With the brilliant new Cosmos series, the recreation of the grandly funny Family Guy joke by Seth MacFarlane went from extremely likely to inevitable after the first installment. That evening Fox News affiliate KOKH-TV managed to edit 15 seconds of the controversial (read blasphemy ridden, scum born of whore-mongers) science special out, substituting commercials instead. In all likelihood, they were Trojan or mail order virility pill ads.
The new Cosmos series has united Tea Partiers and other fundamentalists in protest. ‘Theories’ that run counter to the ‘facts’ one finds in Ken Ham’s dinosaur museum and the thrilling new movie ‘Noah’ shouldn’t be allowed to present their whimsy as ‘scientific fact’ – a phrase – which is an oxymoron to some whose certainty that the world was created in six days 6,000 years ago is matched only by their determination to shield their children from scientific frippery, even as they observe the law of gravity.
To save other affiliates from frantic and embarrassing editing in the upcoming series, we present this pre-edited and fundamentalist approved version of ‘The Cosmos.’ You may rest assured that no offending material exists in this edition, and the proper facts have been substituted.
Seriously, Tyson’s approach will not phase those whose brand of intellectual curiosity has the flexibility of cast iron, set in cement long ago. However, many Christians and people of a wide spectrum of religious belief will respond to Tyson’s attempts to blend the scientific with the spiritual…Which after all, makes creation much larger and grander than what we already think we know…Which not long ago, included the ‘fact’ that you could sail off of the flat earth and into the great unknown.
“Some claim that evolution is just a theory, as if it were merely an opinion. The theory of evolution — like the theory of gravity — is a scientific fact. Evolution really happened. Accepting our kinship with all life on Earth is not only solid science. In my view, it’s also a soaring spiritual experience.” Neil deGrasse Tyson
