Niel Degrasses Tyson Things People Say Summary

The concept of believing someone’s words or having solid information towards a subject has people misinterpreting what is fact or fiction. In the article Things People Say, Niel Degrasses Tyson crafts an argument that heavily relies on analogies and explains them to get the point across. Tyson begins his essay by questioning why people believed Aristotle’s theories and the negligence of religion to facts. The rest of the author’s article compares various heavily misinterpreted concepts like “what goes up, must come down” and “the sun is yellow” for example and corrects the reader why others believe this as factual information. Tyson concludes his argument by stating, “”. People tend to always believe a tale and undervalue evidence. It can be said that anything anyone says can be true, but Tysons argument showcases that without evidence nothing can be proven as accurate. Tyson begins with Aristotle, and how for the longest time his ideas were believed to be accurate. The author provides various examples of what Aristotle accomplished to help the audience understand why these ideas are not accurate. Stated by Tyson, “Aristotle also made other kinds of claims. He said that heavy things fall faster than light things. Who could argue against that? Rocks obviously fall to the ground fast than tree leaves” (Tyson Para 2). Tyson then continues by stating that no one at the time was willing to test his …show more content…
As stated, “We all carry some blindly believed knowledge because we cannot realistically test every statement uttered by others” (Tyson Para 6). Not only that, but also gives the audience they type of style Tyson uses. Rather than just giving the audience a straight forward answer, Tyson provides examples to support that his claim is