Hop_David
Member
Tyson has a number of different talks that push the same narrative: religion is destructive and it stifles scientific progress.
And just about all these talks are based on invented histories.
It's noteworthy that Tyson has repeated these false histories many times, often to large audiences of self proclaimed skeptics. Often these audiences contain many well known atheists and doubters. People like Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, Stephen Novella, etc. "Skeptics" who seem to swallow Tyson's false histories without question. If they had noticed Tyson's errors you would think they would have quietly informed him so as to avoid further embarrassment to a prominent member of the skeptic community.
At this time I will look at two of Tyson's invented histories. Later I will add more when I have time and energy.
Bush and Star Names
Tyson's Bush and Star Names story was a standard part of his routine from November of 2006 (maybe earlier) to September 2104.
Tyson tells us Bush's 9-11 speech was "an attempt to distinguish we from they". That Bush was bragging "Our God is the God who named the Stars" evidently to set Christians above Muslims. That's just the sort of behavior we expect from Christian, Republican presidents, right? We all know they love to exploit disaster to sow division and whip up fear. Tyson then goes on to point out that most star names are Arabic. He seems to believe this refutes what he imagines to be Bush's slight against Arabic people.
Unfortunately for Tyson, Bush's actual speech was a call for tolerance and inclusion. It was delivered from The Islamic Center of Washington D.C. Bush was exactly the opposite of the xenophobic demagogue Tyson portrayed.
It turns out that Tyson managed to confuse Bush's eulogy for the Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts with his 9-11 speech. See this piece from the Washington Post. However in neither of those speeches did Bush try to set Christians above Muslims.
Hamid al Ghazali: Math is the work of the devil
Tyson's Bush and Star Names story was his intro to his talk on the Islamic Golden Age.
Tyson tells us the Islamic Golden Age ended when Muslim cleric Hamid al Ghazali proclaimed that math was the work of the devil. There are a few problems with that.
1) Ghazali never said that. Ghazali actually praised the disciplines of math and science saying they are necessary for a prosperous society.
I challenged Tyson to provide the Ghazali text containing that assertion. Here is his response. It reads, in part, "...I was misleading some people by mentioning the devil at all." He was misleading anyone who believed him, that is.
2) Islamic innovation did not end in Ghazali's time. There were many mathematicians and scientists in the centuries following Ghazali. See this list. Abu al Hasan, the father of symbolic algebra, was born more than 3 centuries after Ghazali's death.
What caused the decline in Muslim innovation? Personally I believe it was because sea routes rendered land trading routes obsolete. At that time the Middle East ceased to be a trading hub where diverse cultures would meet and trade ideas. There was also the Mongol invasion and a few other things going on.
Tyson argues that if Ghazali didn't cause the decline, then why hasn't the Islamic population regained their creativity? He points out the 1.4 billion Muslims today have earned only a handful of Nobel prizes in science. Well, you can say the same thing about the 1.4 billion people living in China. Or the 1.4 billion people living in India. And these are populations that have enjoyed periods of innovation and creativity. In fact the zero and our base 10 numbering system was invented in India, not by the Arabs as Tyson falsely claims.
Just about everything Tyson says in these talks are wrong.
I will post more of Tyson's false histories when I have time.
And just about all these talks are based on invented histories.
It's noteworthy that Tyson has repeated these false histories many times, often to large audiences of self proclaimed skeptics. Often these audiences contain many well known atheists and doubters. People like Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, Stephen Novella, etc. "Skeptics" who seem to swallow Tyson's false histories without question. If they had noticed Tyson's errors you would think they would have quietly informed him so as to avoid further embarrassment to a prominent member of the skeptic community.
At this time I will look at two of Tyson's invented histories. Later I will add more when I have time and energy.
Bush and Star Names
Tyson's Bush and Star Names story was a standard part of his routine from November of 2006 (maybe earlier) to September 2104.
Tyson tells us Bush's 9-11 speech was "an attempt to distinguish we from they". That Bush was bragging "Our God is the God who named the Stars" evidently to set Christians above Muslims. That's just the sort of behavior we expect from Christian, Republican presidents, right? We all know they love to exploit disaster to sow division and whip up fear. Tyson then goes on to point out that most star names are Arabic. He seems to believe this refutes what he imagines to be Bush's slight against Arabic people.
Unfortunately for Tyson, Bush's actual speech was a call for tolerance and inclusion. It was delivered from The Islamic Center of Washington D.C. Bush was exactly the opposite of the xenophobic demagogue Tyson portrayed.
It turns out that Tyson managed to confuse Bush's eulogy for the Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts with his 9-11 speech. See this piece from the Washington Post. However in neither of those speeches did Bush try to set Christians above Muslims.
Hamid al Ghazali: Math is the work of the devil
Tyson's Bush and Star Names story was his intro to his talk on the Islamic Golden Age.
Tyson tells us the Islamic Golden Age ended when Muslim cleric Hamid al Ghazali proclaimed that math was the work of the devil. There are a few problems with that.
1) Ghazali never said that. Ghazali actually praised the disciplines of math and science saying they are necessary for a prosperous society.
I challenged Tyson to provide the Ghazali text containing that assertion. Here is his response. It reads, in part, "...I was misleading some people by mentioning the devil at all." He was misleading anyone who believed him, that is.
2) Islamic innovation did not end in Ghazali's time. There were many mathematicians and scientists in the centuries following Ghazali. See this list. Abu al Hasan, the father of symbolic algebra, was born more than 3 centuries after Ghazali's death.
What caused the decline in Muslim innovation? Personally I believe it was because sea routes rendered land trading routes obsolete. At that time the Middle East ceased to be a trading hub where diverse cultures would meet and trade ideas. There was also the Mongol invasion and a few other things going on.
Tyson argues that if Ghazali didn't cause the decline, then why hasn't the Islamic population regained their creativity? He points out the 1.4 billion Muslims today have earned only a handful of Nobel prizes in science. Well, you can say the same thing about the 1.4 billion people living in China. Or the 1.4 billion people living in India. And these are populations that have enjoyed periods of innovation and creativity. In fact the zero and our base 10 numbering system was invented in India, not by the Arabs as Tyson falsely claims.
Just about everything Tyson says in these talks are wrong.
I will post more of Tyson's false histories when I have time.