Hey, America. Have you been enjoying “Cosmos” with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson? Don’t you love how science shows exactly how the universe works and the vast majority of scientists all agree on the same basic things?
Well, leave it to those naysayers who disagree with Copernicus and Galileo (and pretty much anyone with a telescope since then) and just KNOW for a fact that the sun revolves around the earth to break our scientific wondergasm reverie.
Behold, the trailer for “The Principle,” a (I cringe to use the word) “documentary” (sarcastic air quotes emphasized) that claims, among other things, that the Earth is the center of the universe.
And who is narrating this psuedo-science, but Captain Janeway herself, Kate Mulgrew. Now I never miss an opportunity to beat up on my least favorite of all of the Star Trek captains, but I’m actually going to do something crazy and ask everyone to just breathe for a minute.
This “film” also seems to feature somewhat legitimate scientists like Michio Kaku, so is it possible these people were all bamboozled Bowfinger/Caligula style into appearing in a film they had no idea what its main purpose was? Or, could we be just misjudging the trailer?
Of course, all of that credibility goes out the window with the interviews of the Holocaust-denying, heliocentric-universe-believing Robert Sungenis, who also bankrolled the film. He also claims in the trailer that “You can go on some websites of NASA to see that they’ve started to take down stuff that might hint to a geocentric universe.” Sarcastic Yay.
So, the film obviously posits a bunch of pseudo-science anti-science BS, but does Kate Mulgrew believe it? We’ll keep you updated, but I expect she’s cashed the check and hasn’t had a second thought except for wondering when the new season of “Orange is the New Black” is starting up.
In the meantime, I still leave this with the most epic of facepalms. Stay in school and actually pay attention in science class, kids.
UPDATED: 2:45 PM 4/8/2014
This just in from Kate Mulgrew’s Facebook page:
“I understand there has been some controversy about my participation in a documentary called THE PRINCIPLE. Let me assure everyone that I completely agree with the eminent physicist Lawrence Krauss, who was himself misrepresented in the film, and who has written a succinct rebuttal in SLATE. I am not a geocentrist, nor am I in any way a proponent of geocentrism. More importantly, I do not subscribe to anything Robert Sungenis has written regarding science and history and, had I known of his involvement, would most certainly have avoided this documentary. I was a voice for hire, and a misinformed one, at that. I apologize for any confusion that my voice on this trailer may have caused. Kate Mulgrew”