The Discovery Channel’s Curiosity series of DVD programs can be controversial, entertaining, and enlightening.
The DVD I watched had five programs (total length 198 minutes):
Did God Create the Universe?
This program presents Stephen Hawking’s view of the universe. It follows the history of our understanding of natural phenomena, such as eclipses, from religious superstition to a physical explanation. Hawking believes our universe started with a big bang, it sprang from nothing. Before the big bang there was nothing, including no time and no cause and effect. For Hawking, there is no God, no heaven, no afterlife.
In a separate program on the DVD, a panel of scientists and theologians discuss Hawking’s view. They discuss the concept of multiple universes, and conclude that science can neither prove nor disprove the existence of a creator.
Alien Invasion: Are We Ready?
This program, narrated by actress Michelle Rodriguez, features scientists and military strategists, first discussing the probabilities that some intelligent alien species exist, then speculating on how the invaders would go about getting rid of humans. If these people were the aliens, they would first disable our communications and other electronics with an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP), then kill many people in coastal areas by causing very large tsunamis. They would finish us off with biological warfare. It’s the stuff of good science fiction stories.
What’s Beneath America?
This program, narrated by Martin Sheen, is about the geology and natural resources of North America. It discusses plate tectonics, mountain building and how some of our large deposits of gold, oil, coal,and iron formed. And they got the geology right.
How the World Will End
The title of this program, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, is a bit of hype, they destroy just North America, not the world. The program speculates on five types of natural disasters.
1) California is destroyed by an ARkStorm (spelled correctly, and yes, I never heard that term before.) Basically a mega-storm with very strong hurricane-force winds, lasts about a month and dumps 10 feet of water on California, causing flooding and land slides. This kind of storm is purely speculative. See an explanation from the U.S. Geologic Survey here.
2) Asteroid impact. This scenario features Meteor Crater (aka Barringer Crater) in Arizona as an example of a “small” impact. The program explains the consequences of a really big strike. The program claims that children today have a 1 in 20 chance of witnessing a really big strike. They fail to mention how they came up with that number.
3) Mega-earthquake in mid-west along the New Madrid fault on the Mississippi River. This program recounts the earthquakes that occurred between December 1811 and February, 1812, all with strengths estimated to be between 7.8 to 8.1. These earthquakes are the strongest to hit the eastern U.S. The program goes on to speculate what could happen if an even bigger one hits. The program puts the odds of this happening within 50 years at 1 in 10. Again they don’t explain how the number was derived.
4) The eastern seaboard of the U.S. is destroyed by a giant tsunami precipitated by a major volcanic eruption in La Palma, Canary Islands. Odds of happening 1 in 1,000, same caveat.
5) Yellowstone super volcano explodes. I wrote about this one last year (see The Yellowstone Super Volcano). This volcano tends to have a major eruption every 600,000 years on average. It has been 640,000 years since the last major eruption. That one covered about half of the U.S. with volcanic ash.
These programs are interesting and well-made. They show very good animations, but tend to overuse stock footage of disaster scenes. The programs are well-worth watching.
The DVD is available from the Discovery Channel here.
For more on the nature of the universe and religion versus science, see my reviews of two other works:
The Unobservable Universe by Scott Tyson
Religion versus Science by Ron Frost
See all my book and DVD reviews here.
wryheat 