Professor Brian Cox. Limited by emotions?

I used to think he was merely the ever smiling poster boy for reductive and materialist science. I still believe that, but after watching is lecture A Night with the Stars, on BBC 2 last night, I can see that he is humorous and genuinely passionate about physics.

He is, however, lacking some philosophy and I don’t mean Bertrand Russell. Professor Cox did that tacky thing that Derren Brown does; he prefaced his musings with cheap shots at the so called esoteric, or, as Cox called it ‘woo woo and new age hippies’.

A discussion about the universe and quantum physics simply does not need to be supported his personal opinions; the subject is literally too immense and can do with out his hatred of the supposed supernatural spilling over into his script.

If Professor Brian Cox is reading this [I highly doubt] and is an open minded scientist, may I suggest the following sources for him to read and perhaps help inform a broader approach in his next lectures.


• The End of Materialism. By Charles T Tart. Ph.D.
• Entangled Minds. By Dean Radin. Ph.D.

I watched it last night and I agree with everything he says about the new age hippy nonsense its this way of thinking that see's innocent people burned as witches...

Originally posted by roughycannon
I watched it last night and I agree with everything he says about the new age hippy nonsense its this way of thinking that see's innocent people burned as witches...

Hmm... perhaps you mean Dark-Age? Don't think 'New-Age' was even a genre of spirituality back then. As far as I've heard the last person to get burned as a witch was a poor Saudi Arabian woman... by gawd, they could use some New Age 'religion' over there!

Originally posted by mandroids
I used to think he was merely the ever smiling poster boy for reductive and materialist science. I still believe that, but after watching is lecture A Night with the Stars, on BBC 2 last night, I can see that he is humorous and genuinely passionate about physics.

He is, however, lacking some philosophy and I don’t mean Bertrand Russell. Professor Cox did that tacky thing that Derren Brown does; he prefaced his musings with cheap shots at the so called esoteric, or, as Cox called it ‘woo woo and new age hippies’.

A discussion about the universe and quantum physics simply does not need to be supported his personal opinions; the subject is literally too immense and can do with out his hatred of the supposed supernatural spilling over into his script.

If Professor Brian Cox is reading this [I highly doubt] and is an open minded scientist, may I suggest the following sources for him to read and perhaps help inform a broader approach in his next lectures.


• The End of Materialism. By Charles T Tart. Ph.D.
• Entangled Minds. By Dean Radin. Ph.D.

So you are suggesting that he does a terrific job of explaining how everything is connected up to, but excludes consciousness? In simple, technically terms that must be called what it is, denial. In effect, their brains simply stop processing at a certain, agreed-upon cutoff point. I've found that most scientist acquire that self-limiting effect when they run into the UFO topic. Carl Sagan would appear to have been the best example of that disease. But they always explain it away as "Scientific Logic," an enhancement to their reasoning skills, rather than as a blockage. Very curious their self-diagnosis.

reply to post by mandroids


Do people know he was in the Pop Band D:Ream. Their biggest hit was "Things Can Only Get Better"

www.youtube.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

The problem with a lot of scientists is that they are not open-minded.

When they encounter a topic that they cannot empirically explain, they dismiss it as fiction or fallacy.

They will then proceed to ostracize scientists who think outside the box.

Unfortunately, many physicists have no clue how to effectively use philosophy in their theories.

The joke's on them - it's the people who think outside the box who are most often on the right track. (Galileo, DaVinci, Newton, Einstein, just to name a few.)

reply to post by mandroids


Cox is merely the latest in a long line of mediocre scientists that the BBC puts on the box to keep the uneducated in line with the orthodoxy of scientific materialism.

The more sophisticated of us have moved on towards the discovery of a higher outlook that has integrated the scientific AND spiritual, leaving these myopic academics floundering far behind, arrogant with the delusion that they represent the highest and most understanding of humanity, when really all they are are blinkered career opportunists and propagandists for scientific materialism who use their media status as pop scientists to peddle their childish, out-dated views about the superiority of the scientific world-view, oblivious of the fact that their minds live in a box (or rather prison) built by science that ignores whatever is outside that box.

Their minds are in a box and if you make that box smaller and smaller their minds hop around quicker and quicker which creates quite a lot of energy.

Originally posted by mandroids
He is, however, lacking some philosophy and I don’t mean Bertrand Russell. Professor Cox did that tacky thing that Derren Brown does; he prefaced his musings with cheap shots at the so called esoteric, or, as Cox called it ‘woo woo and new age hippies’.

I watched a segment of that too, and saw his comments.

The thing that made me laugh the most is that shortly after that he was discussing how everything in the universe is connected.

I was just waiting for him to mime smoking a doobie and say "We're all one, maaaan"

I agree, while he was probably joking, that kind of attitude being expressed just confirms my belief that a lot of those who are supposedly on the edge of the most fascinating science in the world are prejudiced in that they trust some unwavering doctrine.

The foundation of science is based upon being open to all possibilities. Without that we wouldn't be in the position we are now. If those at the forefront of their field before him had blindly trusted scientific doctrine we wouldn't have reached the point we are now at, and people like him would be wise to remember that.

I really hope that the findings from the CERN experiments do in fact breach their traditional laws and doctrines. Maybe that one thing will finally destroy the ongoing conversion of science into a form of religious fanaticism.

It's a shame, I always liked him and appreciate the way he explains things and is really accessible to younger minds. But, my appreciation of him was lowered after his comments.

I am quite surprised that many of you seem to agree with what this thread states. If anyone could also suggest some books or links should BC visit ATS.

D:ream....goodness me.

Brian Cox is exactly what the science sector needed to convey some excitement about it. I for one would not have known a jot about quantum physics had I not watched Brians' show and believe me I doubt I would have watched it if it was delivered by a traditional scientist on the BBC. He delivers everything at a level even the simpleist of people can understand and has a charm to go with it. Brian Cox is a pioneer in teaching by TV.

Brian Edward Cox, OBE (born 3 March 1968), is a British particle physicist, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and a professor at the University of Manchester. He is a member of the High Energy Physics group at the University of Manchester, and works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

If you combine the collective scientific knowledge of every 'hippie' on the planet you would probably possess the knowledge this guy had was when he was 12 years old.

Originally posted by FOXMULDER147

Brian Edward Cox, OBE (born 3 March 1968), is a British particle physicist, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and a professor at the University of Manchester. He is a member of the High Energy Physics group at the University of Manchester, and works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

If you combine the collective scientific knowledge of every 'hippie' on the planet you would probably possess the knowledge this guy had was when he was 12 years old.

Interesting. perhaps you and BC could read this book: How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival. By David Kaiser