Darwin Day 2015: Neil deGrasse Tyson Receives Censor of the Year Award

Neil deGrasse Tyson. Image courtesy of NASA/Bill Ingalls.




Joel Kontinen

Today, as some ardent evolutionists celebrate Darwin Day, we should not forget that it also is Academic Freedom Day.

David Klinghoffer describes the purpose of this award:

“COTY, as it's called for short, recognizes achievement in thwarting an open and informed discussion of science and scientific controversies. It is a serious thing -- since censorship is serious and often but not always casting fear on less powerful individuals whose ideas the censor doesn't like. That was the case with last year's winner, biologist Jerry Coyne, who with his partners at the Freedom from Religion Foundation was successful in silencing a young physics professor who dared to provide students with information about intelligent design.”

This year’s recipient of the Censor of the Year Award is Neil deGrasse Tyson of Cosmos fame. Mr. Klinghoffer explains why the award goes to Tyson:

“Cosmos represented a highly imaginative rewrite of the history of science. It was designed to convey an impression that faith was always an obstacle to scientific discovery, that all legitimate scientific controversies are in the past, that skeptics of scientific orthodoxy today are fools or worse.”

Believing that religion hampers scientific progress, Dr. Tyson has repeatedly ignored historical facts and fabricated quotes to further his naturalistic / materialistic worldview.

In other words, he has attempted to censor all views that do not agree with his opinion of the past, the present and the future.


Source:

Klinghoffer, David. 2015. Censor of the Year: Neil deGrasse Tyson Broadcast His Photoshopped Narrative of Science to Millions. Evolution News and Views (12 February).

Avoiding Christ: The Case of Neil deGrasse Tyson

John Leech: Scrooge and Bob Cratchit. Image courtesy of Gutenberg.org.


Joel Kontinen

There are many Ebener Scrooges among us. Like the character in Charles Dickens’ Christmas story, they seem to hate the time we usually associate with the birth of Christ.

Christmas is obviously a hard time for atheists as they tend to spend much time and energy in trying to fight against it.

This is understandable, because if – as Christians believe – Jesus, although He was the Son of God, was born in Bethlehem in human form, atheism has to be false. This means that the very idea of Christmas is dangerous for unbelievers.

Atheists are well aware of this. As Thomas H. Huxley (1825–1895), who was known as Darwin’s Bulldog, put it, “Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures.”

I would suggest that this also applies to atheistic dogma. It is an either – or situation.

Michael Shermer has promoted the celebration of Newtonmas on December 25 as a replacement for Christmas. This is a bit odd given that Sir Isaac Newton was a Bible-believing Christian, but it shows what atheists are willing do, if it helps them to escape Christ.

Recently, Neil deGrasse Tyson of Cosmos fame illustrated this trend. On December 25, he first tweeted:

“QUESTION: This year, what do all the world's Muslims and Jews call December 25th? ANSWER: Thursday.”

He followed this up with:

“On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642.”

Finally, he actually used the word Christmas:

“Merry Christmas to all. A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA).”

While there’s a hint of truth in his tweet, his strategy speaks more of his ideology and the wish to avoid coming to grips with the truth.

It seems that all kinds of everything that remind atheists of Jesus Christ cause them to have a bad conscience. Thus, they will go to extreme lengths to avoid confronting historical facts that remind them of the Creator and Redeemer they want to avoid.


Source:

Twitter

Neil deGrasse Tyson Fabricated Quote after Quote

Neil deGrasse Tyson. Image courtesy of NASA/Bill Ingalls.



Joel Kontinen


Neil deGrasse Tyson of Cosmos fame might be an excellent communicator but sticking to facts might not be his cup of tea.

Sceptics like to overuse the word denialist of those who refuse to accept the view that the natural realm is the only one that is.

In actual fact, however, they are the real denialists.

They often see Neil deGrasse Tyson as being on their side. That is obviously true, but his version of history relies to a great extent on fabricating past events and getting the details all wrong.

He seems to have a tendency to invent facts. What is more, few people have managed to fabricate as many quotes as Tyson.
Recently, Sean Davis wrote in The Federalist:

“Neil deGrasse Tyson may be a fabulous scientist, and a consummate showman, but he's downright terrible at accurately quoting people. Or, if you're a ‘glass half full’ kind of person, you might say that Neil deGrasse Tyson is pretty amazing at needlessly fabricating quotes and scenarios to showcase his own brilliance.

We've already established that a newspaper headline touted for years by Tyson likely doesn't exist. We've also established that the exact quote he uses to bash members of Congress as being stupid also doesn't exist. And then we established that the details within one of Tyson's favorite anecdotes -- a story of how he bravely confronted a judge about his mathematical illiteracy while serving on jury duty -- seem to change every time Tyson tells the story.”



Source:

Davis, Sean. 2014. Another Day, Another Quote Fabricated By Neil deGrasse Tyson. The Federalist (16 September).

Science Fiction Trumps Science in Origin of Life Speculations in Cosmos

Did a comet bring bacterial life from space? Image courtesy of Wikipedia (GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2).



Joel Kontinen

In episode 11 of Cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson continues his evolutionary show by discussing the origin of life, which is a hard nut to crack for those who are unwilling to accept a Creator God.

Over 30 years ago, Sir Francis Crick acknowledged the difficulties involved in a naturalistic origin of life. In his book Life Itself (Simon and Schuster, 1981) he stated: “An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going."

Unwilling to allow for a transcendent Creator, Crick embraced the panspermia view, according to which life originated somewhere else in the universe and was seeded or brought here by a comet, asteroid or rock. Or by space aliens.

Panspermia (Gr. Πανσπερμία) means ’all seed’ and it postulates that life exists everywhere in the universe and can travel through outer space.

The view has insurmountable problems, and it only pushes the enigmatic solution a few thousand light years further away from us. After all, life had to begin somewhere.

Many secular scientists have stated that panspermia does not work. The elements of life would be destroyed by cosmic radiation en route to us.

In spite of this, Cosmic host Tyson believes that life came from space. This might be in keeping with his naturalistic faith, but it has nothing to do with science – and all with science fiction.