He ain't No Carl Sagan

[AllenVanAllen]

but he ain't no slouch, when it comes to conveying the story of the universe.


Neil deGrasse Tyson - The Best Sermon Ever! 9 min.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ai-VvboPnA




Here's another favorite Tyson video of mine:

Neil Tyson rebukes Richard Dawkins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxff0k_TEzI

[Orsino]

1. Thank goodness he isn't Sagan.

Tyson mugs for the camera, and most of his on-screen gags are awful, but at least he has a goddamned pulse. I think he presents science well.

edit: thank you very much for these links!

[rcrush]

3. Yah he likes the camera

LOL I saw him do a cameo on the second to last episode of Stargate Atlantis with Bill Nye the Science guy lol. I really like his work though he makes it very interesting.

[AllenVanAllen]

6. Bill Nye has a great show called

Stuff Happens on Planet Green. It's really worth a watch.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/stuff-happens/stuff-happen-details.html

[Orrex]

2. Cool links--thanks!

[Bucky]

4. Sagan was a little too professorial for TV. Explained (and wrote) well, but only talked.

Tyson is, by god, an entertainer! Sure, he reduces every show he does to basically a kid's science show. It's not like I'm going to remember much science beyond a kid's level of understanding anyway. Sagan may've wowed me with his profundity, but Tyson knows to how present to create knowledge retention.

[Deep13]

7. At age 11, I had no trouble understanding Sagan on TV.

People and especially children are not stupid. They don't need the material "dumbed-down."

[AllenVanAllen]

9. Americans aren't as science savvy

as you give them credit for. Only 39 percent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution a recent poll finds. Granted Tyson's style does seem a bit "junior high" but I really appreciate his passion as an educator. :)

[Deep13]

13. Shows like Cosmos and other (mostly written) material when I was a kid...

...MADE me science savy. No slam on Tyson, I think he does a good job. I am only objecting to the suggestion that people (especially children) are somehow too stupid for Sagan's "professorial" style.

The reason I could never become a Creationist as a teenager and adult is because my interest in science as a child convinced me that evolution was a fact.

[Bucky]

11. You forgot to add the "la-tee-da" smily to your post

This discussion is not about you personally and whatever astounding cognitive abilities you've had since your salad days. My comments were about the general public and the ability of presenters to the general to have their ideas penetrate the gray noise of a vibrant commercial public sphere and stay glued to the minds of large numbers of people.

[Deep13]

12. It wasn't me. It was the material.

Sorry if you found it difficult to follow. Most of his viewers did not.

[Deep13]

5. Regarding Dawkins...

...there are people out there who take the approach that Tyson recommends. For example, there's popular science commentator Neil DeGrasse Tyson. And Timothy Ferris and Sam Harris to some degree. Dawkins' own point of view is to be unapologetic and to present the facts as they are. Someone has to point out how insane religious and especially Abrahamic "values" really are. Dawkins makes it clear in his book The God Delusion that it is aimed at those already skeptical and doubting and not to true believers.

Frankly, if you want some real fact-based venom, one ought to read God Is Not Great. If The God Delusion is an indictment, then God Is Not Great is the verdict.

I did not see the other video because I did not want to sit through a 10 minute show.

[hippywife]

8. I think he's a little hokey for my tastes.

He's okay but I've been watching Cosmos again and really love the passion and infectious love Sagan leant to his subject and his program. I so wish he was still around.

[AllenVanAllen]

10. I miss him too .

Cosmos is television at it's finest.

[pokerfan]

14. It's not fair to compare every popularizer of science to Carl

It's not fair to Tyson and it's not fair to the memory of Carl. Not every voice in the chorus need sound the same.

[AllenVanAllen]

15. Well said.

I for one appreciate a variety of voices from the scientific community. The reason behind this post was to showcase Tyson's voice and the what drives him to do what he does. The name of the post comes from the repeated comparisons to Sagan that have been made here and elsewhere :hi:

[Forkboy]

16. No one is. But Neil is still entertaining.

At least he has some genuine enthusiasm that comes across to the viewer.