I am both royally ticked off and bitterly disappointed with the Science Channel. Last week's episode of "Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman" explored the idea that the physical laws of the universe are so finely tuned that they indicate a creator. For example, if the weak and strong nuclear forces were not exactly balanced the way they are, the Big Bang would have resulted in a universe of mostly helium instead of hydrogen. No hydrogen means no water, and no water means no life.
First off, I would respectfully remind us all that Morgan Freeman is an actor. He is not a physicist. He is not a theologian. He is not a philosopher. He is the guy who has the neat voice from that penguin movie. He is the guy who started his career as Easy Reader on "The Electric Company," for crying out loud. I have no idea to whose agenda this whole creator nonsense belongs, but it is patently absurd, and if the so-called Science Channel thinks that Morgan Freeman gives it additional weight by virtue of his superior narration skills, they need to change their effing name.
The universe is what the universe is. The fact that we have intelligence enough to explore its rules and laws and origins is a happy accident. We, as Kurt Vonnegut said, are the lucky mud that got to sit up and look around. What a wonderful, happy turn of events! But how its relative unlikelihood points to proof of an intelligent designer is a logical fallacy of the highest order.
The program did attempt to sidestep the religious implications by positing the idea that perhaps our universe is a sim entertaining this same intelligent designer. That we are, in effect, non-player characters in the ultimate game. This was supposed to make me feel all Twilight Zoney, I guess, as well as letting the Science Channel keep their science cred.
I don't buy it. I don't buy the phony statistics that creationists use to "disprove" evolution, and I don't buy the intelligent designer. Occam's Razor, baby. Until that burning bush speaks directly to ME, I will continue to happily go through life knowing that the greatest power is that of the human mind, even if sometimes that power is used in the service of self-delusion.
I am done with Morgan Freeman and going back to Stephen Hawking's show on Discovery Channel.
Hawking does it better anyway.
I agree. I find it very disheartening when the History Channels, Discovery and the Science channel give any viable credibility to the pseudo sciences, conspiracy theories and UFO history (Ancient Aliens)
ReplyDeleteI go to those channels for reality, plausibility, and intelligent speculation. If I want fluff science I'll go to Sci-Fi or youtube.
Haunted History is fun but not on serious networks or at least with frequent disclaimers., but preferably not at all.
Speaking of Sci-Fi..wtf is it with WWE??? OK it's fiction but it's not science fiction an dit sure shouldn't be cutting into Warehouse 13. It's scripted so get in the time slot you paid for.