Creationists Are Getting All Tantrum-y Over Exclusion from Cosmos

By Madeleine Davies  |  March 24, 2014 | 4:30pm
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Sure as daffodils in the springtime or Kilimanjaro rising like Olympus above the Serengeti, Creationists are currently upset with Cosmos — Neil deGrasse Tyson’s science series* that’s currently airing on Fox — for not giving any airtime to creationist theory.

Creationist group Answers in Genesis argue that the show promotes “blind faith in evolution” with Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell writing:

“Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, if the first segment is any indication, will attempt to package unconditional blind faith in evolution as scientific literacy in an effort to create interest in science.
“We hope that future segments will spend more time showing actual scientific observations-such as the brief part of this episode showing where earth is in relation to the rest of the universe.”

More recently, Answers in Genesis’ Danny Faulkner stated that “Creationists aren’t even on the radar screen for them, they wouldn’t even consider us plausible at all.”

Also annoyingly not on Cosmos‘ radar: The man on the subway who will yell in your face about being from outer space and knowing the origins of the universe (sorry, sir, I never got your name), the cause of Benjamin Button disease, and that dream I keep having where I’m in my room, but it isn’t my room, but it is my room. Answer the questions, NdGT! WHAT ARE YOU HIDING???

It’s likely that Cosmos will continue to ignore creationism, but that doesn’t mean the series is entirely cynical towards religion.

As Abby Ohlheiser at The Wire puts it:

Cosmos does take on the issue of religion in a very substantial way. And it doesn’t deny the compatibility of faith, or the notion of God, with the scientific method. There are plenty of scientists who are also Christian without being creationist in the way that Ken Ham is, because there is little non-Biblical evidence to support any of the major tenets of young earth creationism. Instead, Cosmos posits that belief, any belief, trumps an individual or a society’s ability to question, to accept and evaluate different ideas. Historically, those institutions limiting scientific advancement have included organized religion.

I think we should all just be happy that a well-crafted science show is airing during primetime on network television.

*Cosmos is a reboot. The original was presented by Carl Sagan and aired in 1980.

Image via Getty.

 
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