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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
 Posted - 09/24/2001 : 17:37:27
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New PBS TV series starts this week, perhaps tonight in your neck of the woods.
From the PBS website, on Part 1:
"For 21 years, Charles Darwin kept his theory of evolution secret from all but a few friends. He confided to one: "It is like confessing to a murder." His torment resonates in society today in the challenge his incredibly powerful idea poses to our understanding of our world and ourselves. We interweave the drama in key moments of Darwin's life with documentary sequences of current research, linking past to present and introducing major concepts of evolutionary theory. We also explore why Darwin's "dangerous idea" matters perhaps even more today than it did in his own time, and how it conveys the power of science to explain the past and predict the future of life on earth."
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Marc_a_b
Skeptic Friend
USA
142 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2001 : 18:44:54 [Permalink]
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almost done watching it right now. It's pretty darn good! Mostly historical dramatization of Darwin, going through his life, going through the logic that led to his discovery. Mixed in is modern discussions, such as the evolution of the eye, and a very interesting talk on evolution and HIV.
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James
SFN Regular
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2001 : 18:52:24 [Permalink]
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I'm taping it now. Please don't ruin the ending for me. 
The way I see it, christians are godless too...they just don't know it yet. |
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steinhenge
Skeptic Friend
USA
69 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2001 : 20:08:09 [Permalink]
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[quote]
I'm taping it now. Please don't ruin the ending for me.
All I'll say is this:
God, in the library, with the candlestick.
"Oh good, cookies" |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2001 : 20:39:12 [Permalink]
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Quite a dramatic ending with the death of Darwin. He wanted to just be buried in the churchyard nearby, "T'would be heavenly". His friends and peers successfully petitioned to have him buried near Sir Issac Newton in Westminister Abbey.
Incredible mind, Darwin, to be able to mentally project over vast distances of time with such brilliance of observation.
He started on his 5 year scientific trek back in 1831, 5 years before the fall of the Alamo. That's a hell of a long time ago! |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2001 : 01:35:41 [Permalink]
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quote:
I'm taping it now. Please don't ruin the ending for me.
Thanks Stein, me too. Got home after 10pm tonight and don't know when I'll have time to see 1st part. Am waiting to get the whole thing on one tape too. And it will be repeated all at one time this Sunday.
Rap Crap is to music what Paint by Numbers is to art. |
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donestephens
New Member
USA
1 Post |
Posted - 09/25/2001 : 04:55:09 [Permalink]
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I was as excited at the potential of Evolution as anyone, but this show is a stinker. The bulk of the first episode is a not particularly dramatic or interesting or well-told account of Darwin and the development of his ideas. I have nothing against a biography of Darwin, but this doesn't work either as his biography or his idea's biography.
The strongest part was the segment on HIV. I suppose that the notion of mixing a dramatic presentation with several mini-documentaries might be effective, but here it is an annoyance.
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I Doubt It
New Member
USA
12 Posts |
Posted - 09/26/2001 : 09:32:23 [Permalink]
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I like it. It makes me feel good about my career choice (geologist), my interests (paleontology) and my beliefs (agnosticism)or lack thereof. It also pisses me off to know I was at those outcrops in Central Pennsylvania and didn't find any neat Devonian fossils.
I also found it interesting that I was reading the Science article about humans as the main evolutionary force (in pests and diseases) while the HIV segment was on. Also, I constructed an arguement about transitional whale fossils, same species as was mentioned, a few years ago when I had an online tete-a-tete with a Creationist. I learned a lot and I left him/her flummoxed at times so it was WELL worth the research. It's a fascinating subject.
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James
SFN Regular
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2001 : 09:35:33 [Permalink]
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quote:
It also pisses me off to know I was at those outcrops in Central Pennsylvania and didn't find any neat Devonian fossils.
Head back, dude! You still might get the leftovers. [j/k] You might want to wait til spring, though. I hear that winters in Pennsylvania are harsh.
The way I see it, christians are godless too...they just don't know it yet. |
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I Doubt It
New Member
USA
12 Posts |
Posted - 09/27/2001 : 17:02:22 [Permalink]
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quote:
Head back, dude! You still might get the leftovers. [j/k] You might want to wait til spring, though. I hear that winters in Pennsylvania are harsh.
Not lately! I don't have the gift of finding cool fossils.
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ljbrs
SFN Regular
USA
842 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2001 : 06:29:35 [Permalink]
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I started to watch the televised Darwin story on PBS, but it quickly degenerated into a bland, boring, poorly written and acted drama. Perhaps no television program or movie could ever do justice to the life of Darwin.
ljbrs
*Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.* Goethe |
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James
SFN Regular
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2001 : 08:38:08 [Permalink]
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I had taped the hour on religion. Fortunetly. I gotta say, Ken Ham looks exactly like a reject from Planet of the Apes. Does he ever shave? I just fast-forwarded through the hot air he was spouting. IMO, I think I fast-forwarded through close to half the hour on religion.
The way I see it, christians are godless too...they just don't know it yet. |
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Hook
Skeptic Friend
USA
79 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2001 : 15:56:14 [Permalink]
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quote:
IMO, I think I fast-forwarded through close to half the hour on religion.
I watched the whole hour and found the religion stuff interesting as it interviewed a number of fundamentalist college students for whom rationality was beginning to take hold and they were really wrestling with it. They weren't rejecting their Christianity, but were struggling to reason about their faith and science. It was a cool process to watch.
BTW, I hate to say this, But, his ideas aside, Ham is a good entertainer, quite funny even though I hate everything he says. That's an advantage in convincing people who don't think critically that you are right, and should not be underestimated.
One disadvantage Science has is that, as a group, I would guess that preachers are far better socialized that most scientists. That's not a chop at science or academics, just one of the realities one needs to be aware of. I know there are exceptions, but I think this observation holds.
People who don't like to think want to feel warm and fuzzy about what is being said. It would be nice to say 'f**k 'em if they don't want to do the work', but a lot of these people who don't like to think affect public policy about science.
========8^(_____________________________)
(P-)>
We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars. |
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theweirdirishman
New Member
8 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2001 : 09:43:19 [Permalink]
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I've been watching the Evolution series on PBS over the past week, and I've loved it! I especially liked the first on Darwin. I watch TLC a lot, and their documentaries are either re-enactments or narrarations of real life. The Darwin episode was an excellent blend of both. I loved how it portrayed how afraid Darwin was of expressing his beliefs and his trials toward getting Orgin of Specieswritten. I hope that PBS will do similar specials in the future.
-theweirdirishman
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 10/17/2001 : 14:46:28 [Permalink]
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Just came across this fundamentalist's review of the PBS Evolution program. This guy is nuts!
http://icr.org/headlines/pbsevolution.html
...from the site:
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911 RANG AGAIN - A REVIEW OF THE PBS VIDEO SERIES "EVOLUTION"
Ken Cumming, Ph.D. Biology
Another Attack
It was about 10 a.m. in the morning of September 11, 2001 when Barbara Olson called her husband Ted from a cell phone on board American Airlines flight 77 to tell him, "We've been hijacked!"1 Ted told her in turn that he saw on TV along with millions of others that two airliners already had crashed into the World Trade Center an hour earlier. In one grand wakeup call, America heard the cry for "help" from thousands of civilians victimized by Osama bin Laden's god-squad. (You can read ICR's, heart-felt prayer about this.)
Only 13 days later on Public Broadcasting Stations, a seven-part, eight-hour event of grave importance was also witnessed by millions of Americans, but the pall of New York City, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania airline crashes overshadowed all other news. PBS with the aid of WGBH in Boston and Clear Blue Sky Productions televised one of the boldest assaults yet against our public schools and the millions of innocent victims - our school children.
Both events have much in common. The public was unaware of the deliberate preparation that was schemed over the past few years to lead to these events. And while the public now understands from President Bush that "We're at War"3 with religious fanatics around the world, they don't have a clue that America is being attacked from within through its public schools by a militant religious movement called Darwinists.
=====================================
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ljbrs
SFN Regular
USA
842 Posts |
Posted - 10/17/2001 : 18:42:01 [Permalink]
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quote:
Both events have much in common. The public was unaware of the deliberate preparation that was schemed over the past few years to lead to these events. And while the public now understands from President Bush that "We're at War"3 with religious fanatics around the world, they don't have a clue that America is being attacked from within through its public schools by a militant religious movement called Darwinists.
You must be joking! In my opinion, the only people who have any kind of similarity to the fanatic folks in Islam are the fanatic scheming Christians who are attempting to force their silliness upon the rest of us. I come from early Americans (Puritans) and there is a good reason for the separation of Church and State. The framers of our Constitution of the United States knew full well the dangers of fanatic religious rule. The Puritans were vicious and believed fervently in a lot of stupid ideas which eventually led to Puritanism's demise. Puritanism was similar in its fanaticism to the religious extremism now being promoted by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban movement in Islam.
Oh well, I was lucky to have been brought up in a scientific family (which had long shed the religious silliness of their ancestors). I have been a skeptic ever since I can remember (of my own choosing).
Let us say, that if there is a God, it would be blasphemous for us to promote any of our own ideas in the name of that deity. Since evolution obviously is the way things have happened, and if there is a God, then evolution is the work of that God. If there is no God, then evolution just happened due to natural selection (my personal choice). To believe in Creationism's silliness means forcing one's brain into the shape of a pretzel. I suppose that if the Creationists do this long enough, we will have a completely separate human species evolve as a result.
ljbrs 
*Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.* Goethe |
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