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If a humanity-ending asteroid heads our way, will anyone believe scientists? (movie)

#1
C C Offline
https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/don...saurs.html

INTRO: In the new movie Don’t Look Up, available on Netflix, astronomers played by Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio try to tell the world that a comet 9 kilometers wide will collide with the Earth in six months, utterly destroying most life and ending human civilization. This is decidedly not Armageddon but a dark comedy. When the astronomers appear on a talk show to get the message out, one host asks if the comet can land on his ex-wife’s house, and the other chides the astronomers for not being light enough for their morning segment. Media training is recommended.

It’s a cliché that every disaster movie begins with someone ignoring a scientist, because our real-life disasters start the same way. Don’t Look Up is a thinly veiled critique of society’s feeble response to scientists’ warnings about the existential threat of climate change, and has special relevancy now because of the inability of many of us to understand and act on what scientists tell us about how viruses work. As an astrophysicist, I have felt sympathy for scientists trying to convey these dangers: Climate change is happening on scales too large to perceive easily; viruses are too small to be seen directly. I have also smugly assumed that if a mountain-size comet, plainly visible in the sky, were barreling to Earth at 25,000 mph, my colleagues and I could communicate the dangers... (MORE - details)

Official Trailer

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/RbIxYm3mKzI

(SPOILERS!) Brian Cox Breaks Down The Science Behind Don’t Look Up

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ntaidEKs_Ks
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#2
Syne Offline
If a comet...or we're past the point of no return on the climate, as many alarmists claim...is definitely going to destroy all life on Earth, it's pointless to worry about it. Widespread acceptance of imminent annihilation would only cause panic and more suffering than otherwise.

You know, aside from agenda driven bullshit (from people frequently flying private jets) masquerading as entertainment.
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#3
billvon Offline
(Dec 30, 2021 01:41 AM)Syne Wrote: If a comet...or we're past the point of no return on the climate, as many alarmists claim...is definitely going to destroy all life on Earth
That was sorta the point of the movie.  We had a chance to stop the comet, but got distracted by money.

There's a lesson there.
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#4
Syne Offline
(Dec 30, 2021 10:49 PM)billvon Wrote:
(Dec 30, 2021 01:41 AM)Syne Wrote: If a comet...or we're past the point of no return on the climate, as many alarmists claim...is definitely going to destroy all life on Earth
That was sorta the point of the movie.  We had a chance to stop the comet, but got distracted by money.

There's a lesson there.

Thanks for letting me know, as I'm not even kinda interested in watching agenda-driven crap.

The difference, then, is that anyone could train a telescope on an approaching comet, while we have only models and predictions, that have repeatedly proven completely wrong, for the supposed coming climate apocalypse. So at best, it's a bad analogy...unless the movie also plays up a string of scientists making claims about Earth-ending comets being proven wrong before the current doomsayers are ignored. But they already made that movie. It was call Chicken Little.
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#6
Syne Offline
(Dec 31, 2021 05:13 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: I watched it. It’s an old trope like within the book of Jonah where our religious needs between comfort and truth conflict.

Uh, the Ninevites believed Jonah.

Where is this supposed conflict between comfort and truth in religion?
There's no conflict between the comfort of living a good life and the consequences of living a bad one.
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#7
Secular Sanity Offline
(Dec 31, 2021 06:31 PM)Syne Wrote:
(Dec 31, 2021 05:13 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: I watched it. It’s an old trope like within the book of Jonah where our religious needs between comfort and truth conflict.

Uh, the Ninevites believed Jonah.

Where is this supposed conflict between comfort and truth in religion?


Jonah was seeking truth, not comfort. He was upset because it was out of comfort and convenience in which everyone came to God, but in the end he was reminded that seeking comfort is an inherent human trait.
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#8
Syne Offline
(Dec 31, 2021 07:11 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote:
(Dec 31, 2021 06:31 PM)Syne Wrote: Uh, the Ninevites believed Jonah.

Where is this supposed conflict between comfort and truth in religion?


Jonah was seeking truth, not comfort. He was upset because it was out of comfort and convenience in which everyone came to God, but in the end he was reminded that seeking comfort is an inherent human trait.

Jonah wasn't seeking anything. He was commanded by god to warn the Ninevites. Jonah initially disobeyed because he thought Nineveh deserved its fate. The only part about comfort is Jonah being more concerned for his own than a whole city of people being destroyed. In which case, at best, Jonah desired comfort more than mercy (not truth).

Are you sure you're thinking of the right book of the Bible...or the Bible at all?
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#9
Secular Sanity Offline
(Dec 31, 2021 08:50 PM)Syne Wrote:
(Dec 31, 2021 07:11 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote:
(Dec 31, 2021 06:31 PM)Syne Wrote: Uh, the Ninevites believed Jonah.

Where is this supposed conflict between comfort and truth in religion?


Jonah was seeking truth, not comfort. He was upset because it was out of comfort and convenience in which everyone came to God, but in the end he was reminded that seeking comfort is an inherent human trait.

Jonah wasn't seeking anything. He was commanded by god to warn the Ninevites. Jonah initially disobeyed because he thought Nineveh deserved its fate. The only part about comfort is Jonah being more concerned for his own than a whole city of people being destroyed. In which case, at best, Jonah desired comfort more than mercy (not truth).

Are you sure you're thinking of the right book of the Bible...or the Bible at all?

He was angry that God didn't do what he said he was going to do. He spared the pagans. His wrath and his mercy is a sharp contrast between the religious need for truth and comfort.
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#10
Syne Offline
(Jan 1, 2022 01:27 AM)Secular Sanity Wrote:
(Dec 31, 2021 08:50 PM)Syne Wrote: Jonah wasn't seeking anything. He was commanded by god to warn the Ninevites. Jonah initially disobeyed because he thought Nineveh deserved its fate. The only part about comfort is Jonah being more concerned for his own than a whole city of people being destroyed. In which case, at best, Jonah desired comfort more than mercy (not truth).

Are you sure you're thinking of the right book of the Bible...or the Bible at all?

He was angry that God didn't do what he said he was going to do. He spared the pagans. His wrath and his mercy is a sharp contrast between the religious need for truth and comfort.

No, Jonah expressly disobeyed god because he knew god would be merciful, and Jonah thought Nineveh deserved its fate. He knew beforehand, if Nineveh repented, god would spare them. That's the whole reason he didn't go to warn them.

God's wrath and mercy are thus both completely predictable, as responses to our actions. You trying to twist "truth and comfort" into "wrath and mercy" is either backpedaling or some serious self-contorting mental gymnastics. Fasting, wearing sackcloth (burlap), and giving up your pleasurable vices is not exactly comfort. That takes discipline and self-control.

You should really quit trying to cite the Bible, as you always flub it spectacularly (like you trying to claim Eve wasn't told about the tree of life, even though the Bible explicitly quotes her as saying she was).
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