Bill O’reilly wowed us all last month with his reason for believing in god: “how else do you explain the tides?” Now he’s admitting the moon causes the tides, but he’s got a new question: How did the moon get there?
Bill O’Reilly showed what it means to be a “Premium Member” of billoreilly.com a couple days ago, taking a question from a fan to explain the existence of Almighty God.
Perplexed over Bill O’Reilly’s reasoning on his show last month in which he argued with an atheist that god must exist because “science can’t explain the tides,” a premium member of billoreilly.com recently wrote for clarification: “What do you mean when you refer to the tides when you are asked about the existence of God? Science explains the tides… the moon’s gravity pulls the oceans.”
O’Reilly lines up for the mulligan, and takes the same exact shot:
“You have an order in the universe—tide comes in, tide goes out. Okay, the moon does it, but how’d the moon get there? Who put it there? Did it just happen?”
Yes, Bill. It just happened. The universe expanded after the big bang, matter cooled and coagulated, forming elements and gravity, which attracted celestial bodies and gave shape to… oh forget it, there’s not enough room to squeeze it all in here. But someone really needs to treat this guy to a college-level cosmology course.
“As I’ve said many times,” he concludes, “It takes more faith to not believe, and to think this was all luck—this human body, the intricacies of it—all luck, than it does to believe in a deity.”
No, Bill, it doesn’t take more faith—it takes more brains. Humans have been on earth for at least 50,000 years, but we’ve only known that the sun, not the earth, is the center of our solar system for 500 of those years. It’s been even less time that that view was commonly accepted. It was not an act of intellect, not faith, that lead Copernicus to discovering this fact.
I may become a premium member of billoreilly.com, if only just to ask him this one question: Does O’Reilly believe that the earth is the center of the solar system, and that the sun rotates around us? If not, he must accept that the the same scientific thinking that led us to that conclusion has discovered with the same certitude exactly how the moon got there, what causes the earth’s atmosphere, and what allows life to exist and evolve here.
New York Times editor Bill Keller recently blasted Fox News for its deleterious effect on national news. His criticism certainly applies to Bill O’Reilly whose inane insistence that “science can’t explain how celestial bodies came to be” dials back the progress of human thought by about 500 years.
It’s this head-in-the-sand idiocy that creates a fertile environment for climate deniers, and their convictions are among the most dangerous to humanity. Al Gore tried to explain climate science to O’Reilly, but given this “how did the moon get there” video I doubt Gore will ever be able to break through.
O’Reilly’s boss Rupert Murdoch should be ashamed—surely he knows better. At least we hope he does.
February 03, 2011 at 6:19 pm, Lotide said:
I don’t understand why someone has to take something on faith because they don’t understand the facts(ie. Science)… What is his degree in anyway? Theology? I guess I have to take it on faith that he even has a degree…
February 03, 2011 at 6:26 pm, Tom said:
Main problem with this article: “Humans have been on earth for 10,000 years,…” Archeologists estimate that modern humans have been on the Earth for about 200,000 years.
I feel no need to respond to what O’Reilly said anyone who calls people who understand science desperate pinheads isn’t worth the time.
February 03, 2011 at 6:54 pm, Alex said:
Hey Tom – thanks for the note, I corrected that. I’ve been reading Kevin Kelly’s “What Technology Wants,” which talks a lot about how humans started speaking 10K years ago, which changed their trajectory, and I got jumbled the dates there. Good job bringing that to my attention.
February 04, 2011 at 1:44 am, non-fundamentalist said:
I have a question for Bill, who asks himself why Mars doesn’t have a moon (it doesn’t, it has two of them): Why is there even a Mars? Or a Venus? Or anything in this universe that seemingly doesn’t affect us humans in any way, that doesn’t have any life on it or any “intelligent design”? Why would God create a bunch of useless stuff to us, the center of the universe?
Seriously, there are billions of celestial bodies out there in our galaxy. What are they doing there if they aren’t doing us any good? If God is so perfect, wouldn’t he just have created Earth and life and people straight away and be done with it?
It seems more likely that, out of all the celestial bodies that “shot out” of the big bang, we’re the sperm that made it. It’s a one-in-a-gazillion event that the Earth got the conditions for life, but I’d say your chances for getting ONE planet with life conditions improve drastically if you have billions of celestial bodies thrown out there. So, either God likes to cover his bets – which would imply he’s not infallible, and additionally make him more sympathetic, to me, at least – or the universe is one big crapshoot that doesn’t need a deity.
And honestly, I’m good either way. I’m not a fundamentalist atheist – of which there are many, and they’re just as scary as the religious ones. I understand there’s A LOT that religion can’t account credibly for, but I also I understand there are many things science can’t explain or be absolutely certain of – yet, anyway.
February 06, 2011 at 7:26 pm, Who said:
‘It was not an act of intellect, not faith, that lead Copernicus to discovering this fact.’ is a confusing sentence. Please clarify.
March 21, 2011 at 6:23 pm, Agnosticblogger said:
How smart or religious you are has nothing to do with facts. Facts are facts from the dumbest person in the world to the most religion person in the world and there is no debating that.
February 10, 2011 at 4:41 pm, Bluecatmesty said:
Al Gore’s new book “Our Choice” is all about basing judgments on ‘climate change’ on faith and not science and he also thinks the earths core is millions of degrees and I still think O rly is a dope by comparison.
February 10, 2011 at 4:41 pm, Bluecatmesty said:
Al Gore’s new book “Our Choice” is all about basing judgments on ‘climate change’ on faith and not science and he also thinks the earths core is millions of degrees and I still think O rly is a dope by comparison.
February 11, 2011 at 11:16 pm, Titanic Balls said:
There’s a reason he doesn’t allow comments at youtube.
February 15, 2011 at 5:01 am, MChang3838 said:
How did it get there Bill? how did god get there then? or more so a thiestic god. Study some philosophy and youll see through antological theological and cosmological proof that there is no THEISTIC god. For those that have faith and belief in a form of god that can help them improve their lives. All for it.
For Bill to call it desperate is funny, because he is clawing on empty facts that he thinks is right. Ignorance sometimes is bliss for the empty minded baffoons.
February 15, 2011 at 5:14 am, Lies and Deceit said:
Inception Illuminati
February 19, 2011 at 2:21 pm, A believer said:
Alex Moore, you are the ignorant one. Why do “liberals” think that they are smarter than everybody else? It is the liberals who are narrow-minded and will not even listen to a view other than their own. I listen to all view points and make my own educated decisions. I know many liberals who have the “talk to the hand” reaction to any logical ideas that are contrary to their own. Why don’t you stop condemning others? Do you KNOW that there is no other life in our immense Universe? Do you not wonder at the fact that this whole Universe is in a perpetual motion state (and don’t twist my comment to mean that the Universe is a “machine”…I’m not saying that.)? Could it not be God’s omniscient plan for all of this to work together? I say that it all didn’t just happen by chance.
March 04, 2011 at 3:51 pm, listening|=understanding said:
prove it.
March 04, 2011 at 3:51 pm, listening|=understanding said:
prove it.
February 19, 2011 at 9:05 pm, somesatisfyinganswers said:
http://www.planetarymessenger.com
February 20, 2011 at 2:03 am, a believer said:
Hmmm…what happened to my post? did you take it off?
February 25, 2011 at 9:21 pm, Okcache said:
if you are so smart explain the universe and give an example.
February 27, 2011 at 12:19 am, Bailey said:
Uh, Mars has TWO moons, Jupiter and Saturn have 50 a piece, and even Pluto has one.
March 23, 2011 at 5:13 pm, Felisconcolor said:
“As I’ve said many times,” he concludes, “It takes more faith to not believe, and to think this was all luck—this human body, the intricacies of it—all luck, than it does to believe in a deity.”
Bill, my faith is greater than yours. I win. The end.
March 23, 2011 at 5:13 pm, Felisconcolor said:
“As I’ve said many times,” he concludes, “It takes more faith to not believe, and to think this was all luck—this human body, the intricacies of it—all luck, than it does to believe in a deity.”
Bill, my faith is greater than yours. I win. The end.
April 09, 2011 at 4:31 am, Billy said:
I have a question for Bill.
Who is the Tea Party and why does it seem that they are pulling the strings of our elected government? We don’t need them speaking for Americans saying that these are the things we want accomplished by our government. We elected the people that we want to speak for us to the Congress and the only people that they should be listening to are Americans both Democratic, Republican, or nuetral to either party. It is definately clear that these people have an agenda that doesn’t represent all Americans as we witnessed over the last week. I believe that our news networks have an obligation to cover the Congress and other branches of the government, but lets keep Tea Party speeches off of our networks, let them pay for it elsewhere out of their pockets versus giving them a forum to spread their diseased ideology.
Billy C.
San Diego
Retired Navy CPO
May 13, 2011 at 2:06 am, Koowie said:
What a idiot!
January 18, 2012 at 10:48 am, Grammar said:
*What an idiot!
April 24, 2012 at 12:21 am, Al Finnell said:
Oreilly is a follower of the pope. The poop oops pope thinks the world is flat. And so Oreilly thinks so too! Watch for the stealth catholic on tv. He will skim past the catholics blocking the protection of the South border.
March 27, 2013 at 10:17 pm, Bill O'Reilly: Arguments Against Gay Marriage are Just "Bible Thumping" -VIDEO | DCXposed said:
[...] O’Reilly, the commentator who proved, according to him, that religion is not a scam due to the moon controlling the rise and fall of the tide with God being the creator of the moon(“Bible 1, [...]