If you are the kind of Christian liable to get upset when scientists deploy their annoying facts to prove crazy stuff like their “theories” that the Earth is older than 6,000 years or that the universe began with a Big Bang, then the resurrection of “Cosmos” must be extremely irritating. First, those damned progressives stopped allowing the Church to burn heretics at the stake; now even Fox News is broadcasting “science” documentaries. Truly, to quote the great Erick Erickson, “we do live in a fallen, depraved world destined for the fire.”…. Some of the poor souls oppressed by Neil deGrasse Tyson’s return to the promised land first pioneered by Carl Sagan took to Twitter with their predictable grumblings. My favorite: “Dear #cosmos, the origin of the universe actually is not mysterious. God had Moses write about it in the #Bible. You should read it sometime.”
I’ve always wondered about faith-based hostility towards science, as if faith is diametrically opposed to religious belief. Why empirical truth should be taken to be a threat to religious faith is I something find difficult to comprehend. In their own ways, both faith and science are at their most basic a search for truth, albeit of different sorts. In many ways, science and faith should be partners. Neither possesses all the answers, but science can help explain much about our world that faith can’t begin to address. You’d think that knowledge and empirical truth would be an adjunct to religious faith, not a threat. Evidently not in the world of Fundamentalist Christianity.
That there are those Christians who’ve convinced themselves science is somehow a threat to their belief system makes me wonder about the capacity of some to ignore demonstrable fact if it doesn’t dovetail with their religiosity. The rebirth of Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” by Neil deGrasse Tyson is evidently sufficiently threatening to some Christians that there’s a concerted effort afoot to discredit the show. Their arguments are as absurd as they are incorrect, but when you deal in emotion and conviction instead of what’s real and provable, that’s about all you can count on getting.
A very wise man once told me that denying what’s demonstrably true doesn’t render something any less true. Yet those upset with deGrasse Tyson elevate their faith (and the certainty it provides them) above what science has proven to be true. They deny scientific truth and elevate their religious faith above it, instead revealing their religiosity to be the willing ignorance and denial of what’s known (and has been proven) to be true. Science is not just another “theory.” Theories by definition may not have proof available, merely a preponderance of evidence leading to an intelligent conclusion. Religious faith asks us to believe in something and/or someone whose existence can’t be validated. It asks us to accept the Bible as God’s inviolable Word, though it was written, translated, and re-translated by many hands over an extended period of time. Faith is not about ignorance and denial, yet that’s exactly the approach many Christians take:
“God said it. I believe it. That settles it.”
“Cosmos” neither denigrates nor invalidates religious faith. Indeed, it makes the case for coexistence, that neither science nor religion has all the answers. Those who cling unequivocally to their Christianity while denying the validity of science are doing themselves a disservice. Ignorance- especially of the willing variety- is never good, because denying the demonstrable and the provable only demonstrates that fanatical religious belief is the sound a mind makes when it slams shut.
Instead of viewing science as a threat to faith, why not view science as a gift from God bestowed upon mankind to help us better understanding our world? Why not recognize the many wondrous things science has given us? It’s not at all incongruous to view science as God working through man to cure disease, feed the poor, etc. Why should religious belief be taken to ipso facto deny the validity of science…unless one is so steeped in their ignorance and prejudice they refuse to open the mind God gave them?
