“… reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.”
— Richard Feynman
If you thought that biological evolution was the only science being attacked by the religious nutjobs in the US, think again. A Bush appointed fuckwit in the NASA press office is trying his best to wedge religion into astronomy: [via Bad Astronomy]
The Big Bang is “not proven fact; it is opinion,” Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, “It is not NASA’s place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator.”
Makes me want to hit something.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe….”
— Albert Einstein
You might want to note that Stephen Hawking, in a BriefER History of Time, indicates that it’s entirely possible that there may not have been a big bang and that… oh bugger, I’ve forgotten exactly how it went but it did make sense at the time. It’s a REALLY good book though. Buy it.
Although anyway quite frankly I’ve always held that the big bang theory fits in nicely with the idea of a religious creation.
However I do tend to agree: let scientists do the science. Let religionists (?) do the religion. Don’t let religionists meddle with religion, unless they’re prepared to have the scientists mess on with their religion. It’s only fair.