Comment Re:No group "owns" any day on the calendar. (Score 2) 681
"Whoever was offended apparently wants their beliefs to not only be the universal truth; but to get all the airtime, when they want it."
I'm a Christian and the tweet didn't offend me. I thought it was cute and I had forgotten Newton's birthday.
However, It was obvious by the language Tyson chose that he was deliberately using terms a Christian would use to celebrate the birth of Jesus. "On this day a child was born...". That's just not how we talk about ANYONE to celebrate their birth -- particularly on the 25th of December. To say that it was "entirely orthogonal" is just fabrication. He MEANT it to SOUND like a "Christian" statement about Christ and then added a surprise twist. This is where some Christians may feel offended. It CAN SOUND like you are elevating Newton to that of a deity. People can get very up-tight about their beliefs -- particularly when it can appear they are being mocked.
This "race" to be offended is one of the problems we have right now in our government. Everything is seen in terms of "good" and "evil" so that if one side (say the Democrats) have a position, the opposite position is evil (that held by Republicans). Vise versa.