Slashdot Mirror
Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains His Christmas Tweet
140Mandak262Jamuna writes Neil DeGrasse Tyson tweeted on christmas day what appeared to begin as a tribute to Infant Jesus, but ended up celebrating Isaac Newton. Apparently this was retweeted some 77000 times, far above his average of 3.5K retweets and caused many to be angry. He doubled down on it by tweeting about people being offended by objective truths. Then wrote a fuller explanation.
"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"
The only thing offensive is that some people continue to belief that their religious beliefs should be accepted as "universal truth".
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Everyone has the right to mock, and everyone has the right to be offended. Some mocking is silly, and some offense-taking is silly. As a dispassionate third party observer, I'm having a hard time deciding why I should care about this episode.
But still, never forgiving him for Pluto. Next time pick on a planet big enough to fight back, tough guy.
The only people offended are the religious people who dont really know anything about their religion.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Tyson's job is to explain things to the masses.
It's his job.
Some conservatives seem to hate him just for being a smart black guy who is associated with science. He's not even really an outspoken liberal or anything. He's just a smart black guy and it drives them CRAZY.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
outspoken popular black science man uses internet to tell people something fascinating and true that really happened. Outraged and offended group who tell people something bombastic and farcical condemn black science mans refusal to adhere himself instead to their thing they tell people, which is absurd and not science. In response, infuriating white television man who 'cant explain that' demands action and protection from imaginary war on pagan shopping holiday. When asked, average American man became furious that neither group were offering a deep fried food he was never promised.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Ever heard the term flamebait?
Why are you blaming Neil?
Blame Isaac for having the NERVE to be born on December 25th! After Jesus was (not) born on that date NO ONE ELSE should be born then!
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Tact is nice, but why does it always have to come from the side of the non-believer ?
On the other hand, being misunderstood does nothing to contribute to improving the education and awareness of those who misunderstand.
With a succinct message, Tyson started a discussion that spread to thousands of people. Some people misunderstood, and despite the elegance and artistic quality of his written words, that misunderstanding tarnishes his reputation in their minds, and that extends to everything he supports - most notably science and an appreciation of the beauty of the observable world without religious connection. By explaining his meaning clearly, and expressing no wish to offend, some of those people will see the mistake for themselves, and open their minds again to science.
It's not about winning or losing, or of being the stalwart champion of misdirection. It's a matter of graceful interaction with other humans.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Damn that Pope Gregory XIII. He should have left the calendar as it is. It would prevent any alchemists or astronomers born on January 4 from being praised on their birthday when it gets shifted to December 25. What was he thinking! So much for papal infallibility.
Its called "trolling", you cant tell me that he didnt realize the reaction people would have.
For those that know of him, they probably already know he is an atheist. For those that don't, a little internet searching on his name will lead to that conclusion. I know I don't care what most people think about religious stuff one way or the other. It doesn't bother me that they think that way, only when they try to get laws and such changed based solely on their religious beliefs does it bother me. Sure, he goes out of his way to keep his name in the public eye, but I don't think this tweet was intended as a lobbying effort, so who cares? If you don't like what he says just ignore him and pray for his soul; be sure to send him a note that you are doing so.
Very true, but you are missing the point. If I make the statement: "I feel like McRibs are the best damn thing ever" I am entitled to do that. If you, as a vegan, flip out over my choice of words, that's fine too. You can be offended all you want, but I am not obligated to care. Tyson shouldn't clarify his statements to appease people who are offended, because it's implying that he "may" be wrong. It's hamstering, and that's not what men do.
Tyson's life work is education, when he explains something to the masses and someone learns something, he wins. You, on the other hand, want him and others to be losers. This says a lot about you.
What part of his tweet constitutes telling Christians that Christmas is "bullshit"? The part where he celebrates Isaac Newton's birthday, or the part where.... Oh, wait; that's the ONLY part. It is not mutually exclusive with celebrating the birth of Jesus, and nowhere in the original tweet - or the following explanation - does he imply that it should be.
Should the world at large be banned from honouring the memory of anyone else on that date, just because it happens to be a Christian religious festival? Sounds remarkably like religious discrimination to me.
there's also a difference between posting verifiable objective truths and, well, being a dick about it.
Making a cute joke by changing the expected ending of a bit of useless glurge to something unexpected doesn't count as "being a dick".
I'm certainly not going to bust into any of Dr. DeGrasse-Tyson's celebrations and go out of my way to tell him why the reason he celebrates it is bullshit
His original tweet doesn't say anything negative about Christmas or Jesus. He didn't comment on how the church usurped the winter solstice with a made-up birthday, he didn't snipe that at least Newton actually exists, he didn't even mock the annual materialism-fest. He just wished Newton a happy birthday.
Look at it this way - If he had made a similarly clever tweet where you expected the ending to involve the tooth fairy, would anyone have cried foul?
On the other hand, sometimes a strategically applied barb can be pedagogically useful:
In this case, Tyson tweeted something that was orthogonal to Jesus(not that he is actually suspected by scholars of even the distinctly pious persuasion of having been born conveniently on a pagan holiday that needed assimilating; but that's another matter). It didn't denigrate him, question his existence, use the phrase 'purportedly magic jew', laugh at the peasants who were putting up their nativity idols, none of that. It just wasn't about him, it was about Isaac Newton, who was born on that day, and who was a pretty damn titanic figure in the history of science(although also intensely pious, though his religious works are not of much broader interest).
It is, arguably, rather interesting that he provoked a minor firestorm just by talking about someone else. It's a commonplace that some anti-jesus flamebait spread in the right areas would have caused a moderate shitstorm, and so nothing would be proven except one's own somewhat juvenile sense of humor by doing so; but that isn't what he did: he just celebrated a different guy(and pretty damn arguably a worthy one) who shared the same birthday. The fact that that caused a ruckus is frankly interesting, informative, and perhaps even food for thought for those offended. Is Jesus really incapable of gracefully sharing a birthday with one of history's more remarkable physicists? He certainly manages to share it with a load of consumerist gluttony without much comment.
I (mostly) grew out of baiting people purely for sport years ago; but I still think that there is room for discomfort, even unrest, in the context of discourse; and this seems like a good example. Not just flamebait, which would be trivial; but prove nothing; but willing to risk kicking up a fuss. Hopefully a least a few people asked themselves why it was so necessary that exclusivity be defended(especially when other 'meanings of Christmas' like family, presents, pagan conifers, assorted ritualized meals, etc. are handled in parallel without issue. If Jesus can share a birthday with the Jones' traditional honey glazed ham, surely he can share one with Isaac Newton?).
voluntary prayer is discouraged (if not banned) in public schools
Yes, but it's not because for lack of want by the religious people. It's not a matter of them being tactful towards the atheists. It's simply because the law requires separation of church and state.
I actually read Mr. Tyson's post. I found no hamstering in it. Your problem appears to be with Slashdot characterizing it as an "explanation". In fact, it didn't contain any explanation about the motives or meaning of the tweet. Perhaps it is time to stop blindly believing what the news media feeds you, including Slashdot's slapdash editors.
Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
I don't quite know how to address this other than to say that I don't think anything you've said in this thread makes any sense. My best guess is maybe you didn't read his actual explanation and assumed it said something it does not?
Point by point:
- The (strange) strawman about a vegan who hates McRibs is an argument about why we shouldn't get mad at Tyson if he didn't make an explanation, but it does not argue against making an explanation in the first place. It's the one point where I agree with you, but it's completely irrelevant to the situation at hand.
- Explaining something to the masses does not mean you lost anything.
- Giving into criticism is not what he did (pulling his tweet or apologizing would be giving in).
- In this case I feel he was right not to give into criticism, but in general, I don't think it's good to imply that giving into criticism is necessarily wrong.
- I don't see any appeasement from Tyson.
- Talking about a thing doesn't in any way imply that what you previously said about that thing may be wrong.
- I had to look up "hamstering" on urban dictionary, and I have to disagree that he did that at all.
- "It's not what men do"? That's a literary flourish without any meat behind it.
What is funny is so many people will just not get it.
It doesn't matter if he is right which he isn't since that day means different things to different people.
He has just alienated a large number of people for no good reason. His tweet will change no a single mind. All it will do is get praises from his fans.
That is not good science, education. or frankly good manners.
Bullshit. People that were upset are just pissed as someone tweeted something that wasn't about Jesus. As he has stated in his full post, he's tweeted about Jesus before and didn't get the type of uproar that he got over this tweet.
People just need to calm down and realise that the world doesn't resolve around their religious event on a particular day of the year. You won't change the mind of anyone that is offended by his tweet anyway.
This was my reaction. He trolls the people, then protests getting flamed. A follow up of, "ha ha made you look" would have been fine. My general impression is that Tyson thinks a lot, sometimes even of subjects that are not himself.
Tyson paid respect to the birth day of a very important historical figure (who happened to be a devout Christian too). How is that an attack on Christians? Only the most narrowminded people would be able to see it that way.
What's bad about scientists who like to teach the general public becoming popular? that's a good thing in a civilization where ignorance of science is a huge problem with vast repercussions.
Does it really matter if ignorant conservatives can't handle reality-based people? Making fun of their absurd beliefs, rather than say locking them in mental hospitals, seems like a pretty good approach to me.
Your fatwa envy makes me embarrassed for you. People like you are the worst.
a) You know that "hamstering" isn't a word, right?
Hamstering is indeed a word, ffs it was used in the previous two posts, this now being the third. It is now an established word.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Banning prayer in school isn't tact by the religious to the non-religious. It's part of the separation of church and state, which became a big thing after two Christian groups had a violent falling out with each other in Europe and a bunch fled to the the US. The idea was that if you kept overt religious practice out of government and public activities (like education) then everybody (all Christians, or at least the more mainstream) could get along.
This whole thing reminds of the Back to the Future movie. I was 10 or 11 or so when it came out and I distinctly remember seeing that movie with a kid raised in a fundamentalist baptist household. When Doc Brown said "so do you want to see the birth of Christ" and then set the time machine to Dec 25 0000 I laughed quite hard. The other guy asked me why I thought that was so funny and I spent about 45 minutes trying to explain it to him after the movie. He never got it and was somewhat offended that I found it so funny. After another couple of days discussing this and other things (like creation in 6 days etc.) I finally realized how deeply misinformed people become by being taught about literal interpretation of the bible. I was absolutely amazed at that understanding of the world and it was my first real exposure to this insanity. Up to that day I had always understood bible stories as being just stories (I was raised mildly Catholic but my family was really just going through the motions). It actually makes me very sad to think back to that experience.
Dude or dudette, I'm solidly atheist as one can tell by examining my posting history and I took Tyson's post to be exactly that, trolling on purpose. I hate atheists that do that kind of thing just as much as I hate religious people who do it. He was being a douche.
He didn't fold (where's the back down?). He blatently and successfully trolled the Christian fundamentalists**, and his follow-up was little more than a gloat.
** and/or anyone ignorant enough of history to think that Jesus was born on 25th Dec and/or was the basis of the Dec 25th holiday we now call "Christmas"
I see no mockery whatever. A surprise ending, perhaps, worthy of O. Henry, but no mockery. Now, if you want mockery of someone's birthday, go watch "Monty Python's Life of Brian".
It's not intolerant to bash a Muslim's beliefs, it's just unwise.
That doesn't reflect well on Islam but it's hardly a justification for not taking a pop at Christianity. Unless of course you want Christianity to shelter under the Islamic umbrella of fear?
Jesus Christ was not born on December 25th
It just happens to be a day that mopst western Christians celebrate His birth.
Like USians celebrate Washingtons birthday on a monday
And some in the commonwealth celebrate the Queen's birthday on the 1st monday in June, and others on the 2nd monday in June, her actual birthday is April 21 which has significance to another Religion
a calculated and unwarranted troll towards Christians on their numero uno holiday.
A holiday which was forced on people at knife and spear point to co-opt an already existing holiday (nice Christians ya got there), which celebrates the birth of someone who was born sometime in the spring/summer and who has inadvertently led to the deaths of hundreds of millions of people (a billion perhaps?) and which, for the most part, has turned into feeding frenzy of mass marketing Chinese-made cruft to the masses.
Now compare that to Newton who helped get us to the Moon, developed mathematical models to help explore our universe, and who contributed in numerous ways to our understanding of what goes on around us every day such as reflecting telescopes. See for example:
This link and this one for what Newton gave us.
So what did Jesus give us other than death and intolerance, as evidenced by your post?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Lemmiwinks? Is that you?
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
I didn't ask him to, I didn't hire him to, I didn't indicate any desire on my part for him to do so.
So his tweet just randomly showed up without you following him, or without someone you follow retweeting it? I'd contact Twitter, it sounds like you've found a bug.
Any scientist that is absolutely OK with pissing off uneducated rabid republicans is a hero in my book.
Carl Sagan and others had no problems calling the uneducated what they are. And none of the best human beings on this planet backed down in the face of religious stupidity.
Just Ask Galileo and Giordonano Brunio what it was like to be imprisoned by a bunch of idiots in power.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
And a perfectly cromulent one, IMO.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Obviously they do, since Tyson did and is a man. Why should he, or anyone for that matter, care what someone else thinks their particular configuration of genitalia obligates them to?
Be a hamster or be macho, but if you're either just to fulfil other people's expectations, you're really nothing but a puppet.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
It isn't a dick thing to do something perfectly reasonable even though you know some completely unreasonable people will be upset by it. Everything he said was true, nothing he said was critical of Jesus/Christianity/Religion. If someone is that much of a dick that they can't appreciate that Newton was an incredibly important person born on the 25th December without seeing it as slur on Jesus then fuck them.
Why can't we? I don't understand your reaction either. It doesn't seem insulting to me. Just seems like an interesting fact delivered in a clever way.
According to your logic, we should also despise Newton because he was a follower of Jesus. At the very least, we should also despise Newton if anyone who ever favored him committed a crime.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
No, probably assuming he's Christian. Christian Fundies are just as bad as Muslim ones. Letting delusion rule your life is a massive fail.
Only Slashdotters would defend this guy for what was clearly a calculated and unwarranted troll towards Christians on their numero uno holiday.
Commercial interests have turned the Christmas holiday into a shop-till-you-drop marathon, and you think Christians are under attack from a simple factual tweet? If he had posted "If you love Jesus, you'll love these deals on Telescopes!" then it'd have been ok, right?
Really, does Tyson have nothing better to do than use Twitter to mock Christians? Are there no pressing issues in the world of astrophysics that could use his towering intellect and staggering genius?
The most pressing issue that he's been working hard to fight against is the lack of science literacy in the country, and open hostility to Science to the point where a science educator can't post a Christmas Day related fact without coming under attack -- and at least Newton was actually born on Christmas (depending on your calendar), as opposed to Jesus -- most biblical scholars agree he was not born on Dec 25th, even if they disagree on when his birth was.
Yes, and you could also inform someone on their birthday that theres actually nothing special about the day astronomically and that they're quite insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
Its just that you probably arent going to get invited to his birthday party ever again, and while you could make the same remark about objective fact that Tyson did, you'd still be a jerk.
Of course these guys are trolls. Only imbeciles would believe in such a preposterous being in the first place. All glory to the IPU!
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
No, please reread my post, this time more carefully. I address everything you said in your post. The way he worded his post was a deliberate troll, much the same way referring to Jesus as "zombi-jesus" [sic] is also a deliberate troll.
Even if one wanted to do a misdirection about Christmas in a tweet, there are tons more offensive targets one could have chosen related to 25 december:
* The Malkh festival formerly practiced by the peoples of present-day Chechnya, celebrating the birthday of the sun.
* Pakistan celebrates the birthday of the Great Leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah
* Residents of Chumbivilcas Province in Peru celebrate Takanakuy ("To Hit Each Other"), a fighting-themed holiday where the goal is to get back at people who wronged you during the year, while wearing a traditional ski mask.
* Michael Palaiologos, ruler of Constantinople, has his 11-year-old second cousin blinded so that he is no longer qualified for the throne.
* Columbus runs aground in Haiti due to incompetent management, then proceeds to abuse and enslave the natives that helped rescue his men and supplies.
* Conquistador Pedro de Valdivia is defeated in battle, captured, then roasted and eaten.
* A drunken mutiny involving 1/3rd of the candidates at West Point is finally put down by force and their whiskey is taken away.
* Future president Zachary Taylor leads his troops into an obvious ambush by the Seminoles, leading to serious losses; gets promoted for it.
* The Vietnamese National Party is founded and quickly begins a campaign of assassinations against French officers and Vietnamese collaborators.
* Henri Nannen, later-rehabilitated Nazi propagandist, born.
* A 7,6 earthquake kills 275 people in China
* Scottish nationalist students steal the British coronation stone.
* 44 untouchables in India massacred in revenge for them campaigning for higher wages.
* Cyclone Tracy destroys more than 70% of the buildings in Darwin, Australia
* Jesus Christ, aka messianist Marshall Fields, drives a Chevy Impala through the White House gate.
* Charlie Chaplain dies
* Porn actress Joanna Angel born
* Deposed Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauescu and his wife are captured, convicted by tribunal, and summarily shot.
* The "underwear bomber" fails
* Plane crash kills 27 people near Shymkent.
I am a proud traitor to my species in alliance with my mother the Earth in opposition to those who would destroy her.
That was kind of my thought, too. I like Tyson. I tutor physics and math (mainly calculus) for young men who were in trouble with the law and are now trying to go to community college, and I'm constantly extolling the genius of Isaac Newton to my students. The co-discovery, the interrelationship between calculus and classical mechanics is just delightful to me in a deeply satisfying way.
I'm also Catholic. I was not offended by Tyson's tweet, but I did cringe. "Man, that's not going to go over well..." It was tactless. It implies that science-minded people are dismissive of religion and tradition. And perhaps they are! But you don't have to rub people's faces in it. That's not going to further what I assume to be Tyson's goal, which is to evangelize scientific thinking. You don't do that by saying things that will likely offend people whose minds you're trying to expand. He absolutely could have got his point across without saying something guaranteed to offend a lot of people.
And whether you think they should be offended or not doesn't matter. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter. Your mother-in-law may be a terrible cook. Turkey is dry as hell. Absolutely true. I wouldn't recommend telling her that.
You don't get to choose what offends other people, any more than they get to choose what offends you. But if you say something that will obviously offend someone...well...that's kind of on you.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
We follow the Gregorian calendar. Newton was born on December 25th of the Julian calender. Newton's birthday isn't for another 6 days.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
He is director of the Hayden Planetarium, a job which clearly is all about explaining things to the masses.
He has also become a pop figure who does things like the Star Talk Radio podcast, which is all about answering science questions and explaining the universe to the masses in a fun fashion.
However you want to slice it, Mr. Tyson has made it his life's work to be one of many ambassadors of science who have made it their life's work to explain science and the universe to the masses and has done a pretty good job of it in my opinion.
So It is both his literal and figurative job to explain things to the masses.
I'm a conservative [read: slightly on the conservative side of dead center, with the added bonus of holding views that piss off my friends on both sides of the aisle] evangelical Christian, and I didn't see anything at all offensive about his posts. I've forwarded a couple of them on to my Christian and non-Christian friends. Really, I think this whole thing is an attempt by both Tyson and folks who make a career out of hating him to get media attention.
I think I just pulled my hamstering while running away from this conversation.
It's funny, I can't think of ever meeting a person who doesn't understand that it's a celebration, not an anniversary.
I know quite a few people who think it is an actual birthday. A few get quite hostile if you suggest otherwise. These are not highly educated people but they believe what they are capable of understanding.
Are there any Christian denomination that has as dogma a fixed date of 12/25 (or any other date) as the birth day anniversary of Jesus? I can't think of any.
Probably but that kind of misses the point. I would suggest that a huge percentage (probably the majority) of the devout don't really understand a lot of the finer details of their faith. Much like math class, just because you sat in the lecture doesn't mean they comprehended what was said. I think a lot of people attend because of social pressure or due to personal insecurities rather than with the intent to really comprehend.
Christians on their numero uno holiday.
Easter is the numero uno holiday for Christians. Christmas is second (or third depending on who you ask).
At the very least, we should also despise Newton if anyone who ever favored him committed a crime.
Based on the number of people who use weapons based on Newtonian physics to kill, Newton may be the biggest mass murderer of all time.
Surely by starting the tweet as he did - "On this day long ago, a child was born" - it automatically dismisses any chance of it being about Jesus because, as discussed further up, every true Christian knows that the 25th is a celebration of Jesus' birth and not an anniversary.
If people wish to claim that the opening was an obvious misdirection, then they need to accept that Jesus was in fact born on that day. However, it seems to be the generally accepted stance that he was not...
At the very least, we should also despise Newton if anyone who ever favored him committed a crime.
Based on the number of people who use weapons based on Newtonian physics to kill, Newton may be the biggest mass murderer of all time.
Haha, I was just going to post that, with the emphasis on how Newton masterminded the only historical deployment of nuclear weapons against civilian population centers.
Why make up new words when there are perfectly good ones that better describe what you're saying anyway?
It embiggens the English vocabulary. Do you have any idea how many words William Shakespeare made up? Language evolves. If you don't like it, then start speaking Latin.
. . . he demonstrated a kernel of cleverness. He's a witch! We must burn him for upsetting the simpleminded villagers!
The "underwear bomber" fails
Just don't start celebrating this with gifts pertaining to the event.
I think many people are forgetting that Newton and Christ do not share the same birthday...
Forgetting also that only one of them actually existed. Protip - it was Newton.
He provided the mathematical description. People were using kinetic energy of objects hurled at great speed to the other party before he did that.
Bert
Yes, but you are a nobody. Dr. Tyson is an advocate for science, so alienating 40% of the population isn't really a good thing.
"and that's not what men do."
Men don't clarify things that get mistaken? Seriously?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I learned today that there was a disagreement among Christians as to when their god was born. If one group follows one calendar and the other group follows a different one, and they both say December 25th, who was right? I find that kind of amusing.
It is, arguably, rather interesting that he provoked a minor firestorm just by talking about someone else. It's a commonplace that some anti-jesus flamebait spread in the right areas would have caused a moderate shitstorm, and so nothing would be proven except one's own somewhat juvenile sense of humor by doing so;
About 2000 years ago, there lived a man that may have agreed with you. I'm sure you have heard of him, you may even recognize him by his initials, JC, as everyone still talks about him today. We know that he was born unlike most men. And as he matured, he had many followers, but also had those who were afraid of the would-be-king, so they put him to death. Yes, Julius Caesar left a legacy that influenced generations. Anyway, what was your point?
Except he never intended it to be flamebait.
There's two general camps among science communicators, there's one camp that goes straight for the hard truths and controversial subjects with the idea that you fix the root cause and the rest is easy, this tends to be the Richard Dawkins camp.
The other side basically says communicate as much as you can but try to avoid offending people by being non-controversial as possible, I've always thought of that as the Neil DeGrasse Tyson camp.
The tweet here essentially a corny joke ie "huh, Tyson is writing about the birth of Jesus, I didn't think that was his thing... ohh Newton, now I get it, haha Mr. Tyson". There is nothing flamebaity or controversial about it as he intended it.
The problem is the religious right is embracing a culture of victimhood to compete with the left, attempts to reduce the degree of Jesus talk around Christmas become an attack to their right to talk Jesus, hence the "war on Christmas".
Viewed through that light the joke now becomes "Hey Jesus-folk, I'm on your side putting Jesus back in Christmas... ha ha! Just kidding, it was just Newton!"
And since they're actively looking for reasons to become offended, they become offended.
I stole this Sig
they tend not to go out of their way to kill you if they disagree, I know, calling people names is just as bad, if not worse than murder though
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
No, and no. Tyson has been trolling religious nutbars for decades. He didn't give in to criticism, he just twisted the knife when people demanded clarification. Make no mistake -- religion is more of threat to our species than global warming and nuclear winter combined. More than three-quarters of the population of the planet's last existing superpower are religious, and nearly half of them believes their messiah is going to return to them in their life time. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that these nutbars have exactly zero interest in solving the problems confronting our species because they truly believe that they aren't going to be around to have to deal with them.
Please follow along: Jesus founded His Church. His Church founded centers of study and learning, and institutionalized these as colleges and universities. Among these were the colleges merged to form Trinity College where Newton studied.
Ironic.
Except he didn't tell them that. He didn't say anything remotely like 'Jesus's birthday is unimportant in the grand scheme of things'. However, for the sake of argument, let's say his tweet does convey that message.
He didn't post his tweet on a Jesus loving forum. He didn't make a press release on fox news. He sent this message *to people who follow him on twitter*. Assuming he actually said "Jesus's birthday is unimportant to the grand scheme of things" (which he didn't) in this forum, he is saying it to a group of people who have signed up to hear whatever random crap comes out of his head. Don't want to hear what astrophysicists think about the universe et al? Don't read their twitter feed!
Your analogy to informing someone on their birthday that they aren't significant is extra ridiculous because Jesus has been dead for quite a while.
Saying Jesus is insignificant would be idiotic. Jesus is significant, and NDT knows that full well. His tweet was pointing that other people are *also* significant. In this case he is referring to Sir Isaac Newton, a man of towering intellect and accomplishment.
Making a cute joke by changing the expected ending of a bit
I'm not sure I'd classify the structure of the tweet as a "cute joke" I think Tyson was drawing a parallel that Newton was *also* a great man that changed the world and should be celebrated on the day of his birth.
Personally, I would argue, given the countless wars and violence attributed to Christianity and other religious beliefs, versus the zero attributed to Issac Newton, that Newton has been better for this world than Jesus - or, more specifically, his followers.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
He was either very tone deaf when he did that or he did it on purpose.
If he did it on purpose, maybe he wasn't not looking to start a war, but he definitely wanted to be mischievous.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Nah. Even LoB was clearly intended as a story about a different guy. They even showed Jesus in the movie, to emphasize that this is a different person they are talking about.
It was a story about someone being popularly deified when they clearly weren't in fact a deity. That certain Christians took the depiction of this possibly happening as an attack on their own faith says a lot more about their own insecurities than it does about the movie. (This is coming from a Christian, btw.)
I'll throw my two cents worth into the noise. I am an Orthodox Christian clergyman, and I think Neil DeGrasse Tyson's tweet is humorous, as well as objectively true. I am at a complete loss why anyone would be angered by it. People are so quick to hate these days, for no reason whatsoever. Truly we are in the end times.
Proverbs 21:19
Neil was clearly mocking one of our most sacred holidays, Santa Claus day, where we lie to children about an imaginary omniscient, near omnipotent, and briefly omnipresent being who rewards good and gives evil a reminder of fire. Santa Claus, of course, is based on the real historical character Saint Nicholas. The rewards are presents placed under a decorated evergreen tree (no relation to similar trees used to celebrate the winter solstice**) and preceded by about a month of winter-themed songs (also no relation to the solstice) whose purpose is definitely not to remind grownups that they must be extra materialistic for a while.
Christians, of course, insist that this holiday is a celebration of the birth of Christ, a very-real-and-definitely-not-made-up-this-time-we-swear omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent being who rewards good and punishes evil with eternal hellfire. Furthermore, he is so holy he can't forgive anyone without a human sacrifice, with the caveat that the sacrificed human must be entirely innocent. He is said to be very forgiving, though critics say he would die before he would forgive anyone of anything. This is also the historical figure Joshua*, who was miraculously conceived out of wedlock by the (hand?) of God and born from a virgin. Non-Catholic Christians frequently confuse the holiday (Christ's Mass) as being the anniversary of his birth. Christians celebrate Christmas in much the same way as non-believers, besides also going to church and getting upset at people who aren't Christmassy enough for them.
Anyhow, my point is that pretty much everyone disrespects Christmas, and it is extremely well-accepted to do so, at least in the traditional manner.
*Joshua, of course, is a more direct if less unique transliteration of the name, though if you prefer to transliterate first to Greek and then Latin you get Jesus.
** Grinches and cynics take note, it is advantageous to have celebrations around the time of the winter solstice to counteract the tendency toward depression caused by the record low light levels around this time.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
I'm not a Christian, but you've nailed it. It was an indictment of followers, not Christ. The only explanation for the outrage is their own insecurity. It's hard to back up blind faith, and even harder to defend it from attack and you yourself don't really understand it.