Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

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Luke
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Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by Luke »

Is anyone else out there a fan of Neil's videos? :D

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Genduen Phuntsok
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by Genduen Phuntsok »

Me! :thumbsup:
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by conebeckham »

Me, too!
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by kirtu »

Definitely!

Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by santa100 »

A great scientist and educator. Check out his "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" series here (US) or here (non-US)
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

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Count me in. :twothumbsup:
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

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"It's as plain as the nose on your face!" Dottie Primrose
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by lobster »

:popcorn:

:twothumbsup:

Science is so . . . what is the word? Scientific.

I'll join. :woohoo:
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by Kunzang »

I'm not surprised to read that.

I was so looking forward to the remake of Cosmos, having watched Sagan's version as a child, and I was a fan of NDT, but that first episode... so damned disappointing. That awful Giordano Bruno segment was like a fart in a crowded elevator - bad and wrong on so many levels.
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by Johnny Dangerous »


The general contempt for philosophy coming from parts of the scientific community today is sad, and telling of the inadequacy of materialism as a philosophy of life.

That said, I saw him speak a few years back, he's obviously a brilliant dude who does some good work...I just think the dogmatism shown towards philosophy these days by materialists and those that lean that direction is ridiculous, as well as typically very poorly argued. It's one of the few areas where otherwise unquestionably brilliant folks seem to say some really asinine things, to my ears of course.
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by Agnikan »

The author of that article mischaracterizes Tyson's perspective, which is not dismissive of philosophy as a whole, but of philosophical attempts to resolve issues that require empirical evidence to resolve (e.g., scientific issues).
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by Andrew108 »

I'm a fan. But obviously there are many posters in this forum that are either anti-science or aren't able to reconcile science with their religious beliefs. Then there are a few that manage the reconciliation quite well.
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by oushi »

A person that is using a scientific facts and language to speak to our sense of being is an astrophilosopher. By the tone he is using in this talk, I would even call him an astropreacher. :smile:
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by kirtu »

Johnny Dangerous wrote:

The general contempt for philosophy coming from parts of the scientific community today is sad,
What contributions has philosophy made to mankind, particularly over the last century (excluding logic and metamathematics, neither of which I view as philosophy anyway)?

Philosophy should have made contributions to human thinking. Most of what has happened recently has been obfuscation at best.

Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by Agnikan »

oushi wrote:A person that is using a scientific facts and language to speak to our sense of being is an astrophilosopher. By the tone he is using in this talk, I would even call him an astropreacher. :smile:
An astro-acharya.
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

Andrew108 wrote:I'm a fan. But obviously there are many posters in this forum that are either anti-science or aren't able to reconcile science with their religious beliefs. Then there are a few that manage the reconciliation quite well.

Or, alternatively, you are just making incorrect assumptions about what's being said.
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by DNS »

http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=15848" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:thumbsup: His Cosmos series is great.
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by Luke »

Meh, what an obnoxious essay! Perhaps it could also just be called "Why Neil deGrasse Tyson is still just middle class and not upper class"! lol

I just think that Tyson realizes that his present lifetime is finite, so he focuses on the subjects which he personally finds the most interesting and important, and he prefers to speak plainly. I don't think he needs to apologize for anything. Could he be more broadly educated regarding to philosophy? Sure, but it might not bring him much benefit.

And I don't think that it does much damage if he tells people not to study philosophy. If any of his listeners are truly interested in philosophy, they will probably just study it anyway. Lots of people like Tyson's speeches, but I don't think that they regard him as some sort of supreme guru for all of life's issues.
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Re: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist)

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

Luke wrote:
Meh, what an obnoxious essay! Perhaps it could also just be called "Why Neil deGrasse Tyson is still just middle class and not upper class"! lol

I just think that Tyson realizes that his present lifetime is finite, so he focuses on the subjects which he personally finds the most interesting and important, and he prefers to speak plainly. I don't think he needs to apologize for anything. Could he be more broadly educated regarding to philosophy? Sure, but it might not bring him much benefit.

And I don't think that it does much damage if he tells people not to study philosophy. If any of his listeners are truly interested in philosophy, they will probably just study it anyway. Lots of people like Tyson's speeches, but I don't think that they regard him as some sort of supreme guru for all of life's issues.

I don't know about that. Most of my friends are materialist/atheist leaners, and they sound about like I do when talking about Buddhist thinkers when they talk about people like Degrasse -Tyson, or Harris, or Dawkins..or whoever is seen as a ort of luminary of "science as a philosophy". Whether my friends want to admit it or not, to some degree these people are their "gurus".

I don't think there's anything wrong with that, and I think that all these people have made a valuable contribution to human thought, and are worth listening to - after all, I went to go see him speak (I even had walking pneumonia btw lol), and enjoyed a lot of what he had to say.

That said, the materialist/atheist leaning friends of mine are also really way too credulous with regard to the shortfalls of viewing science as a philosophy of life, and tend to dismiss big, open questions about this worldview with a response that is similar to Tyson's - questioning the usefulness of asking questions in the first place (usually, things that are the most glaring questions which materialists can't yet answer - nature of mind, value etc.). Or worse, they use a tactic you commonly see (on these forums too) of painting anyone willing to question materialist assumptions as being a religious zealot or anti-science crusader.

I would think that -to a Buddhist at least- the usefulness of asking "big" questions (at least the right questions) isn't really debatable.

Despite how smart these guys are, their stuff turns pretty provincial when certain questions get asked...that said, again, I don't wish to diminish their impact, and if I were forced to choose between Degrasse Tyson and the guy who runs the Creationist Museum..I know who i'd choose in a heartbeat lol, I just hope that we can live in a world where those aren't the only two choices.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

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Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

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