this feeling that there's something really hollow, really rotten with Tyson and his contemporaries. Tyson, more salesman than scientist, pitches a painless, consumable simplification of 'science' as pretty pictures and flowery quotes against the backdrop of the 'science'-and-'progress'-as-instruments-of-secular-salvation metanarrative. Tyson bashes religion and philosophy as distractions at best and militant enemies of 'progress' at worst, creating and feeding divisions that need not, and really can not, exist.

Tyson detracts from the actual practice of science by taking the frustrating, often dead-ending, enormously challenging, and humbling field and reducing it to a series of fashionable, empty, dumbed down, and easily consumed facts, pictures, and platitudes. Almost anyone actually attracted to science by his efforts would likely get quickly frustrated by how mind-numbingly difficult and boring it is. Furthermore, Tyson's efforts create more people with a "let's get high and look at pictures of space" attitude (e.g. the "I fucking love science" Facebook page) and/or a "I heard quantum mechanics sort of explained once, so now I know everything" attitude than a "let's actually work for years in hope of some slight advance in our field that may or may not be a wrong turn in a maze that may or may not have an exit" attitude.

Tyson himself is exactly like his narrative. Tyson has taken the easy way out in his career, doing little actual science1 in favor of popularized 'scientific' evangelization. Why slave away doing the hard work of science when you can get rich and famous doing easy work in the name of science's shallow artifice?

1It's been 21 years since Tyson was last lead author on a published scholarly paper. It's been 16 years since his last "real" scientific paper publication.

Can someone expound on his "disparaging of philosophy" ?

http://theweek.com/article/index/261042/why-neil-degrasse-tyson-is-a-philistine

I don't have any real opinion of the man, but isn't that a little unfair? The guy clearly have a talent as a public speaker, and he use those qualities to push his message through, and that may be much more important for his fellow researchers than anything he could deliver as a scientist doing scientific things:p. It's not like he's one of the great scientist of our generation, but he may inspire the great ones of the next, and push a more pro-science agenda through to the American people and government, and while I'm a religious person, that may be much more important than his qualities as a scientist and his opinions about religion and philosophy.
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The Mikado
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« Reply #23 on: August 05, 2014, 12:21:11 PM »

Outwardly, he seems likeable enough, but I just get this feeling that there's something really hollow, really rotten with Tyson and his contemporaries. Tyson, more salesman than scientist, pitches a painless, consumable simplification of 'science' as pretty pictures and flowery quotes against the backdrop of the 'science'-and-'progress'-as-instruments-of-secular-salvation metanarrative. Tyson bashes religion and philosophy as distractions at best and militant enemies of 'progress' at worst, creating and feeding divisions that need not, and really can not, exist.

Tyson detracts from the actual practice of science by taking the frustrating, often dead-ending, enormously challenging, and humbling field and reducing it to a series of fashionable, empty, dumbed down, and easily consumed facts, pictures, and platitudes. Almost anyone actually attracted to science by his efforts would likely get quickly frustrated by how mind-numbingly difficult and boring it is. Furthermore, Tyson's efforts create more people with a "let's get high and look at pictures of space" attitude (e.g. the "I fucking love science" Facebook page) and/or a "I heard quantum mechanics sort of explained once, so now I know everything" attitude than a "let's actually work for years in hope of some slight advance in our field that may or may not be a wrong turn in a maze that may or may not have an exit" attitude.

Tyson himself is exactly like his narrative. Tyson has taken the easy way out in his career, doing little actual science1 in favor of popularized 'scientific' evangelization. Why slave away doing the hard work of science when you can get rich and famous doing easy work in the name of science's shallow artifice?

1It's been 21 years since Tyson was last lead author on a published scholarly paper. It's been 16 years since his last "real" scientific paper publication.

Can someone expound on his "disparaging of philosophy" ?

http://theweek.com/article/index/261042/why-neil-degrasse-tyson-is-a-philistine

1. Uhhh... religion IS a distraction at best and a militant enemy of progress at worst.

2. We absolutely do need division between proponents of religion and those who oppose it.  You think that belief systems that rely on the willful relinquishment of rational thought can be fought effectively with politeness?  Let me go have a nice, quiet discussion with a member of Al Qaeda about how I think Allah does not exist.  We'll see how THAT goes. 

3. Good.  I'm glad Tyson is making important scientific discoveries easy to digest for the poor little tykes whose parents are endlessly filling their heads with Bronze Age hogwash. 

Continuing proof that anyone who believes that there is such a thing as "progress" doesn't have an opinion worth listening to.
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memphis
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« Reply #24 on: August 05, 2014, 01:05:16 PM »

The Christianist butthurt in this thread is hilarious.
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