The problems with this situation is that the whole discussion centers
around interpretation. On one side is the fact that fundamentalists
center their beliefs on the King James translation of ancient Hebrew
texts (which were, of course, transcriptions of even more ancient oral
tradition). And even with that, anyone can see that the light of the
moon is certainly a "lesser light" - the source of illumination just
happens to be external, rather then internal. The Bible doesn't seem to
insist on the illumination being internal.
I agree with John - the problem isn't in the facts; it is in the
presentation of the facts, and it appears that Mr. Nye was a little too
glib/insensitive when presenting facts to people who aren't used to
dealing with nuance. What might have seemed "clever" in a cosmopolitan
environment came out "insulting" in a somewhat less sophisticated social
environment (i.e. Waco TX). On the other hand, if only a handful of
folks walked out on his presentation, that means the rest could
comprehend the subject without any problem. After all, there are always
going to be people who insist that the sun circles around the earth, no
matter what kind of evidence there is to the contrary.
I can't wait until the reaction to the AP headlined article: "Artificial
life likely in 3 to 10 years".
<http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8R4H0Q00&show_article=1>
Mike
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
It may be a bit late in the thread to return to the original debate.
However, being a highly secular person myself, I have to fault Mr.
Nye for having pointed out the "inaccuracy" of the biblical text as
part of his lecture. Anybody who made it through elementary school
knows that the moon does not produce its own light. The only
exception might be somebody so committed to literal interpretation
that they would refuse to believe empirical evidence if they thought
it contradicted scripture. Such a person will not benefit from being
told anything contrary to their beliefs.
By seeming to challenge biblical text (even in a light-hearted
manner), Mr. Nye may have made more people uncomfortable than just
those who vocally opposed him. Furthermore, it can be legitimately
claimed that the Moon does provide light at times when the Sun is not
below the horizon, which to me seems a legitimate interpretation of
the passage.
In my opinion, this kind of attitude gives secularists a bad name and
religious extremists ammunition they don't need.
--John Emmerling
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