Faith & Science
Medicine
Neil Tyson Gets Ancient and Modern Medicine Wrong
On a new episode of ID the Future, science historian Michael Keas and philosopher Jay Richards continue their conversation about Neil deGrasse Tyson’s recent series on the Fox and National Geographic channels, Cosmos: Possible Worlds. Download the podcast or listen to it here.
As Keas explains, Tyson’s story of ancient superstition evolving at last into modern medicine gets both ancient and modern medicine factually wrong. His long-running “history” of the warfare between science and religion is likewise historically mistaken, as Keas, author of Unbelievable: 7 Myths About the History and Future of Science and Religion, explains. Curiously, Tyson has a future, quasi-religious myth of his own to promote: personal immortality through futuristic technology.
Photo credit: Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Poland, dates to 1364, by Robert Rachwał / CC BY.