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NASA religion advisor cancels interview with Suzan Mazur

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Huh? In a field where one must avoid getting “bought,” we hacks rarely run into people who are not sending us tons of mail/pix/vids. But this just in: From Suzan Mazur at Huffington Post:

German theologian Ulrike Auga’s space images advisory role for NASA seems particularly suspect not just because it smacks of Leni Riefenstahl-style manipulation but because some weeks ago (February 8) Auga abruptly cancelled an interview with me about her work on the nearly $3M NASA/Templeton/Center of Theological Inquiry investigation (2015-2017) into how the religious community would respond to the discovery of life in outer space plus we have not seen any report in the US from Auga about her US publicly funded advisory activity for NASA.

Auga was a 2015-2016 NASA/Templeton/CTI religious scholar, one of two dozen funded by the project. Auga is currently a professor at the University of Vienna specializing in gender studies. More.

There is absolutely no evidence, as in none, zip, zero, that any traditional religion gives a rat’s patoot whether NASA finds life in outer space or not. It is a totally made-up problem. Were I an American, I would certainly resent having to fund it via NASA.

Auga could certainly make the news if she reported any evidence of it.

Mazur is the author of a number of books on the huge paradigm shift taking place in evolution studies (whether anyone admits it or not). Maybe start with Paradigm Shifters and acquire the others as convenient to get up to speed.

See also: Suzan Mazur: NASA, tax dollars, space aliens, and religion… Of course, it’s yet to be determined that most religious people have much invested in the matter one way or the other, relative to their irreligious neighbours.

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Comments
I enjoy News's pontificating. Like Mazur her paradigm shifting writing is right up there with Alfred Wolfenstone; my downstairs neighbour. Heavy hitting, caustic, fearless reporting, sucking the life out of the discreditted NYT, Post, mainstream establishment. That NASA is associated with the Templeton Foundation is indeed upsetting; what a respectable scientific institution could possibly gain from an association with a tedious religious organisation is beyond me. That US tax payers are supplying funds for this association is in clear breach of the First Ammendment. Why is this clear to a foreigner, and not US citizens? Of course, what is most embarassing is that Mazur is a fellow New Zealander; I do apologize, many of us think clearly. Apologies for Ray Comfort too!rvb8
May 28, 2017
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The allusion to Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda films is uncalled for. It's also a tad ironic coming from someone who tries to spin every meeting or conference about evolutionary biology into a paradigm shift in the field.Seversky
May 27, 2017
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My first thought on reading this was of Matthew McConaughey's brutally acted character in the movie Contact. That mental association alone is enough to sour me on the NASA/Templeton/Center of Theological Inquiry.cmow
May 26, 2017
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If we had actually spent 3 million on trying to make the problem real i.e., actually finding alien life, I'm thinking we would've gotten at least one cool new toy out of it? Instead, we're funding the anti-priesthood so they can keep telling us about how religion is bad because it wastes time and money and stifles open inquiry and such.LocalMinimum
May 26, 2017
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News - I would have thought that there would be a lot of people less worthy than a German academic. Are you really suggesting that Prof. Auga is less worthy than terrorists, for example? Or, Nazis, come to that.Bob O'H
May 26, 2017
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Bob O'H should have been a lawyer. He always finds some way to defend the least worthy person or cause. No, seriously, that can be a help. It's why our criminal justice system (English Common Law)is called the glory of the English-speaking peoples. That said: Mazur may have hoped Auga would change her mind. Which she well could have done in three months... Now about Leni Riefenstahl , I dunno because I never saw the mail trail. I know about the film because it used to be screened annually in Toronto, amid protests, by a Jewish prof who wanted us to know how powerful propaganda can be.News
May 26, 2017
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Wow. The interview was cancelled 3 months ago, and Mazur is only now planning to ask questions? And can she complain about the cancellation (for whatever reason it was canceled), when she responds by comparing Prof. Auga's work to Nazi propaganda?Bob O'H
May 26, 2017
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NASA/Templeton/Center of Theological Inquiry
That such a thing even exists is just one more indication of how stupid institutional science has become. Andrewasauber
May 26, 2017
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