Pope Fires Chief Astronomer
... and it's about damn time. It always seemed silly to me that the Catholic church had a scientific branch that meddled in the real world ... after all, the church is anything but in the real world. The world of funny hats and robes went away with the inquisition and the whole infallibility thing, back in the dark ages.
Oh wait ... infallibility ... inquisition ... this is still only 2006 ... never mind.
The Pope apparently was getting really pissed with the 73-year-old Father George Coyne, former director of the Vatican Observatory. Coyne has been a fervent supporter of the theory of evolution and an aristarch of intelligent design. Apparently there was only so many pot-shots the Pope was willing to let one of his minions take at god-sanctioned science -- so, acting like a vengeful demigod, he sacked Coyne and replaced him with a more suitable crony -- one that will no doubt obey.
Which raises an interesting point. Coyne was appointed to his former position by the previous regime. If you believe in all the infallibility crap, just how do you reconcile Coyne's appointment with the correction now being made? Wasn't John Paul guided by providence when he appointed Coyne? Is this sorta like the Christian god knowing about Lucifer before the fall? Was Coyne set up to fail?
Anyway, does anyone really care about this?
Which of these images don't belong to this post?
In other astronomical news, today, Pluto likewise was voted out -- the IAU, another divine body, decided in their collective wisdom, that Pluto was no longer a planet. Some 2.7 billion miles away, Pluto and Charon continued their eternal dance, not giving a rat's ass what some humans down on Earth thought about them. Besides, when you're named after the god of the underworld, you sorta expect that you were never really wanted in the first place.
Oh wait ... infallibility ... inquisition ... this is still only 2006 ... never mind.
The Pope apparently was getting really pissed with the 73-year-old Father George Coyne, former director of the Vatican Observatory. Coyne has been a fervent supporter of the theory of evolution and an aristarch of intelligent design. Apparently there was only so many pot-shots the Pope was willing to let one of his minions take at god-sanctioned science -- so, acting like a vengeful demigod, he sacked Coyne and replaced him with a more suitable crony -- one that will no doubt obey.
Which raises an interesting point. Coyne was appointed to his former position by the previous regime. If you believe in all the infallibility crap, just how do you reconcile Coyne's appointment with the correction now being made? Wasn't John Paul guided by providence when he appointed Coyne? Is this sorta like the Christian god knowing about Lucifer before the fall? Was Coyne set up to fail?
Anyway, does anyone really care about this?
Which of these images don't belong to this post?
In other astronomical news, today, Pluto likewise was voted out -- the IAU, another divine body, decided in their collective wisdom, that Pluto was no longer a planet. Some 2.7 billion miles away, Pluto and Charon continued their eternal dance, not giving a rat's ass what some humans down on Earth thought about them. Besides, when you're named after the god of the underworld, you sorta expect that you were never really wanted in the first place.
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