CIVIC SURVEILLANCE
The new “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” series has recently premiered worldwide. Following the legacy of the mythical Carl Sagan, the new show revisits, in a more modern way and with the power of image and narrative, what we know about the Universe.
Years ago, the original 13-episode COSMOS series had dragged a multitude of people fascinated by the Cornell astronomer and astrophysicist. Today, National Geographic, with the help of Carl Sagan’s wife, Ann Druyan, breathes new life into the series. Despite having more Hollywood and less BBC, the new show seems to be faithful to the original: the genesis, the essence and the destiny of the Universe, as well as the condensation of human knowledge in an accessible and yet accurate language, capable of captivating in a dream-like fashion that rationality only can explain.
But this article is not about the show – it is about the permanent need to make Science credible. The virulent response that certain circles of fundamentalists in the United Stated have shown after the first episode being aired is not surprising, and yet it is still appalling. The most peaceful allegation was that the TV show promoted atheism – thus mixing in the same plate the big bang and biological evolution. Reading different American blogs, as well as the comments in various websites, one nurtures the feeling that the eagle is ill: its science is one of the most advanced, but its citizens repudiate it.
The publication of a recent survey on the beliefs of Americans is overwhelming: 26% don’t know that the Earth revolves around the Sun, 52% don’t know – i.e. don’t accept – that human beings have evolved from more primitive beings, 61% do not accept that the Universe started with an initial explosion. Everything is wrong with this American dispute with religious grounds (led by those who interpret the Bible literally): it combines fanaticism and politics. It combines fundamentalism with parties. Mutatis mutandis, it is Uncle Sam’s version of Khomeini’s Iran. Thus, we have the good and the bad, and a trench between them. It is the defeat of rationalism, a return to the era of Inquisition.
And that should serve as a lesson to all of us: our balance as a society means that we should continuously make Science credible – because citizens are always potential prey for myths and populist exaggerations. When ideology contaminates science, or the communication of science, or the policy of science, we open the door to relativism - and roll out the red carpet to superstition. We pave the way for citizens to start renouncing the value of knowledge, each time we play the game of ‘us against them’, where the truth does not matter, only the club you pertain to.
Presenting science in Portugal as a black hole of spending is illegitimate and damaging. It means that we do not understand a simple truth: the social belittling of science brings incalculable economic costs to the country. Maybe this argument is a must, to raise the awareness of those temporarily in power, whether politicians, economists or members of the media - who only read the future in a calculator display or in a spreadsheet.
Photo credits: Wikipedia
