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This week on The Gralien Report Podcast, it’s Star Wars Day, so “May the Fourth be with you!” And speaking of Star Wars and aliens, how about this “Alien” worm in a viral video that’s sweeping the web… we’ll tell you why it’s the real deal, and how science may, in fact, recognize it as a rare kind of worm with an unusual way of feeding. We’ll also spend a bit of time discussing people who have almost miraculously survived incredible falls, following Micah’s own recent close call, which has him thinking (of course) about Missing 411 cases of people who vanish in wilderness areas.
Then in hour two, is science really as reliable as it is often made out to be, especially when it comes to claims of unusual happenings? Podcaster and author Alex Tsakiris joins us to discuss his new book, Why Science is Wrong… About Almost Everything. It’s a bold statement indeed, and during this insightful discussion, Alex tells us why he feels strongly that it’s true. You can learn more about Alex and his work at his website, Skeptikos, and you can purchase his book here.
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I almost always love TGR and all of the associated member content..but I have to say, I think this man is condescending and kind of a jerk.
To be fair, I am a scientist, and I understand that he is not opposing scientific methods of measurement and experimentation; I agree with him that we don’t have all of the answers. My issue with this man is that he doesn’t have all of the answers, either..and just because he “calls out” some popular atheists on his show doesn’t mean he knows what he is talking about.
Mr. Tsakiris thrives on trapping people in a corner and forcing them to admit that they could be wrong.
If you, Micah are the middle ground, then Mr. Tsakiris falls to one far extreme and atheists the other.
What he doesn’t seem to understand, and unfortunately neither does most of the public, is that “scientists” (such as myself) and whoever these atheist-movement leaders are, may not be the same people.
Yes, mainstream science might need a nudge toward studying consciousness, near-death experiences and the paranormal, but forcing those few pop-culturally relevant scientists/atheists/mathematicians/authors does nothing but create a larger divide between the scientific and the spiritual communities.
I tried listening to his podcast but had to delete if off my favorites list because he is just so cocky and ill-informed when it comes to *actual* science that it made me cringe. It feels like listening to a Christian debate an evolutionary biologist. Their world views are just so fundamentally different that there is absolutely no point in arguing, except possibly to rally the troops on on side or another.
Aside from my obvious disdain for that episode, I love you, TGR. Keep it up!
You people! Look at every religious group in the world and what you find is an academic conspiracy where experience is discouraged for having faith in books. This has always been done by saying that the experts did the work and is always kept from being proved wrong by people like you above commenter who have faith rather than experience. When you stop reading and watching and believing, and start meeting people and experiencing then you step out side the atheist religious left right paradigm that has demonized spirituality in this country. I love how atheists blame religion for mass atrocity when you can see that atheist leaders control every religion at their top levels and through the academic clergy reinterpret media to fit their agenda and get believers to commit not to god but to an atheist mind set of rationalizing atrocities for the good of an empire. This is exactly the model for the American school system. Rather than experience and gain perspective school sits you in a chapel with bells, and has a preacher stand in front of you with a bible and gives you opinions and prejudice about things and other countries they know you will never experience to prove wrong. We do not have an education system in America we have a religious indoctrination system. Media, Books, computers, T.V., these are all reference tools, look it up in the dictionary. Would you prepare to fight Georges St. Pier by reading a martial arts book? No, what we have is a an academic hypocrisy. For instance if a 6 year old child repeats history 101 the hypocrisy says he knows history, yet if the same child read penthouse letters he doesn’t know what he is talking about because he has no experience with sex? Hypocrisy? I would argue a child could understand sex something experience-able way more than history something we can never recreate or re-enact. The people Alex has experience with are proving science to be an academic hypocrisy of people who have no perspective and no experience but have faith in a stack of books. That sounds like a religion to me. The more we question these scientists the more we find they read books and quote opinions and have never performed a single scientific test? Keep going to church buddy and keep believing that one persons experience equals every one’s. And for the record we do not have real science in a capitalist nations, capitalism requires that no long term testing ever be done because no body today will prosper if it takes 100 years to test long term effects. Basically science looks at an orange in full bloom and says that’s what it is now give me my Nobel Prize and then 10 years later one of Alex’s guests tests the orange and finds it soggy molded and rotting. You can look around and see nothing is constant yet science your religion has you believe that things are consistent because insufficient research is good enough for their congregation. It isn’t good enough for me someone who was pulled out of regular elementary school and sent to Regis college for special science courses. Discouraging experience is the key to an academic tyranny and the corner stone of ignorance.