Lately, I have been listening to a lot of speeches and interviews from a scientist who has been gaining a lot of my respect, Neil deGrasse Tyson. You may recognise him as the guy in the Badass Meme. He speaks a lot about how I felt about science when I was a kid growing up and how the space program inspires many to be scientists, engineers and mathematicians and why the NASA space program is so influential in this area. He also sometimes speak about the education of children to develop the skills necessary to be interested in science, which of course goes right up my alley of promoting STEM education.
When I was about 9, I got an encyclopedia for my birthday present and that had a pretty big science slant to it. It also has the characters from the comic strip Peanuts on it which was the first comic strip I will read when the newspaper arrived on the table. That to me was my first exposure to the wonder of space, and ultimately, science. The solar system, stars, galaxies, nebulas, black holes. The list goes on. Read about missions to the moon more times than I can count, the space shuttle missions, including the first American female astronaut who recently passed away, Sally Ride. I remember I had great respect for her when I was that age because even back then, not many girls I know were interested in math or science. That time I changed my mind about what I want to be when I grow up from doctor to scientist (more specifically, an astronomer). So hearing the words from Dr. Tyson on how space has a way of operating on our culture echoes a lot of my childhood years. At this moment, I realise how immensely fortunate that I had the resources as a child to gain an interest in science and still do to this day (though there were speed bumps along the way, including from the very people who gave me the resources to learn but that is another story altogether)
Besides being attributed as the Carl Sagan of our generation, he also grabs my attention on other things that are somewhat weakly related to science. While he pretty much discredits God, he does some very important things to say to both the ignorant religious people and the "holier-than-thou" atheists. I have to admit that sometimes we as Christians say some pretty stupid things when science gets into the mix. Or even worse that we credit science as the devil's work (though this is largely from an American demographic, from my observations. I don't think I have come across any Asians who say this sort of things about science). And I'm not even referring to the idea of evolution versus so-called intelligent design, which can get pretty dicey. There are just too many short comments from him that we can learn, especially when we try to have an open discussion between our beliefs and science, that I highly recommend watching some of these speeches/interviews. They easily go for an hour each but I'd say it will broaden your mind on the issue. At the very least when it comes to constructing sound arguments and not try to answer everything with the God of the gaps theory.
I wished I had heard this before I started my PhD. I would have been more focused in trying to finish it. Eventually.
A must watched video on short gripes he has about weak arguments, whether from religious people (read: Christians) or skeptics.
A dialogue between Dr. Tyson and Richard Dawkins. It's more interesting that you think it is.
A highly entertaining interview between Stephen Colbert and Dr. Tyson
I apologize if some of the things he say overlap in all the videos.
The badass in Neil deGrasse Tyson is justified.
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I've witnessed to an interrogation that I've drawn a lot of parallels with my own experience though arguably less severe. Even after all these years, I'm still learning things about it. Perhaps I have not fully learned everything that I need to know from that period of time. It might be one of those RPG-esque situations where I need to grind before I level up to move on. And no, I don't have enough XP. Yet.
On the flip side, I'm learning a new skill as a result of some of these side quests, learn whether someone is not telling the whole story and the discernment to spill the beans. This might prove to be very useful.
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