It seems a lifetime ago, but there was a time I had the great privilege of being allowed to hang around at the periphery of arguments like this one:
There's just something amazingly inspiring to me when I hear the heavyweights gettin' after it like that.
And also too, the exchange between Tyson and Dawkins was exactly that - it was an exchange. Both men are strong advocates of their respective points of view, and they don't mince words in presenting them or defending them. But what makes this important to me is that both men have points of view that have real and intrinsic value. They're both coming at it from the perspective of reason and provable fact - and they'll battle it out as to the best way to get their points across to an audience less knowledgable than themselves. Ya just can't not love that.
But instead of hearing this kind of smart discussion, the "debate" we get to witness on practically any subject is limited to a stultifying exhibition of Fact vs "Yeah, but Jesus" - or Fact vs "Yeah, but some people say" - or Fact vs "Yeah, but the Democrats".
And it ends with, "So, scientists are telling us the earth is a sphere that rotates on its axis and orbits the local star, while others believe this not to be the case - obviously some good arguments on both sides, but we'll have to leave it at that because the marketing department needs to sell you some shit you've never heard of, which you don't need, and you can't afford. Please join us tomorrow for our featured segment - Oxygen: Essential to human life or just another scam from the Chemical Manufacturers?"
There's just something amazingly inspiring to me when I hear the heavyweights gettin' after it like that.
And also too, the exchange between Tyson and Dawkins was exactly that - it was an exchange. Both men are strong advocates of their respective points of view, and they don't mince words in presenting them or defending them. But what makes this important to me is that both men have points of view that have real and intrinsic value. They're both coming at it from the perspective of reason and provable fact - and they'll battle it out as to the best way to get their points across to an audience less knowledgable than themselves. Ya just can't not love that.
But instead of hearing this kind of smart discussion, the "debate" we get to witness on practically any subject is limited to a stultifying exhibition of Fact vs "Yeah, but Jesus" - or Fact vs "Yeah, but some people say" - or Fact vs "Yeah, but the Democrats".
And it ends with, "So, scientists are telling us the earth is a sphere that rotates on its axis and orbits the local star, while others believe this not to be the case - obviously some good arguments on both sides, but we'll have to leave it at that because the marketing department needs to sell you some shit you've never heard of, which you don't need, and you can't afford. Please join us tomorrow for our featured segment - Oxygen: Essential to human life or just another scam from the Chemical Manufacturers?"
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