“Creationists” are demanding equal time with the Cosmos Series hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
They want their version of a Bible story to be accepted as a different “scientific” point of view.
The responsibility for this silly request lies in part with the news media that created the monster called “fair and balanced news” wherein one story must be balanced by one that makes the opposite point.
That works if you’re talking about who is the best baseball player of all time, or whose economic policy is best for the nation, but when it comes to actual events or facts necessary to understand an issue, it is an absurd and dangerous policy. Opinions don’t equal facts.
But the responsibility for this ridiculous request also lies with the Christian community as a whole.
Trying to be tolerant of fundamentalists by disagreeing with them as if they just have a different way of understanding the Bible has had an effect just as disastrous as “fair and balanced news” has.
These people are doing immeasurable harm to the credibility of the Christian message.
In today’s world millions of children are now raised without ever stepping a foot inside a church. Why does any sensible Christian think when they become adults they will be interested in hearing a message that denies science and facts?
Many sincere Christians believe God wrote the Bible, but they don’t want to get on television and explain to a scientific world why they do.
But Creationists do, and that is the problem. These are people who are ignorant of biblical scholarship and are not at all embarrassed by that ignorance.
That wouldn’t bother me as long as they kept it to themselves, but when they want to tell the whole world this is what the Bible says, that crosses a line I find unacceptable.
To use the Bible as a science book is the equivalent of using Shakespeare’s Richard III as a history book. Using history and writing it are two very different things.
Neal deGrasse Tyson shouldn’t have to explain why Creationism doesn’t deserve equal time with the Cosmos series.
Sensible Christians should.
linnposts.com 
This topic made its way into a couple of Solon.com articles, basically echoing much of what you are saying. In one response Tyson indicated the best response is to ignore such requests; simply move forward with factual scientific exploration and let dogma die of its own backwardness.
My latest novel deals, in part, with shamanism. In researching these uniquely gifted people one of the descriptions applied to them is appropriate to this subject. “Neither devout shaman or scientist allows political or ecclesiastical dogma to interfere with their explorations.”
I’ve never had a spiritual problem seeing science as a logical methodology for discovering the Creator’s mechanisms of creating. The “magic wand” concept was not nearly as omnipotent an explanation of how “The All” came to be. Isn’t the fact that the design of the atom and that of a solar system are nearly identical magically awesome in itself? And that is only one example of countless physical mechanisms portraying highly intelligent and coordinated purposes. But, that’s just me.
I really like the definition you quote, Bob.
I once read the story of how, several years before Hitler came to power, the Nazis gathered together some 20 eminent scientists, with a brief to debunk Einstein’s theory of relativity. That Einstein was a Jew was inexcusable, of course.
When told of the Nazis’ plans to discredit him, Einstein laughed out loud, saying: “…were I wrong, just one of those scientists would have been enough!”
Thank you for that story, Nigel. Highlights the foolishness of the anti-science segment of the Christian community perfectly.
I have never understood why the science v religion issue always seems to be an “either or” type thing. They both seem to have a place in the scheme of things, as I see it. The difference is that science deals in facts, while religion deals in beliefs. For me, that is OK and workable. The problem arises when religion decides that it is also fact. To me, that is patently untrue. One of my pet peeves is when people use the words believe and know interchangeably. In my simple engineering mind, that are NOT interchangeable, never have been , and never will be. I think religion and science both have value, but religion will never be science, so live with that fact and deal with it.
Amen!
Secular Humanism has an excellent approach to it all. Yours for peace accountability,”liberty and justice for ALL”!!! Houston Allred