Sunday night's Cosmos finale asks the question in defense of science that the show has been leading up to all season. “What will happen the next time the mob comes?”

Show producer Seth MacFarlane and Neil deGrasse Tyson

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

“What will happen the next time the mob comes?” Neil deGrasse Tyson asked at the beginning of the finale episode of “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” which finished its meditation on the universe on Fox last night. Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, was referring to the destruction of the ancient Library of Alexandria. 

While “Cosmos” has ranged through scientific history and across the universe, this latest stop in the timeline, like many others Tyson has made during the run of the show, was really about our present moment. 

From its first episode to its last, “Cosmos” has staked out the idea that the pursuit of science can be an act of faith. “The Old Testament Bible comes down to us mostly from the Greek translations made here,” Tyson said last night of the Library of Alexandria, reminding viewers that the secular pursuit of knowledge can have benefits for believers, too. 

He emphasized that his devotion to science had an element of religious awe to it. ”Some of us like it small. And that’s fine. Understandable. But I like it big,” he explained in the conclusion to the episode. “It matters what’s true.” 

The final episode also suggested that science, in its own way, carries fewer risks for those who believe in it than religion does. ”It’s one of the things I love about science,” Tyson said. “We don’t have to pretend we have all the answers.” 

“Cosmos” spent its last episode making clear that scientific thinking faces real threats in the political climate. “Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what’s really there,” Tyson told audiences.

I have felt all along that this was the point that the show was trying to make all along.

That science is under constant attack by religious fundamentalists who want to keep the world small, and questions about it kept simplistic, so that curiosity can be placated with simple fables that anesthetize the brain and keep the sheeple content and in line.

However as Professor Tyson pointed out last night, we are still learning new, and complicated things, every day. And when we pretend to have all of the answers we render ourselves intellectual impotent and unable to reach beyond our own comfort zones and into the mysteries that lie beyond.

At the end of the broadcast Cosmos once again played Carl Sagan's famous Pale Blue Dot. To remind the viewers how little we are in the vastness of space, and how large our imaginations must grow in order to someday understand that which puzzles us today.  

Take a moment to watch it for yourself. Believe me it is well worth your time.