On Christmas day, astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted about a man who was born Dec. 25, and changed the world by age 30. But he wasn't referring to Jesus.
Instead, Tyson was talking about Isaac Newton, who was born on that date in 1642 (this is according to the Julian calendar, which was in use in England at the time. According to the Gregorian calendar, Newton was born on Jan. 4, 1643). His tweet garnered a huge amount of attention, earning praise from some and contempt from others.
On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014
The tweet, Tyson claims, is his most retweeted one ever. At the time of this writing, it had nearly 72,000 retweets.
Tyson followed up with a few other Christmas-related tweets, including the one below.
Merry Christmas to all. A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA).— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014
Neither tweet sat well with some users, with many claiming they were offensive.
Hi @neiltyson, trolling Christians on Dec 25 is so EDGY. Please let me know when you troll Muslims on Ramadan. Merry Christmas!— Razor (@hale_razor) December 25, 2014
This is what dumb people think is clever https://t.co/gZjBm4MSsI— JustinGreen∞ (@JGreenDC) December 25, 2014
@cnni @neiltyson God is being removed from almost every aspect of society. Ppl r fed up w/ this!U owe Christians an apology 4 insensitivity— Deborah Boschman (@Manitobagal) December 28, 2014
Many were angered by Tyson "trolling" Christians; but some even criticized him for bad science.
people have every right to be pissed about @neiltyson's isaac newton tweet - he failed to account for Julian to Gregorian switch— Michael Eisen (@mbeisen) December 28, 2014
[seealso slug="neil-degrasse-tyson-interstellar"]
Judging by the number of people who favorited the tweet (nearly 71,000 at the time of writing), not everyone was offended, and many praised Tyson's wit.
@neiltyson tweets were pretty accurate this past week, he is one of thee smartest men on earth!— thabit (@thabit187) December 28, 2014
Proud to be following @neiltyson.— Birdie (@graycityparrot) December 28, 2014
To an army of Twitter users demanding for an apology, Tyson replied with this:
Imagine a world in which we are all enlightened by objective truths rather than offended by them.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 27, 2014
On Saturday, Tyson wrote a Facebook post explaining some of the context behind his tweets.
"My sense in this case is that the high rate of re-tweeting, is not to share my enthusiasm of this fact, but is driven by accusations that the tweet is somehow anti-Christian. If a person actually wanted to express anti-Christian sentiment, my guess is that alerting people of Isaac Newton's birthday would appear nowhere on the list."
Tyson is recently best known for being the host of science show Cosmos on Fox. After the show premiered in March, a number of creationists criticized it for its pro-evolution stance.