Cosmos
Redux
"Science
without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
Albert Einstein
Setting
the Stage
Exhuming the 80’s, (1980 to be specific) is
not an easy task but with the resources of a Fox network budget, the exhumed
Cosmos is given a primetime slot, complete with high-tech special effects
including contributions from Matrix and Spider-Man 2
cinematographer Bill Pope, and an aggressive marketing campaign.
Actually, Cosmos redux is Cosmos – A Spacetime Odyssey, put together by a gaggle of folks that includes
astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Family Guy creator (keeping it
scientific) Seth MacFarlane and Ann Druyan, who co-wrote the 1980 Cosmos: A
Personal Voyage with her late husband, Carl Sagan.
Not surprisingly, Cosmos redux opened
last week to television audiences not as an exhumation but a coronation with
the attendant slavish praise from the critics.
Maybe their parents told them of the first Cosmos production with
Astronomer Carl Sagan leading us on an engaging
guided tour of the various elements and cosmological theories (not facts or
laws) of the Universe.
Among Dr. Sagan's favorite
topics were the origins of life, the search for life on Mars, the infernal
composition of the atmosphere of Venus and a warning about a similar effect
taking place on Earth due to global pollution and the "greenhouse
effect", the lives of stars, interstellar travel and the effects of
attaining the speed of light, the danger of mankind technologically
self-destructing, and the search, using radio technology, for intelligent life
in deep space…whew.
Carl Sagan’s opening line in the first
Cosmos set the stage for the attitude and world view that pervaded the entire
series ...“We are all made of star stuff.”
So out the window goes any pretense of
objective science, but rather science fiction and fantasy. Whatever happened to the notion that responsible science is expected to be uncontaminated by
political policy agendas, however passionate those participants may be
regarding personal ideological beliefs?
Scientific Theory and Scientific Law
For many of my generation, our
science consisted of Watch Mr. Wizard, The Periodic
Table of Elements, and the disgusting smell of
sulfur when applied to the Bunsen burner.
But some of us did go on to become
astronauts and scientists. One common
denominator among all of us is that we like to be entertained and Cosmos
delivers, if you don’t mind the annoying inaccuracies, misrepresentations,
theories presented as unimpeachable facts, and the aforementioned promotion of
a world view.
A few words about the
difference between scientific theory and scientific law should help clarify why
discernment is important in considering scientific information.
A scientific theory explains phenomena
that can be tested and potentially disproved; failure to disprove or refute it
increases confidence in it, but it cannot be considered as proven.
A scientific
law is a statement based on
repeated experimental observations that describes some aspect of the world. A
scientific law always applies under the same conditions, and implies that there
is a causal relationship involving its elements. Laws are very rarely
disproven.
A law differs from a scientific
theory in that it does not posit a mechanism or explanation of phenomena: it is
merely a distillation of the results of repeated observation.
Cosmos a Second Time – The Separation of
Church and Science
Just as with the first Cosmos,
the alert discerning viewer is made painfully aware that he/she is entering a
presentation advancing a world view.
With a delicious irony, Cosmos – A Spacetime Odyssey is introduced by the current President
who gutted the U.S. space program by cancelling
the Constellation space exploration program and turned NASA into Muslim
outreach agency, by instructing NASA Administrator Charles Bolden “to find a
way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly
Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to
science, math and engineering." Yes that’s what he said.
I know, it sort of takes the fun out of being
entertained, but it is too important not to be beguiled into a place that is
not at all what it seems to be. The theoretical physicist
Richard Feynman once quipped that “the first principle” of science is “that you
must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.”
Before we know it in Cosmos 2, our host
DeGrasse Tyson, is walking the streets of Rome, telling a story of an obscure monk
named Giordano Bruno. The agenda is
presented in cartoon animation, offering the well worn notion of the ongoing
battle between of science and religion.
Briefly stated the animated episode presents
- a Franciscan monk, Giordano Bruno living in 16th-century Italy burned at the
stake for his scientifically correct beliefs.
The depiction is woefully inaccurate historically
on a variety of levels, leading one to wonder how this sloppiness extends to
discussions of the cosmos - revisionist history in a nutshell.
Giordiano Bruno is presented as a wise,
humble, and noble martyr for science rather than the obnoxious mystical sun
worshipper malcontent that he actually was.
Bruno was in fact not a scientist, he dabbled
in amateur astronomy, and his death had nothing to do with science. He was burned at the stake as a heretic – he
questioned the trinity and the divinity of Jesus Christ, denying that “God’s
wrath is not eternal” (hell doesn’t exist), asserting universal salvation (all
will be saved), and proclaiming the existence of other worlds. In those days, heresy regrettably got you
burned at the stake.
Why did this cartoon occupy fully a quarter
of the entire first episode? A message
was being sent – science is good, religion is bad.
A far more accurate depiction of science
during this time period would have featured Thomas Digges, Johannes Kepler,
or Galileo Galilei. All of whom were significant scientists who
peacefully coexisted with the church during the same period. But the cartoon was not about science, it was
about revising history to advance a world view.
Knowing a little about the views of Seth
MacFarlane goes a long way in explaining this distortion of history. A recent episode of Family Guy had Stewie
and Brian enter a futuristic alternative world where, it was explained, things
were so advanced because Christianity didn’t destroy learning, usher in the
Dark Ages and stifle science.
Hank
Campbell author of Science Left Behind noted
the following other errors of science in Cosmos – A Spacetime Odyssey:
-
Venus Was Not Caused By Global Warming, Tyson assures us right away that we are to “question
everything” so we have to ask why he thinks Venus is the way it is due to the
greenhouse effect — which is another way of saying global warming. Venus is
almost 900 degrees Fahrenheit and the clouds are sulfuric acid. Even the most
aggressive climate change models and their 20-foot ocean rises don’t predict
that for Earth, no matter how many Chevy Volts we don’t buy.
- The Multiverse Is Not Science, The multiverse is not science.
It is more like an anthropic secular alternative to a divine origin. It’s not
science because it can’t be proved or disproved — it’s just postmodernism with
some math. And it’s invoked shortly after the introduction where Tyson tells us
to test everything.
- There Is No Sound In Space, To go on this journey, we need to be “free from the shackles of
space and time”, Tyson tells us. And apparently all of the other laws of
physics. Why can we hear his spaceship when he is exploring the cosmos? Yes, it
is a “spaceship of the imagination,” but I would hope Tyson’s imagination is
more scientifically accurate than that of a teenager playing “Mass Effect.”
-
The Universe Was Also Not Created In One
Year, On January 1st, we had the Big
Bang and on December 31st, I am alive, less than a tiny fraction of a
millisecond before midnight. Oddly, a
number of religious critics, Tyson included, insist that too many religious people
believe the Book of Genesis is taken literally by people who read the Bible.
Unless we accept that figurative comparisons help make large ideas manageable,
a year is no more accurate than six days — it is instead a completely arbitrary
metric invented to show some context for how things evolved.
It would be remiss not to mention that science has
produced innumerable scams/hoaxes over the years, here are a few notable
examples:
-The Sokal Affair, A hoax perpetrated by physicist Alan Sokal, he submitted a
nonsensical research paper filled with jargon to the Social Text, a journal
published by Duke. His goal was to prove that the many journals of the day were
nothing more than “a pastiche of left-wing cant, fawning references, grandiose
quotations, and outright nonsense.” In other words…politically correct pseudoscience.
His paper was published and almost simulataneously Sokal came out in several
other papers pointing to his hoax and making fools of the editor.
-Piltdown Man, Probably the
most famous hoax in history, the Piltdown man, discovered in 1912, was supposed
to be the fossilized remains of an early humanoid. It wasn’t until almost 50
years later that people discovered the elaborate hoax and determined that the
skull was actually that of a human male while the jawbone was that of an
orangutan.
-Jan Hendrik Schon, A German
physicist, Schon briefly flirted with fame after a series of breakthroughs in
semi-conductor research. Not long after his rise to scientific stardom,
however, others began noticing anomilies in his data. It was soon determined
that he had faked almost all of his experiments making it one of the largest
hoaxes in the world of physics for the last 50 years.
-Global
Warming/Climate Change, The pervasive hype of a human-caused climate crisis
is based upon speculative theories, contrived data and totally unproven
modeling predictions.
November 2009, Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at
the University of East Anglia in England’s server was hacked and thousands of
emails and computer files to were copied and sent to various locations on the
Internet. The communications reveal conspiracies to falsify and withhold
information, to suppress contrary findings in scholarly publications, and to
exaggerate the existence and threats of man-made global warming. Many of these CRC individuals have had major
influence over highly publicized summary report findings issued by the IPCC.
United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) which is trumpeted in the media as authoritative gospel
is a politically-corrupted and agenda-driven organization. IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer admitted in November
2010, “…one has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate
policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we
redistribute de facto the world’s wealth…”
Other
Things Being Equal, it is Better to be Smart than to be Stupid
Carl Sagan’s famous quote is disarmingly
condescending, but not nearly as bad or goofy as “We are all made of star stuff.”
Other things being equal, here’s a list
of arguably the world’s most distinguished scientists who were smart, not
stupid, were not atheists and believed in God:
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)
Copernicus was the Polish astronomer who put forward the first mathematically
based system of planets going around the sun. He attended various European
universities, and became a Canon in the Catholic church in 1497.
His new system
was actually first presented in the Vatican gardens in 1533 before Pope Clement
VII who approved, and urged Copernicus to publish it around this time.
Copernicus was never under any threat of religious persecution - and was urged
to publish both by Catholic Bishop Guise, Cardinal Schonberg, and the
Protestant Professor George Rheticus. Copernicus referred sometimes to God in
his works, and did not see his system as in conflict with the Bible.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1627)
Bacon
was a philosopher who is known for establishing the scientific method of
inquiry based on experimentation and inductive reasoning. In De Interpretatione Naturae Prooemium,
Bacon established his goals as being the discovery of truth, service to his
country, and service to the church.
Although his work was based upon
experimentation and reasoning, he rejected atheism as being the result of
insufficient depth of philosophy, stating, "It is true, that a little
philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth
men's minds about to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second
causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it
beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly
to Providence and Deity."
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Kepler was a brilliant mathematician and astronomer. He did early work on
light, and established the laws of planetary motion about the sun. He also came
close to reaching the Newtonian concept of universal gravity - well before
Newton was born! His introduction of the idea of force in astronomy changed it
radically in a modern direction.
Kepler was an extremely sincere and pious
Lutheran, whose works on astronomy contain writings about how space and the
heavenly bodies represent the Trinity. Kepler suffered no persecution for his open
avowal of the sun-centered system, and, indeed, was allowed as a Protestant to
stay in Catholic Graz as a Professor (1595-1600) when other Protestants had
been expelled!
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Galileo is often remembered for his conflict with the Roman Catholic Church.
His controversial work on the solar system was published in 1633. It had no
proofs of a sun-centered system (Galileo's telescope discoveries did not
indicate a moving earth) and his one "proof" based upon the tides was
invalid. It ignored the correct elliptical orbits of planets published twenty
five years earlier by Kepler.
Since his work finished by putting the Pope's
favorite argument in the mouth of the simpleton in the dialogue, the Pope (an
old friend of Galileo's) was very offended. After the "trial" and
being forbidden to teach the sun-centered system, Galileo did his most useful
theoretical work, which was on dynamics. Galileo expressly said that the Bible
cannot err, and saw his system as an alternate interpretation of the biblical texts.
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Descartes
was a French mathematician, scientist and philosopher who has been called the
father of modern philosophy. His school studies made him dissatisfied with
previous philosophy: He had a deep religious faith as a Roman Catholic, which
he retained to his dying day, along with a resolute, passionate desire to
discover the truth. At the age of 24 he had a dream, and felt the vocational
call to seek to bring knowledge together in one system of thought. His system
began by asking what could be known if all else were doubted - suggesting the
famous "I think therefore I am".
Actually, it is often forgotten that
the next step for Descartes was to establish the near certainty of the
existence of God - for only if God both exists and would not want us to be
deceived by our experiences - can we trust our senses and logical thought
processes. God is, therefore, central to his whole philosophy. What he really
wanted to see was that his philosophy be adopted as standard Roman Catholic
teaching. Rene Descartes and Francis Bacon (1561-1626) are generally regarded
as the key figures in the development of scientific methodology. Both had
systems in which God was important, and both seem more devout than the average
for their era.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Pascal
was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and theologian. In
mathematics, he published a treatise on the subject of projective geometry and
established the foundation for probability theory. Pascal invented a mechanical
calculator, and established the principles of vacuums and the pressure of air.
He was raised a Roman Catholic, but in 1654 had a religious vision of God,
which turned the direction of his study from science to theology. Pascal began
publishing a theological work, Lettres provinciales, in 1656. His most
influential theological work, the Pensées ("Thoughts"), was
a defense of Christianity, which was published after his death. The most famous
concept from Pensées was Pascal’s Wager. Pascal's last words were,
"May God never abandon me."
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
In optics, mechanics, and mathematics, Newton was a figure of undisputed genius
and innovation. In all his science (including chemistry) he saw mathematics and
numbers as central. What is less well known is that he was devoutly religious
and saw numbers as involved in understanding God's plan for history from the
Bible.
He did a considerable work on biblical numerology, and, though aspects
of his beliefs were not orthodox, he thought theology was very important. In
his system of physics, God was essential to the nature and absoluteness of
space. In Principia he stated, "The most beautiful system of the
sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of
an intelligent and powerful Being."
Robert Boyle (1791-1867)
One
of the founders and key early members of the Royal Society, Boyle gave his name
to "Boyle's Law" for gases, and also wrote an important work on
chemistry. Encyclopedia Britannica says of him: "By his will he
endowed a series of Boyle lectures, or sermons, which still continue, 'for
proving the Christian religion against notorious infidels...' As a devout
Protestant, Boyle took a special interest in promoting the Christian religion
abroad, giving money to translate and publish the New Testament into Irish and
Turkish.
In 1690 he developed his theological views in The Christian
Virtuoso, which he wrote to show that the study of nature was a central
religious duty." Boyle wrote against atheists in his day (the notion that
atheism is a modern invention is a myth), and was clearly much more devoutly
Christian than the average in his era.
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Michael Faraday was the son of a blacksmith who became one of the greatest
scientists of the 19th century. His work on electricity and magnetism not only
revolutionized physics, but led to much of our lifestyles today, which depends
on them (including computers and telephone lines and, so, web sites).
Faraday
was a devoutly Christian member of the Sandemanians, which significantly
influenced him and strongly affected the way in which he approached and
interpreted nature. Originating from Presbyterians, the Sandemanians rejected
the idea of state churches, and tried to go back to a New Testament type of
Christianity.
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
Mendel
was the first to lay the mathematical foundations of genetics, in what came to
be called "Mendelianism". He began his research in 1856 (three years
before Darwin published his Origin of Species) in the garden of the
Monastery in which he was a monk. Mendel was elected Abbot of his Monastery in
1868. His work remained comparatively unknown until the turn of the century,
when a new generation of botanists began finding similar results and
"rediscovered" him (though their ideas were not identical to his).
An
interesting point is that the 1860's was notable for formation of the X-Club,
which was dedicated to lessening religious influences and propagating an image
of "conflict" between science and religion. One sympathizer was
Darwin's cousin Francis Galton, whose scientific interest was in genetics (a
proponent of eugenics - selective breeding among humans to "improve"
the stock). He was writing how the "priestly mind" was not conducive
to science while, at around the same time, an Austrian monk was making the
breakthrough in genetics. The rediscovery of the work of Mendel came too late
to affect Galton's contribution.
William Thomson Kelvin (1824-1907)
Kelvin was foremost among the small group of British scientists who helped to
lay the foundations of modern physics. His work covered many areas of physics,
and he was said to have more letters after his name than anyone else in the
Commonwealth, since he received numerous honorary degrees from European
Universities, which recognized the value of his work. He was a very committed
Christian, who was certainly more religious than the average for his era.
Interestingly, his fellow physicists George Gabriel Stokes (1819-1903) and
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) were also men of deep Christian commitment, in
an era when many were nominal, apathetic, or anti-Christian.
The Encyclopedia
Britannica says "Maxwell is regarded by most modern physicists as the
scientist of the 19th century who had the greatest influence on 20th century
physics; he is ranked with Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein for the fundamental
nature of his contributions." Lord Kelvin was an Old Earth creationist,
who estimated the Earth's age to be somewhere between 20 million and 100
million years, with an upper limit at 500 million years based on cooling rates
(a low estimate due to his lack of knowledge about radiogenic heating).
Max Planck (1858-1947)
Planck
made many contributions to physics, but is best known for quantum theory, which
revolutionized our understanding of the atomic and sub-atomic worlds. In his
1937 lecture "Religion and Naturwissenschaft," Planck expressed the
view that God is everywhere present, and held that "the holiness of the
unintelligible Godhead is conveyed by the holiness of symbols." Atheists,
he thought, attach too much importance to what are merely symbols.
Planck was a
churchwarden from 1920 until his death, and believed in an almighty,
all-knowing, beneficent God (though not necessarily a personal one). Both
science and religion wage a "tireless battle against skepticism and
dogmatism, against unbelief and superstition" with the goal "toward
God!"
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Einstein
is probably the best known and most highly revered scientist of the twentieth
century, and is associated with major revolutions in our thinking about time,
gravity, and the he conversion of matter to energy (E=mc2). Although never coming to belief in a personal God, he recognized the impossibility of a non-created universe.
The Encyclopedia Britannica says of him: "Firmly denying atheism, Einstein expressed a belief in "Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the harmony of what exists." This actually motivated his interest in science, as he once remarked to a young physicist: "I want to know how God created this world, I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details." Einstein's famous epithet on the "uncertainty principle" was "God does not play dice" - and to him this was a real statement about a God in whom he believed.
Excuse me while I return to Cosmos next
week to enjoy the entertainment of special effects and space fantasy.
