Neil deGrasse Tyson’s #WhenIWasYourAge Slams Intelligent Design, Sparks Twitter Rage
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s #WhenIWasYourAge hashtag went viral on Twitter today, trending heavily and inspiring many others to join in. The beloved science education advocate pounced on modern technology with a sad sort of nostalgia, but he also lauded technological advances.
To the consternation of some followers, he also touched on the Ferguson protests, and ended with a denouncement of Intelligent Design, appearing to call for a return to science focused classrooms.
Saying that he felt pensive and reflective, Tyson asked followers to indulge him in some reflective thoughts. Here are some of his best tweets. He talked about the changes in technology.
#WhenIWasYourAge: Your home telephone could drop to the floor thousands of times and never break.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 28, 2014
Lifestyles and health:
#WhenIWasYourAge: Your expected age of death was much closer to your age of retirement.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 28, 2014
#WhenIWasYourAge: People were never "living with their disease". We cured them. Or they died from it.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 28, 2014
Politics:
Times Have Changed: Officer kills an unarmed Black man, spawning National protests. When I grew up, this was just local news.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 26, 2014
And finally, the one that was most controversial of all:
#WhenIWasYourAge: Religion was taught in Sunday School, not in your Science Classroom.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 28, 2014
Tyson encouraged a flood of similar reminiscences across Twitter. These spanned scientific advances, changes in technology, medicine, and society. They also included quite a bit of backlash for his church-school separation suggestion:
#WhenIWasYourAge life mattered more, pregnant meant a baby's coming & kids didn't kill kids b/c they prayed with them in homeroom every day.
— Chuck Nellis (@ChuckNellis) November 28, 2014
@neiltyson #WhenIWasYourAge science was taught in science classrooms, not hysterical climate alarmist pseudo science #GlobalWarming #lies
— Doug L. Hoffman (@ResilientEarth) November 28, 2014
.@neiltyson when you were born, school prayer was legal.
— Graeme Edgeler (@GraemeEdgeler) November 28, 2014
Though Tyson stepped out of the conversation at that point, the political aspect didn’t die out.
#WhenIWasYourAge all of us classmates were friends.. Black white Chinese or whatever race.. Now, everyone is divided.. Thanks Obama & Co..
— Johnny Jones (@gamma_ray239) November 28, 2014
#WhenIWasYourAge life mattered more, pregnant meant a baby's coming & kids didn't kill kids b/c they prayed with them in homeroom every day.
— Chuck Nellis (@ChuckNellis) November 28, 2014
It looks like Neil deGrasse Tyson’s #WhenIWasYourAge set off a Twitter firestorm. What would you add?
[photo credit: NASA HQ PHOTO]