You don't see Atheists going door to door on a Saturday morning asking people if they;d like to talk about logic and reason.

I, and some of the other ladies have been PMd by some of these guys hoping they can sway us with the carrot of romance in front of our noses. Didn't work. I turned one in for harassment and another lady I know turned in one harassing us both,

It was one of those rambling assortment of words in search of a point that beleibers think is a gotcha to people not brainwashed like themselves.

Have you ever seen Dr. Tyson not be courteous? He answers even the stupidest of questions with kind patience in the hopes that maybe gears will finally engage in a few heads.

They have been sending people to nearly every one of his speaking engagements trying to trip him up. He is so used to it that he has had a lot of practice in thwarting their efforts. They should just quit while they are ahead. They suspect him of being an Atheist and he has never really come out and said he was or was not. His extremely intelligent comments point to him being one of us however and that drives the fundamentalists crazy. Afterall, can't have one of the most beloved and respected scientists in the nation batting for anyone other then their team. Love him!

How was that a challenging question?
It was rambling, barely coherent gibberish.

@BufftonBeotch He thought it was challenging and he has the right to challenge without being labelled with a derogatory term.

@Krish55 No one has a right to not be called out for attempting what they think is a "gotcha" question in about the weakest way possible.
Dr Tyson was courteous, which is more than he deserved.
He will never know someone is calling him on his inanity on a social forum ten years hence.

@BufftonBeotch It's not just about the questioner. You can call him out for a weak/doctrinaire challenge but not for challenging itself. We should both challenge and welcome challenges.

He has a lot of tact. Leaving the trolls with nothing to come back and say gotcha or criticize his answers. He is very sophisticated in his handling of these trolls.

@misstuffy

Even as a supporter of Neil deGrasse I thought he did not demolish the questioner's stupidity. The question was not "how you would like to be buried". I prefer a direct answer to a question, no beating around, going around and round about answering. Richard Dawkins is very good at direct answering, very plain spoken, not much jazz but lots of expertise and authority in his subject.

@St-Sinner I think what I took from Neil's answer is that he does not fear for his immortal soul, which is what the questioner was most likely hoping for.

Being buried only works if you are not embalmed.
I like that method where you are in a pod to nourish a tree.
These methods are not legal burials everywhere.

@BufftonBeotch true, which can only be done in certain places,

I hope the idea of alkaline hydrolysis catches on. Basically the body is dissolved in water and lye, leaving only the bones. It's much more energy efficient than cremation. Only a few states currently allow it.
[usnews.com]

@JonnaBononna I like the way some Zorastrians do death. They leave the body in carved out rocks from which the bones will drop through cuts. Then the body's bones are ground up and baked into bread, again for the birds.

@JonnaBononna That is a good "solution"...

@Beowulfsfriend Amish/Mennonite do not embalm, do not use vaults. Simple wooden caskets and burials are done within three days. These bodies eventually do go back to nourish the earth. My Dad was born into a Mennonite family but they left it for the English world.

@misstuffy Nor do Jews or Muslims. And most have graveyards outside of areas which demand such things as vaults by land codes

@Beowulfsfriend I write about Amish Mennonite customs because that is my familial background. I did not have the knowledge to speak on the ones you mentioned so I am glad you did.

@Beowulfsfriend Thankfully the shunning is not a real practice among the Mennonite like it is in the more conservative Amish. Thankfully, the younger generations of Amish are a bit more modern in their thinking and that practice is fading. My own family left due to my grandparents desire to modernize a bit more than the district leaders wanted to allow. The irony? I still have cousins in the same Mennonite district who came to my Aunts funereal. I was shocked as I saw her with a short hair cut (HUGE no no) and wearing a pantsuit. I even asked when she left and she said, no, she was still a member. Times are changing!

@misstuffy oh yea, the Mennonite sects have almost all shown some growth - nobody paints their car bumpers black anymore (lol). For a while, I had a therapist who was a Mennonite; he had worked at Philhaven, one of the premier mental health hospitals in the nation (they are actually now in charge of MH for the Wellspan group, a large medical group in Central Pennsylvania. My sister, who passed away a few years ago, had been a member of a city sect - no bonnets, etc.

@Beowulfsfriend Not even the doily? LOL I still have long hair and still wear a bandana, though I am working to break the habit. I wore a kap as a kid and the heavier bonnet over that. My grandmother I believe was instrumental in getting the family to leave. She wanted modern amenities like electricity when they were first setting poles in rural areas. We did not have it at our farm when I was a child, I will be 61 next month. I never considered that influence was there, but the one place where I was working asked if I was, and I had to ask why they thought that, I was not speaking the old language, I wore blue jeans and makeup, very English in dress IMO, well being raised around the Mennonite side of the family, a lot of my skills, knowledge I had the others didnt showed I guess. I was marked!