Christian Research Journal Reads Episode 140: Missing the Signposts: A Review of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

This is Episode 140 of Christian Research Journal Reads. This is an audio version of the CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL article, “Missing the Signposts: A Review of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson” by Guillermo Gonzalez. This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 41, number 3 (2018). https://www.equip.org/articles/missing-the-signposts-a-review-of-astrophysics-for-people-in-a-hurry-by-neil-degrasse-tyson/

It was accompanied by Postmodern Realities Podcast Episode 080: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.

This podcast presents audio versions of Christian Research Journal articles. As the flagship publication of the Christian Research Institute, the Journal seeks to equip followers of Christ to think and to live Christianly—to exercise truth and experience life. Truth, especially essential Christian doctrine, forms the basis for how we live our lives in Christ. As the apostle Paul instructed Timothy in 1 Tim. 4:16, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”The Christian Research Journal enjoyed a print incarnation of almost 45 years. Now exclusively an online publication, the Journal consists of thousands of free articles. We hope that through these audio articles you are not only equipped to proclaim and defend your faith but that as a disciple you also draw closer to Christ in your walk with Him.  You can find the written version of each article that is an episode of Christian Research Journal Reads at the website of the Christian Research Institute, equip.org. All Christian Research Journal articles at equip.org are completely free and do not require a subscription and are not under a paywall.All episodes will be available at the following podcast platforms with more being added daily! You can help spread the word about this new podcast by giving us a rating and review from the other channels we are listed on and telling others!You can view off our Website at the at this link and off our Journal main page. 



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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is episode one hundred and forty of the Christian
Research Journal Reads Podcast. Missing the Signposts A review of
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil Degrass Tyson,
reviewed by Kiermo Gonzalez. This review article first appeared in

(00:26):
the print edition of the Christian Research Journal, Volume forty one,
number three and twenty eighteen. The Christian Research Journal Reads
Podcast presents audio versions of Christian Research Journal articles. To
read the full text of this article, as well as
its documentation, please go to equip dot org. That's e

(00:49):
qu ip dot rg.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Missing the Signposts a review of Astrophysics for People in
a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson. This book review is
by Gillimo Gonzalez and is read by an automated voice.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry in defits its title,
the book is small enough to fit into a large
pocket or purse, measuring only seven and a half by
four and a half inches, and it is short enough

(01:16):
to read over a weekend. Two hundred and twenty two pages.
The retail price of eighteen dollars and ninety five cents
seems a bit steep considering its size and its absence
of illustrations and tables quite an omission for a book
on such a complex topic. There's another possible reason for
buyer's remorse. Readers familiar with Neil de Grasse Tyson's previous

(01:37):
writings will have deja vu. The chapters in this book
are adapted from some of the many essays he published
in Natural History Magazine between nineteen ninety seven and two
thousand and seven, though they are updated with a few
recent discoveries. For example, on page ninety six, he mentions
the historic discovery of gravity waves in twenty sixteen, a
century after Einstein predicted them. Tyson apparently intends this to

(02:01):
be the typical reader's first and last book on astrophysics.
Tyson writes at a level that anyone with the high
school reading level should be able to understand, but from
my perusal of online reviews, it seems many readers have
found it a difficult slog. On another note, he too
neglects to include a bibliography, and while footnotes are present,
they are sparse. The first one to include a cetation

(02:23):
to the astrophysical literature doesn't appear until page fifty five.
The reader has to take almost everything Tyson has to
say on his authority. The first few chapters follow a
chronological sequence covering the history of the universe, but the
remaining chapters are not as well organized. Topics include the
universality of physical laws, the cosmic microwave, background radiation, dark matter,

(02:45):
dark energy, the periodic table of the elements, the Solar system,
and exoplanets. These are all topics covered in a college
Astronomy one hundred and one course, but with accompanying equations
and less flowery prose. I would think that an English
major with the little writing prowess and an a from
my astr one hundred course could write a book like this.
With a generous nod to Wikipedia, I don't have any

(03:08):
qualms with the scientific content of the book, except for
its endorsement of darnism, as it is just a summary
compilation of the current consensus among astrophysicists. If Tyson were
content merely with this task, that I would be done
with my review at this point. Luckily, he is a
very opinionated writer, which in my opinion, makes for a
much more interesting discussion. Thus, the remainder of my review

(03:30):
concerns the worldview content Tyson pours into the scientific discoveries
as well as relevant facts. He does not materialist intentions.
The first three words in the English Bible are in
the beginning. These are also the three words Tyson chooses
to start his book. The titles of the next two chapters,
on Earth as in the Heavens and let there Be Light,

(03:52):
are also Biblical illusions by themselves. These snippets don't tell
us whether Tyson approves of the Biblical worldview. He's just
being cute and culturally literate. Tyson telegraphs his true intentions
on the first page, where he quotes Lucretius, an influential
Greek materialist who lived more than two thousand years ago.
The knowledgeable reader will suspect that any Biblical illusions are

(04:15):
in fact a literary device that Tyson employs to subtly
reinterpret Biblical ideas into a materialist framework. In this way,
he is following in the footsteps of his mentor, Carl Sagan.
Segan began his PBS Cosmo series and book of the
same title with the statement the cosmos as all that is,
or ever was, or ever will be to Christian ears.

(04:35):
This should have a familiar ring. It is a remaking
of the Gloria Patrie Glory be the Father, as it
was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be
in the image of materialism. In Sogan's world, as in Tyson's,
there is neither need nor room for God. And in
each case readers know or at least suspect as much
from the very first page. I do have to give

(04:56):
Tyson credit for acknowledging something he probably feels uncomfortable about.
He writes, what we do know and what we can
assert without further hesitation, is that the universe had a
beginning thirty three. He disdains the idea of a creator, remarking,
some religious people assert with a tinge of righteousness that
something must have started at all thirty two emphasis and original.

(05:18):
Actually it is not something but someone. Some of these
unnamed religious people he so cavalierly dismisses, include scientific luminaries
such as Alan Sandage and Charles Towns, as well as
leading philosophers such as William Lane Craig and Alvin Plantiga.
He goes on to contradict himself, speculating that maybe the
universe was always there, or just popped into existence out

(05:39):
of nothing, or is just a computer simulation. After admitting
that these are not very satisfactory explanations, Tyson pleads ignorance
on the subject. On this, Tyson echoes the views of
Robert Jastro in the two thousand and four Illustramedia documentary
The Privileged Planet. In the extra interview section, when asked
about the meaning of the Big Bang, Jastro admits that

(06:01):
he feels conflicted. He is committed to reductionist materialism, the
view that only the material world matter is truly real.
Yet the obvious logical implication of the beginning to the
universe calls into question that belief system. Christian readers will
notice Tyson's lack of acknowledgment of the deep faith of
the great early modern scientists. The most glaring instance takes

(06:22):
place at the start of chapter two, where he introduces
Isaac Newton and his universal Law of gravitation. He not
only fails to mention Newton's Christian faith, but also makes
the following absurd claim. According to Christian teachings of the day,
God controlled the heavens, rendering them unknowable to our feeble
mortal minds. Tyson Flip's history on its head. In reality,

(06:44):
Christian scientists believe they were justified in studying the heavens
because they were created in God's image and were gifted
with the ability to reason. They also believe that the
Great Lawgiver govern his creation with physical laws, which they
enthusiastically set out to discover. Atheists like Tay have no
such convictions. Tyson's morals. In the final chapter, titled Reflections

(07:07):
on the Cosmic Perspective, Tyson engages in a bit of moralizing.
He attempts to extract meaning from the facts about our
cosmic place and heritage while clutching tightly to his materialism.
Yet he must know that without God there is no
purpose to existence, and there is no meaning to our libs.
Our actions are neither moral nor in moral. There is
only matter and motion. Although Tyson would probably say that

(07:29):
people can create their own moral system and live by
it without positing God, to which one might still query,
but who then will be trusted to enforce this arbitrary system.
Tyson states people kill and get killed in the name
of someone else's conception of God, and that some people
who do not kill in the name of God kill
in the name of needs or wants. A political dogma

(07:50):
one hundred and ninety five. Notice that he lists killing
in the name of God first and keeps the descriptions general.
If he wanted to be fair with the historical data
of the past century, then he would list killings by
atheistic Marxist governments first. Furthermore, he would not broadbrush all
people of faith as potential killers, but he would note
that Christians and Jews have been the most frequent targets.

(08:12):
I take this as a big piece of Tyson's motivation
for rejecting belief in God. Tyson navely believes that giving
people a cosmic perspective will end our bad behavior. He writes, Now,
imagine a world in which everyone holds an expanded view
of our place in the cosmos. With that perspective, our
problems would shrink or never arise at all, and we
could celebrate our earthly differences while shunning the behavior of

(08:34):
our predecessors, who slaughtered one another because of them one
hundred and ninety seven. Germany was one of the most
scientifically advanced nations on the planet in the nineteen thirties,
especially in the physical sciences. That didn't stop Hitler and
his willing executioners from committing atrocities on a massive scale
false humility. In his attempt to show that we are

(08:55):
insignificant in the cosmic scheme, Tyson warmly embraces the discredited
Copernican principle my use of the label that by definition
purports that humans are not privileged observers of the universe.
He writes, again and again, across the centuries, cosmic discoveries
have demoted our self image two hundred and four. He
then lists the supposed emotions of Earth, than the Sun,

(09:17):
than the Milky Way. He even calls this cosmic perspective
spiritual but not religious two hundred and six. Dennis Danielson
masterfully deconstructs this de throne at narrative in an important
paper he published in two thousand and one. He writes,
but the trick of this supposed to throne it is that,
while purportedly rendering man less cosmically and metaphysically important, it

(09:39):
actually enthrones us, modern scientific humans in all our enlightened superiority.
It declares, in effect, we're truly very special because we
shown that we're not so special by equating anthropocentrism with
the now unarguably disreputable belief in geocentrism. Such modern ideology
manages to treat his nobutory or nave the legitimate and

(10:00):
burning question of whether Earth or Earth's inhabitants may indeed
be cosmically special. Instead, it offers, if anything at all,
a specialness that is cast in exclusively existential or Promethean terms,
with humankind lifting itself up by its own bootstraps and heroically,
though in the end, pointlessly, to find the universal silence.
Emphasis added. One wonders if Danielson had Tyson in mind

(10:23):
when he wrote this. Tyson writes, I feel live, and
spirited and connected. I also feel large, knowing that the
goings on within the three pound human brain are what
enabled us to figure out our place in the universe
one hundred and ninety eight Missing Signposts. On page one
hundred and seventy one, Tyson briefly describes an interesting fact.

(10:44):
Earth's moon is about one slash four hundredth the diameter
of the Sun, but it is also one slash four
hundredth as far from us, making the Sun and the
Moon the same size on the sky, a coincidence not
shared by any other planet moon combination in the Solar System,
allowing for uniquely photogenic total solar eclipses. I believe this
coincidence is actually evidence of design. As I detail in

(11:07):
the Privileged Planet. Tyson is a smart person, but he
is letting his materialist blinders keep him from seeing the
signposts in nature that point to its offer. So blinded
was he that he failed to see even the signposts
in his own book.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Jilimo Gonzalez thank you for listening to another episode from
the Christian Research Journal Reads podcast, which provides audio articles
of Christian Research Journal articles. If you go to equip
dot org, you will find a brand new article for
the Christian Research Journal published weekly. In addition, please subscribe

(11:41):
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(12:02):
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in in depth, free flowing, essential Christian conversations on critical
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on the planet. At equipp dot org, you will also

(12:24):
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