Neil Degrasse Tyson The Elements: Forged in Stars

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All stars live by fusing hydrogen into helium. In the first step of the process, two hydrogen atoms fuse to form deuterium. In the next step, another hydrogen atom fuses with the deuterium, creating a rare isotope of helium that has two protons and one neutron in its nucleus. In the third step, two of the rare helium atoms fuse to create a single normal helium atom and two hydrogen atoms. The fusion pathway described above requires six hydrogen atoms to create one helium atom -- however, there are two hydrogen atoms left over at the end of the process. The net result is that it takes four hydrogen atoms to make one helium atom. The energy that fuels a star is a result of the difference in mass between the original four hydrogen atoms and the resulting helium atom. Following Einstein's mass-energy relationship, E=mc2, the missing mass is converted to energy

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[NiteCrawla90]

With science going the way it is now, religious people are going to be the minority someday.

[kev3d]

So much for Kent Hovind's "you can't fuse past iron, therefore God did it"

[MrPetersaysstuff]

@NiteCrawla90 I would hope so.

[SechyoolarYOOESAY]

@copyvio

Nice poetry.

[copyvio]

@NiteCrawla90 Specious. The progress of science itself has little to do with popular opinion; as education becomes more the province of the élite and the growing global underclass - for whom life is cruel and unstable - seek certainty in a society that shifts rapidly and violently within a lifetime, I expect the numbers of those seeking solace in tidy narratives will only grow as well.

[Joshden1]

@specter290 Yes b/c its so hot and there is so much available energy in the "explosion" of the star to use to fuse other elements heavier than iron

[specter290]

so after the super nova, all the elements are created

[GeneralLazySpoon]

@MrMacSunshine Granted, there's not a lot of physical evidence provided for the whole "God" thing, and there's a lot of people out there that assert based on faith alone. That sort of view ruins it for the rest of us, sure, but I think there's something to be said about the lack of evidence /against/ the notion of God. Religions may have a skewed view of something that is actually there, providing a faulty description of what to look for. That might be drawing us away from evidence, sure.

[MrMacSunshine]

@GeneralLazySpoon It seems to me that science does replace religion. I feel that the entirety of science opposes religion because it functions on skepticism.

The scientific perspective would be to disregard the concept of god because of it's lack of evidence.

[brt5470]

Science without religion is a utopia of achievement.

[CaptMorgasm]

@gimletdrinker Your implying that if you have a basic intelligence about science and well just general knowledge then you must be the stereotype of a nerd?. Idiot.

[bombarderoazul]

science explains our universe so much better than religion.