Oklahoma Fox affiliate cuts evolution from 'Cosmos' premiere
Viewers in Oklahoma who tuned into watch 'Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,' hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, missed about 15 seconds of the show, which just happened to be the one part where Dr. Tyson mentioned evolution.
Instead, a local news promo was aired in the few seconds time slot.聽
, chalking it up to an "operator error."
"Many believe this was done intentionally in an attempt to shield our viewers from this subject matter," said Fox 25 in a statement. "That is not the case."聽
The new Cosmos series is a follow-up to Carl Sagan's award-winning series, 'Cosmos: A Personal Voyage." When it aired in 1980 it became the most widely watched series in the history of public television until Ken Burns's 1990 miniseries on the American Civil War.
Tyson's first episode earned some rave reviews. "," wrote astronomer and popular science blogger Phil Plait on Slate.
The Los Angeles Times called it "."
But the show also had its detractors, particularly among those who reject evolutionary biology.
"Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, if the first segment is any indication, in an effort to create interest in science," wrote a blogger for聽Answers in Genesis, a 海角大神 apologetics ministry that promotes the view that the universe, our planet, and its inhabitants came into existence about 6,000 years ago. "We hope that future segments will spend more time showing actual scientific observations鈥攕uch as the brief part of this episode showing where earth is in relation to the rest of the universe." 聽
Others from the same school of thought, like Answers in Genesis astronomer Dr. Danny Faulkner objected to the series' adoption of the theme, "The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be."
According to Faulkner, " When Sagan said it 34 years ago and then wrote it in his book, a lot of people were saying, 'Wow! What a profound scientific statement,' but it鈥檚 actually a philosophical statement."
Unlike his good friend "Science Guy" Bill Nye, who last month engaged in a high-profile debate with Answers in Genesis director Ken Ham, Tyson declines to debate creationists. When the new 'Cosmos' host does speak on the conflict, he often breaks out what is perhaps his most famous quip: "The good thing about science is that ."
