Rhetoric Race and Religion
Neil deGrasse Tyson, the brilliant man behind the re-imagined Carl Sagan television series Cosmos, has created a lot of controversy lately. Young earth creationists are angry at deGrasse Tyson and the show because creationists believe that the earth is about six thousand years old; an idea that is directly contradicted by easily observable scientific evidence. However, while some are very angry with deGrasse Tyson and Cosmos, the show can actually strengthen religion and faith for others.
On last Sunday’s episode of Cosmos, deGrasse Tyson disproved creationism by showing how scientists can observe the speed of light traveling from far away galaxies. They know that light takes a certain amount of time to arrive and be seen, therefore, the light that has traveled from faraway places in space and is observable to people on Earth has taken a lot more than 6 thousand years to arrive. What creationists say is akin to saying someone drove 1,000 miles in a car and arrived at his or her destination in five minutes. Obviously, we know that is impossible. We know that it takes a lot longer than five minutes to go 1,000 miles in a car. Similarly, we know that light from some galaxies takes a lot longer than 6,000 years to arrive.
While creationists, fundamentalist Christians, some Orthodox Jews, Muslim extremists and a variety of other religious people are upset with Cosmos and Neil deGrasse Tyson, others say the show has actually done much to strengthen their faith in God and religion. Rabbi Michael Knopf has written a moving essay entitledScience and religion need each other. Would Cosmos’ Neil deGrasse Tyson agree?In his article, he says that belief in the origins of the universe can deepen the personal relationship many feel they have with God. He explains:
As a person of faith, I appreciate Cosmos because, while it describes the sometimes-tense historical relationship between religion and science, it refuses to argue that this clash is inevitable… This relationship of integration also allows science and religion to be at their best. For example, Cosmos reminds us that the universe and all it contains originated in the Big Bang. To me, this teaching affirms the Jewish belief that if God is one, there is no other God and thus if God created the cosmos, all existence is ultimately one.
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