Like rice paper, I guess. Neil deGrasse Tyson made a couple of light-hearted tweets on Christmas that prompted an awful lot of whining. From the reaction, you’d think he’d posted this joke:
I don’t even think that’s particularly offensive, but Tyson’s jokes were tame, even compared to that.
Seriously: he mentioned that Christmas isn’t particularly significant to non-Christians, pointed out that Newton was also born on Christmas, commented on the commercialization of the holiday, and said something about the physics of Rudolph’s red nose. Not a single Zombie Jesus joke. And a bunch of hair-trigger Christians reacted like he’d taken a dump on a church pew.
He’s a douche
, they said; they accused him of mocking other people’s precious traditions; and of course, there was a heavy dose of Fatwah Envy — he’d never dare mock Muslims! But I really liked the nonsense they tell themselves about science.
@neiltyson This is disrespectful to Christians. Jesus created the science you cherish so much. Everyone finds God eventually, you will too.
— Brian Fagioli (@brianfagioli) December 25, 2014
This is disrespectful to Christians. Jesus created the science you cherish so much. Everyone finds God eventually, you will too.
I think we can just let Neil deGrasse Tyson have the last word.
Imagine a world in which we are all enlightened by objective truths rather than offended by them.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 27, 2014
Imagine a world in which we are all enlightened by objective truths rather than offended by them.
NdT has also responded directly to the ‘controversy’.
Dr Tyson’s comments are perfectly reasonable and, I imagine, would only cause offence to those who are looking to find offence.
Funny how Christians find NDT disrespectful and big business’ actions acceptable.
They have no sense of humor, except when it comes to envisioning others being tortured for all eternity.
I would have sent “You and your fictional bearded fairy can fuck off” to each individual, and then looked out the window to enjoy the fireworks made of christian heads exploding.
Oh, I have to love the illogic of Xians. How can one “find” a omnipresent being? Next thing you know, an omnipresent being can be blocked from attending/being present anyplace….
@Brian Fagioli
At least Isaac Newton accomplished something during his lifetime. All your Jesus did was get himself killed.
NDT wrote: “Santa knows Physics. Red light penetrates fog best…”
I gotta dispute this: disagree, while simultaneously agreeing, on different aspects of that sentence. Yes red light may penetrate fog further, etc. BUT human eyes are most sensitive to yellow, hence ‘Fog Lights’ are yellow. Soooooo, to resolve this with the Rudolf character; I think he was put in the lead, not for Santa to see, but to BE SEEN by everyone else flying around up there (like maybe his assistants to deliver all those presents in a single night).
I don’t think I would have been offended at all, back when I was a Christian. Heck, my wife and I were still Christians back when we started composing our Newtonmas filk. Some people really…well, what @1 said.
When I was a Christian, I was well aware that a December birth didn’t fit with the Christmas story and Christmas was celebrated in December to coincide with existing holidays. That didn’t bother me.
The story brought up the Julian vs Gregorian calendar thing, but I would say if the calendar Newton used put his birthday on Dec 25, then his birthday was Dec 25.
While I’d agree in principle, I’ve seen too many racists and sexists say the same sort of thing, especially when they try to back up their bigotry with statistics interpreted in a pseudoscientific manner.
That Fagioli guy is full of beans.
What did Canadians call July 4, 2014? Friday!
(Wow. I hate America, and freedom.)
Talking of the persecution™ of Christians by means of humour, is everyone aware of the Good Omens radio adaptation?
Some Christians are thin-skinned. Perhaps many. But it’s not accurate to use the kind of broad brush: should all atheists be defined by a mouthy, thin-skinned minority?
Daz,
EEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you :)
Tyson’s comments were witty and not at all insulting.
This attempt at a witty comeback was so sad it was almost funny:
So many levels of wrong, I can’t even…
I like how he just plays innocent. Sometimes we don’t need firebrand atheists. Tyson can just state a few facts and sit back and watch the Christianists make complete asses of themselves.
Tyson is as cagey about atheism and the existence of gods as most science popularizers, but there’s no way he didn’t figure he was tweaking a few noses with that tweet. However, I’m sure he was genuinely caught off-guard by just how much blowback he got. I still can’t figure out how people who would be offended by Isaac Newton’s birthday would find themselves following him in the first place.
I still can’t get over how small people want to make the universe. It’s so diminishing to claim that everything that we’ve ever discovered and are still discovering and ever will discover is the work of some entity. All that we’ve ever discovered and are still discovering and ever will discovered is filtered through some old story reflecting the human values of a particular human society at a particular time. And then they consider themselves all high and enlightened for it.
Reducing the whole of the universe to some human drama…and not even a very good one.
Before Mr Carpentersson, when gravity hadn’t yet been invented, people used what, Velcro®, to stay attached to the flat Earth?
twas brillig @7: I’m afraid you, Tyson and Santa are all wrong. The frequency dependence which has red light penetrating more applies in Rayleigh scattering, where the scatterers (air molecules) are much smaller than visible wavelengths.
Fog droplets are larger than visible wavelengths, so scattering (and penetration) is pretty much frequency-independent.
@ Zeno (#11)
I see what you did there.
Well, he is intentionally trolling Christians, pushing back against their cultural hegemony, and that is legitimately disrespectful. However, said Christians had no reasonable basis to expect respect in the first place, so I don’t think NdGT is doing anything wrong, either.
John Horstman @20:
Except for the physics, you mean. Sadly, that wasn’t intentional.
Jesus created science?
Just before he wrote the Constitution.
Can someone explain the thing with the beer bottle, please?
He’s using the nailhole in his hand to act as a bottle opener. That’s why he says he can do it with either hand. Gory sarcasm, there.
Christians don’t care what Neil deGrasse Tyson says. They automatically disagree with him because they think it guarantees them a place in heaven:
“Look at me Jesus. See how I protect you against the nasty old unbelievers. I’m a good boy aren’t I ? I can come and stay with you in heaven can’t I ?”
Oh! Heh, If I could have zoomed in, I might have actually caught the joke, there.
I guess I’ would have horribly offended some of these people with a joke I’ve made for years. “December 25th is the day when my family celebrates the birthday of an important Jewish man (beat) my Uncle Isaac.”
They are thin skinned, alright, like onions. One cutting remark and they cry.
twas brillig (stevem) (#25) –
I wouldn’t stigmatize it as such.
left0ver
Whatever you want to call it, man. Personally, I like dark comedy…
Amusingly, Wiktionary has an entry on “Newtonmas”, which links to the following: http://books.google.com/books?id=L0QCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA459#v=onepage&q&f=false
Wow, now I know why most sensible people keep their Facebook pages locked against the roving bands of pitchfork and torch-carrying God-botherers looking for a fight to feel good about.
The cartoonist made an error in making the guy in gray French. France is a very non-religious country. It is “catholic” in name only. Very few people go to church or even speak of Jesus.
Seriously, Muslims, nor (ERHM) Talmuddi’s, do NOT call a thursday a ‘thursday’. Neil should’ve googled.
Daz, thank you so much for the “Good Omens” link. We listened to it while eating warm brownies and whipped cream, and it made our day.
As for slightly tasteless Christmas jokes, we once sent someone a card with a typical Mary-Joseph-baby scene on it. Caption: “It’s a goy!”
I saw what Zeno AND left0ver1under did there.
They have no sense of humor, except when it comes to envisioning others being tortured for all eternity.
They pretend to be sad about that too, but they can never keep the empty smug self-satisfied high-on-the-holy-spirit smiles off their faces when the subject comes up.
(And let’s face it: whatever color Rudolphs’ nose was, it was too small and dim to be of any use in the fog. It would have shown Santa that Rudy was still directly in front of the sleigh…and not bloody much else.)