Bill O'Reilly on science: Why is Earth the only planet with a moon?

As my blogmate Jim Rainey has frequently pointed out, Fox News has its own unique view of the world, where the facts rarely get in the way, most recently in the way Fox pollster Frank Luntz used a strange brand of faux science to find a panel of people unimpressed by President Obama's recent State of the Union address. But when it comes to seeing the world through the wrong end of a telescope, no one tops Bill O'Reilly, who has been the butt of a thousand jokes after confronting an atheist on his show with irrefutable evidence of the existence of God--using as his evidence the fact that the tides come in and the tides go out. I mean, O'Reilly said with great certainty, who else could possibly be controlling that?

As any scientist could tell you, it's the moon that controls the tides. So Papa Bear has taken to the airwaves again to pursue a new wrinkle in his faux science agenda. He now acknowledges that the tides might indeed be controlled by the moon. But so what? As he says: "How'd the moon get there? Can you explain that to me? How come we have that? And Mars doesn't have it. Venus doesn't have it. How come?"

Actually, as any amateur astronomer knows, Jupiter has lots of moons, 63 in all, several of which you can see through a good pair of binoculars. One of them, Ganymede, is actually larger than Mercury. Saturn has 62 moons. Uranus has 27 moons. And hey, Bill, Mars actually has two moons of its own, that were discovered in 1877, long before even Roger Ailes was born. As far as I know, there's no evidence that either of them are made of green cheese either. I'm beginning to think that O'Reilly might have slept through quite a few of his fifth-grade science classes. But he sure is certain in his beliefs. Here, watch for yourself:

 --Patrick Goldstein

 

Comments

[Carl]

And he calls us "pinheads"?

[Marv]

I hate this guy. I hate this guy so very, very much.

[Cody]

What!? Mars has no moon and no sun? Mars has the same sun as we do and 2 moons, Phobos and Deimos. Papa Bear you're killin' me. It's okay to have faith and to believe that God played a hand in the creation of everything, but it's not okay to not get the facts right.

If you have faith in God, just say so... it's alright... we have freedom of religion in this country. Accept that some people don't have that same faith and ask for that same acceptance in return. But don't mess up the facts, please?

[DG3]

Facts are like Kryptonite to anyone on Fox News.

[michael]

Science lessons won't help this guy. You need a brain for lessons to have an effect.

[gschwartz]

Good reminder for anyone gushing over the centennial anniversary of Reagan's birth.

It was Reagan and his administration that jump started the war on science and made it acceptible again to mock scientific fact.

So the next time we salute Reagan, remember he's the same guy who gave us "trees cause pollution," ketchup as a "vegetable," James Watt, an astrologer in the White House, and 30 years of psuedo science passing for gospel.

[Doug Drexler]

Astonishing.

[Onmiyogi]

Are you really that dense that you don't understand the concept of faith?
The order in the universe and the belief that there is a design that is greater than man seems to be something that you feel should be ridiculed. Faith and hope have been the wellspring of man's progress and (yes) his evolution.
Without the faith that man could make things better it never would have happened.
Primitive man knew there was something greater than himself. He saw it in the things around him and found joy in that knowledge.
You seem to be one of those in todays society that feels no need for a Higher Power. Ultimately your arrogance will rob you of faith and hope and ultimately joy.
It's sad.

[jad]

Onmyyogi--Wow. You know what primitive man thought! And I thought all primitive men, with the exception of O'Reilly, were in fact dead.

[Smith]

I don't mean to be mean but this may sound that way.

Bill O'Reilly is not FOX news, he is a pundit. If you get your news from Bill O'Reilly or Jon Stewart you have bigger problems than the tides.

FOX news is actually more reliable and uses no PC filter on its news. And no one connected with the LA Times ought to be throwing stones at anyone else's news reporting given their thinly walled glass house.

This blog entry and the snarky comments say more than anything else why you ought to get out more and read somehting else.

The city and state are broke, union guards are selling phones to Charles Manson and more prisoners than Verizon, (we can't search them-it would cost too much), tuition risen way above the cost of inflation, but you are worried about a pundit's remarks about...the moon?

Get a life. Read a book.