Neil DeGrasse Tyson Elaborates On ‘Anti-Christian Sentiment’

Neil deGrasse Tyson is speaking once more about the controversy of his Christmas tweets, saying that he believes a perception of ‘anti-Christian sentiment’ drove the most controversial of the tweets to such widespread response. Of his four tweets, one wishing happy birthday to Isaac Newton was by far the most retweeted, and most poorly received. This weekend, Neil ruminated on the cause.

While the initial tweets, and the controversial follow-up, fit into Twitter’s short form, for this rumination, Tyson moved over to Facebook, where he could compose a long post.

The astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, and science education enthusiast wrote that one of his Christmas Day tweets had become his most-retweeted of all time.

On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014

The tweet has had over 72 thousand retweets, which Tyson says is likely due less to love of Newton, and more to religious sentiment.

My sense in this case is that the high rate of re-tweeting, is not to share my enthusiasm of this fact, but is driven by accusations that the tweet is somehow anti-Christian. If a person actually wanted to express anti-Christian sentiment, my guess is that alerting people of Isaac Newton’s birthday would appear nowhere on the list.

He points out that this is about 24 times as many retweets as some of his more popular earlier tweets have received, even those which could have similarly been denounced as anti-Christian sentiment. He compared it to the following:

Some claim the USA is a Christian nation, compelling me to wonder which assault rifle Jesus would choose: the AR-15 or AK-47.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 7, 2014

That one received about 13k retweets.

So, why did Neil actually make the post, if not anti-Christian sentiment?

Everybody knows that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th. I think fewer people know that Isaac Newton shares the same birthday. Christmas day in England – 1642. And perhaps even fewer people know that before he turned 30, Newton had discovered the laws of motion, the universal law of gravitation, and invented integral and differential calculus. All of which served as the mechanistic foundation for the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries that would forever transform the world.

Tyson closed his ruminations with a warning:

A few days after [New Year’s Day], I’ll be tweeting about Earth’s perihelion. Just a head’s up in case people want to avert their eyes over that one.

The Earth’s perihelion is the point in its orbit when it draws closest to the sun, about two weeks after the Winter Solstice, or a few days after the new year begins. According to Time and Date, the 2015 perihelion will occur on January 4th.

It’s not clear whether or how Neil deGrasse Tyson plans to be accused of anti-Christian sentiment again on that date (perhaps a pun about nearness to the Son instead?) but there’s no doubt the Twitterverse will be watching.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson Elaborates On ‘Anti-Christian Sentiment’