Neil tackles timeless subject matter

Progressive Perspective interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson and asked him his opinions on the following topics including climate change, artificial intelligence, the “fake” moon landing, and the existence of God. I’ve added my own two cents below.
Fake Moon Landing
Oh, Neil I’m definitely in your court on this one. I can’t believe this is still a topic of discussion in the 2020s, right? As you stated, it would be a hell of a lot more difficult to fake the moon landings… One thing that I’ve always wanted to ask the non-believers is why in the world would NASA bother to create the Apollo 1 disaster, which killed three astronauts and put the US space race behind two to three years and delayed the moon landing? Wouldn’t it have been easier to skip all the mishaps along the way, if they were just going to fake it from the very start? Ah, makes my head hurt just thinking about it. Where is the logic? It doesn’t exist.
Climate Change
Your answer regarding escaping to another planet and terraforming it to become more like Earth, is classic. If we have the power to terraform, then why not just FIX Earth. We already have a head start on a human-friendly planet.
“If you have the power of geoengineering to turn Mars into Earth, then you have the power to turn Earth back into Earth…”
Does God Exist?
Even though I was brought up as a staunch Catholic (Catholic school, church twice a week) I started questioning the teachings in fifth grade. Being an avid reader and a very inquisitive child, I wondered about the creation. While I didn’t dismiss God, my feelings were, well why can’t you still have a God, but also accept scientific facts, including evolution? I didn’t see any conflict of interest. I still don’t.
Then later in life, I didn’t go along with the all-knowing, all-seeing, omnipotent God for many of the same reasons you gave. Let’s bring up Adam and Eve. If God punished them for being naughty, why did everyone have to suffer for their sins? Doesn’t make any sense. So, the rest of humanity pays for their mistakes for eternity? What kind of nonsense is that? And if he is all-knowing, then he already knew how they’d respond, so…
“God is not all good if we define good as being in the interest of your health and longevity….”
That brings me to my next point. Once while living in Detroit, my husband and I agreed to let two Jehovah Witnesses sit at our table. Not that we were thinking of converting, but we were interested to see how they’d handle our questions and responses. At one point, the older gentleman (the other being his young apprentice) stated the those who had not heard the word of God, were condemned to go to hell. Say what? You bet I questioned him on this and asked, “So, let me get this straight. People who never had a chance to hear his word, are automatically written off?” Yes, he replied. “Well, I don’t know about YOUR God,” I retorted, “but I think I’ll stick with the one that exists in my heart, because he’s much more compassionate than yours!” Silence. They never came back.
And what about the following… Let’s use football as one example. After a game an announcer approaches a team member who thanks God for his great day and his team’s win. Hmmm, I didn’t know that God had a preference. Why did he choose YOUR team over the other? Then what can we extrapolate about your God? In my estimation, I don’t think God cares one way or the other or has the time to be involved in every day human affairs. You did well simply because you did your best and outplayed your opponent. It has nothing to do with a higher power. Think about it.
Where does this leave me? I’m not dismissing God, but I certainly don’t cling to traditional definitions. Anyone or anything that developed and cultivated such a beautiful universe filled with millions of galaxies is way beyond our understanding and certainly above earthly pettiness, trivialities and punishing innocent people, while often letting evil take precedence over good. I think people often justify what occurs, as their way of trying to understand the complexities of the universe. How can the human mind even begin to grasp everything it sees? I think the real God would blow everyone’s mind.
Artificial Intelligence
Regarding Ray Bradbury… “Someone asked him, Ray why do you have all these apocalyptic futuristic stories? Is this what you think we have in store for ourselves? And he says, I don’t write these because I think that’s what our future will be, I write these stories so that you know what future to avoid. And I said, oh, that’s so deep…”
I think AI has a lot of potential, but like anything else, we have to use common sense. Producing a car or helping you increase the resolution of a photograph is one thing, but presently, AI is still in its infancy. As I wrote yesterday, we shouldn’t fully invest in AI and trust that everything it tells us is 100% accurate. Thus, when asking AI a question via a search engine, don’t expect it to be all-knowing. Question what you see and do your own research. Garbage in, garbage out.
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