Science and the Religious Rhetorics of the Ineffable: A Comparison Between Two "Cosmoses"

Lance Cummings

doi:10.29107/rr2017.2.2

Abstract

Since Thomas Kuhn’s revolutionary look at the social construction of science, research into the rhetorics of science has shown how science is a persuasive form of discourse, rarely as transparent and self-evident as is often understood. Rhetorical studies have taken this cue to examine how science is constructed through available means beyond mere logic. Arguably, the resurgence of creationist beliefs in political discourse has brought on a new impetus in science to persuade the “hearts and minds” of the American population, inspiring Neil deGrasse Tyson’s remaking of Carl Sagan’s 1980 documentary Cosmos. Using Rudolph Otto’s, The Idea of the Holy, this article will define religion as an ineffable experience that creates “creature-consciousness,” or a sense of awe and insufficiency towards something outside the self, while also producing a sense of identification or “oneness.” The ineffable experience is core to the public making of science, just as the ineffable experience plays a defining role in religions. Though science and religion are often seen as mutually exclusively (sometimes in opposition), identifying the ineffable experience as a shared ground can provide opportunities for science and religion to dialogue in new ways.

Highlights

In 2009, John Boswell, A.K.A melodysheep (2009a), released his first musical remix on YouTube, “A Glorious Dawn,” featuring Carl Sagan in clips from the 1980 documentary Cosmos
For Sagan, our future depends on science, or “how well we understand this cosmos, in which we float like a mote of dust” (1:10)
Sagan’s moral vision does not come directly from postulated truth, but from a personal relationship with the cosmos that he has developed through science – an experience he hopes to share with the rest of the world

Summary

Introduction

In 2009, John Boswell, A.K.A melodysheep (2009a), released his first musical remix on YouTube, “A Glorious Dawn,” featuring Carl Sagan in clips from the 1980 documentary Cosmos. For Lessl, this represents the primary role of religious discourse, or the priestly voice, to influence common culture with knowledge developed separately by experts, whether they be scientists, theologians, or bishops. These treatments of scientific discourse primarily address logos – or how rationality works among scientists and their audiences. Lessl fails to point out the non-rational elements of Sagan’s documentary that are meant to communicate an experience that cannot be wholly contained by the mind or captured by rational discourse. Analyzing non-rational and rational elements in both religious and scientific discourse can help rhetors negotiate points of discord without reifying the polarization between science and religion, building bonds of identification across propositional divides

Beyond the Exchange Between Terms

Sagan and the Ineffable Cosmos

Tyson and the Rational Odyssey

Conclusion