http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colber ... asse-tyson

Best line in my opinion (and I quote verbatim): "Like most "theologians", Bill O'Reilly can be boiled down to one core argument, God exists because I don't understand how things work."

Never a miscommunication...

What's the miscommunication thing about?

Made of Stars wrote:What's the miscommunication thing about?

The lord spoke and.... shit started happening? Dunno.
Maybe it means that god never misspoke.

Anyone have the Canadian link?

Neil deGrasse Tyson is God!!!!!!

Can't find a way to watch the OP video. But did find this interesting video on youtube while I was searching.

Witticism wrote:

Made of Stars wrote:What's the miscommunication thing about?

O'Reilly's ignorance is both infuriating and hilarious. He seriously believes that any of these questions he asks have not been long since answered, centuries ago in some cases. Of course it would be impossible to answer them on his show because he would never let the person talk. It is true that you can never win an argument with a stupid or willfully ignorant person. It is equally true that such people tend to vastly overestimate their understanding of things. "If *I* don't understand how it works, that means *you* are desperate".

"Explain to me why we have the Moon and the sun and Mars doesn't." "Except for the two it has" and I'm pretty sure that, being part of the same solar system as us, it has the same sun we do.

No wonder so many of his opponents just sit there giving him an incredulous WTF look like, "Can this fucker really be this stupid and uneducated?"

I realize Bill is basically trying to give the Argument from Incredulity" which Colbert nicely sums up as more or less, If I can't explain it, insert God here.

There was a video about William Lane Craig (I think that's his name) and there was a brief clip in it from Colbert. I wish I could find the entire video for that because Colbert was doing a great job of explaining and dismantling the God of the Gaps. "God" is getting smaller and smaller, retreating more and more into the gaps. There was a time when almost everything was a mystery, an unknown. You could point anywhere and say, "Can't explain that, can you? There's my god. Anything we can't explain, that's automatically my god." But as we learn ever more, God retreats more and more. Don't need a god to explain the development of life anymore. There's an explanation for the beginning of life that doesn't require a god. Likewise, we don't need a god for life to progress. Don't need a god to explain the formation of the universe in it's current form. God retreats more and more into what is still unknown but it starts to become obvious that this is what is happening and what always did happen. God is just a word for what we dont know and as such, "God" is getting smaller as there are fewer and fewer hiding places, fewer gaps. Currently, he's hiding out in the Big Bang. Even there, he's no longer needed. It is as easy to surmise that the energy may always have existed. At least we know it exists which is more than can be said for "God", an extra and complete assertion, an explanation that the unknown that isn't nearly as unknown as it once was.

Sometimes it's hard to believe BillO can get by pretending to be that stupid.

But one never goes broke underestimating the gullibility of the general public....

Food goes in, poop comes out, never a miscommunication.
[although in O'Rly's case the same orifice is involved]

proudfootz wrote:Sometimes it's hard to believe BillO can get by pretending to be that stupid.

But one never goes broke underestimating the gullibility of the general public....

Possibly or possibly you are underestimating a person's capacity to be smart in a lot of ways but have blind spots. I've known many people like that who are very intelligent in many ways and yet when it comes to certain things, religion being one of them, can't think critically for anything.

Spearthrower wrote:

Napoleon wrote:Comment, vous faites tout le système du monde, vous donnez les lois de toute la création et dans tout votre livre vous ne parlez pas une seule fois de l'existence de Dieu !

Laplace wrote:Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothesis-la

English translation please.

I think the problem is, he thinks your responses are being intentionally obtuse by taking them at face value. It seems pretty obvious to me that he isn't talking about the brute facts of nature (of which he seems to know next-to-nothing, and doesn't care to), he's just in utter and complete awe at this whole universe thing. He thinks that to know about something is to belittle it. Electricity is just electricity, but with God, it's something more. Why that extra thing has to be there, and you can't simply marvel at nature as it is, to not have to literally personify this sense is totally beyond me at this point.

So:

Moonwatcher wrote:

proudfootz wrote:Sometimes it's hard to believe BillO can get by pretending to be that stupid.

But one never goes broke underestimating the gullibility of the general public....

Possibly or possibly you are underestimating a person's capacity to be smart in a lot of ways but have blind spots. I've known many people like that who are very intelligent in many ways and yet when it comes to certain things, religion being one of them, can't think critically for anything.

Maybe we could use the term 'gullibility' to refer to such 'blind spots'?

Thus words that suggest 'religion' is a kind of code that says to certain listeners: "Do not use critical thought here."

Laplace wrote:I had no need of that hypothesis.