Watched the first episode tonight. Awesome.

In a great timeline, mentioned several of the great world religions and when they came into being. Oddly enough, not one mention of Joseph Smith, golden plates, or the Book of Mormon. But it was the first episode, so I'm sure Neil will get to that later.

I was delighted that I was able to talk the family into watching it with me. My kids were awed but TBM hubs kept snorting in parts - like mention of the Big Bang and the age of the earth.

"Kolob's Power and the Myth of Solar Fusion"

; )

We had tbm friends over who also did the obnoxious gestures like snorting. Including audible sighs and snide remarks...like"yeah right" when he spoke about the big bang,Bruno, and the dinosaurs. I realized how far I've come and how obnoxious I used to sound. I hope they watch the whole thing.....maybe it will get them thinking.

It was ok, but I was annoyed with how anti-religious the show was.

Why does science need to keep taking shots at religion? It's not like religion has ever done anything against science or scientists.

If you look at some of the best scientists in history - they were mostly religious. And their religions encouraged their scientific inquiry.

Only a few times did religion punish an uppity scientist - and that's because the stupid scientist totally deserved it.

Like Galileo.

That big mouthed jerk face.

Religious fundamentalists are trying to destroy science and not the other way 'round...

Raptor Jesus Wrote:
------------------------- > Like Galileo.
>
> That big mouthed jerk face.

BBQ him like Bruno even!

I didn't watch it, but my 26yo atheist astro-physics major daughter did. She was very disappointed in it. She said it was "stupid and boring." Sounds like the true Lord Raptor didn't think much of it either.

Isn't Raptor Jesus being satirical? Galileo was a doormat for the faithful.

Yep. I think we've been Poe'd.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

It is coming on here as of next week. It looks awesome. I will be watching it for sure.

Copernicus and Gallileo barely got a mention and they were actually scientists! Nope, instead they took a monk, NOT a scientist nor alchemist, who had a mystical revelation (a pretty dang good one, too!) and was tried for heresy. And Bruno lived in between the Copernicus and Gallileo time periods. This was not a trial against science, but against a revelation/vision that someone wouldn't recant. They were a bit tougher on heretics in those days.LOL

And I hated how they made the Catholics look like Disney villains...But the green screen effects were fun. Love the way he "forgot" to mention that he was one of the votes for demoting Pluto from Planet status...just, "One of those rocks is Pluto...")

Loved the show. BTW, I don't think Cosmos is anti-religion so much as that religion has a history of being anti-science, which seemed to be the point they were making. Also, I think it's a lot more dangerous to criticize religion today than it was in Carl Sagan's time, because he made even bolder criticisms in his Cosmos. I can't wait to see the rest of the series.

We watched it. Enjoyed the effects, it was well done, the kids loved the calendar. I didn't find it overtly anti-religion. The one thing we all agreed on was that there was nothing in it that we didn't already know, that's okay though we will watch it again next week.

I think the whole Bruno thing was a bit much--maybe Seth MacFarlane's influence? They spent a good chunk of an hour show on him, and it seemed a little anti-religious; I was surprised they actually mentioned Moses, Jesus, and the Big M.

Maybe I'm sensitive because I did a really bad play about Bruno a few years ago....

I think Bruno got the attention because he was religious. He worked from a vision, not evidence. Remember, this is on commercial TV, not PBS. So I think this was a bit of pandering to the audience, to keep the audience.

Notice the cosmic calendar called out the birth of significant religious minds (whether factual or not) not the great minds of science.

They've got to keep an audience to sell ads to so they play up the angles the audience will likely like.

Yeah, the Bruno bit was a bit long for something that wasn't really science, in that he didn't even use the scientific method to come up with his claim, it was philosophy. I did like the animation style they used for it. Although they made the villains kind of caricatures. They could have just done the philosophical arrow argument to show people even before the telescope questioning the firmament,and then gone into Galileo. Although I guess Galileo's house arrest for calling the Pope a poopyhead wouldn't have made for as good a story.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2014 10:49AM by winklebottom.

It was decidedly "On Topic".

Loved it!

And to those who didn't like the animated Bruno story: Perhaps the creators disneyfied that portion of the show to allow young minds to see just how ludicrous it is when religion attempts to thwart free speech and honest thinking. (And too, the mormon religion isn't the only one with a sordid, evil past.)

The millenial crowd wasn't able to experience, viscerally, the heady optimism pertaining to all things science, that permeated the culture (at least in the states) in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Science, and scientific inquiry, was celebrated (and funded). Today. Not so much.

I'm hoping the "science" pendulum begins swinging back to one where it is celebrated and nurtured in our society, not vilified and marginalized.

I was kind of glad they cartoonified the Bruno portion, because my super-strict and overprotective husband would have turned it off if it had been more realistic when portraying the torture and murder. Since it was cartoonish, he let it slide and the kids were allowed to keep watching.

Yes, the cartoony sections, IMO, were there to make it more kid-friendly, although all the other eye-popping CGI work was jaw-dropping.

I, too, thought the Galileo story was going to be featured, because he didn't get in trouble so much for his views, but because he did call the pope a poopy-head (not sure if that's a direct translation from Italian or Latin)

P.S. I am trying to set the RfM world-record for using the -dash.

You can't trust that Neil deGrasse Tyson guy. He's a SCIENTIST. ; ' )

Mormonism is a myth of a myth. Absurdity based on absurdity. If you point out the absurdity of Christianity you've got mormonism covered.