I expected to disagree with Tyson on his view of young-earth creationists.
There is scientific evidence on both sides of the argument. Things aren’t as
simple and obvious as many people claim.
But I was amazed how much I agreed with a scene
late in the episode. I would have shouted, “Amen!" if that were appropriate
while watching "Cosmos." The scene is an animation of the astronomer William
Herschel walking on the beach with his son, John, and discussing William’s
friend, John Michell.
“He held that some stars are
invisible,” said William. “They really exist, but we shall never see them. Dark
stars, Michell called them.”
“With all due repsect, father,
surely your friend was mistaken. If no one can see them, then how can we
possible know they exist?”
“Did you see the man who left
those footprints, John?”
“Why, no, father, I did not.”
“But do you know that he
exists?”
Dark stars, now called black
holes, leave footprints in the cosmos. Their gravitational pull is so great
that light cannot escape. They are invisible. We detect them by watching the
evidence of their gravitational pull on other things in the universe.
Sometimes the most powerful
things in the universe are invisible. God is my Black Hole. I cannot see Him,
but I have seen His footprints in the cosmos, in history and in my life. His
pull is so great that once I got close to Him, my life was absorbed by Him. And
I shall never regret it.
