Science & Religion Myths in Young Sheldon
In one of the later episodes of Young Sheldon, Sheldon comments on the fate of some key historical figures. No doubt that Sheldon is smart, but is he right?
(Image: Wikipedia)
The Big Bang Theory (TBBT, 2007-2019) became a truly enjoyable show, not just for the science nerds out there, but for many who just want a good series and to be entertained. Already in 2017 – while TBBT was still airing – a new spin-off saw the light of the world. This was, of course, Young Sheldon (YS). Currently, YS is airing its seventh and final season. I’ve been a fan of both shows and although all good series eventually come to an end, the best ones will be those we can happily rewatch and that will age well. It speaks well of them that both TBBT and YS have enjoyed very good ratings as shown in the stats below (as of March 2024):
TBBT: 8.1 (IMDb), 81% and 83% (Rotten Tomatoes)
YS: 7.6 (IMDb), 83% (Rotten Tomatoes)
For a quick comparison, the top TV series on IMDb is Breaking Bad with a rating of 9.5, and The Office (one of my all-time favourites) is ranked 27th, scoring 9.0. So while TBBT and YS don’t hit those numbers and wouldn’t make it even to the IMDb’s list of Top 250 TV Shows, they’ve been definitely very successful, which is evidenced by the number of viewers. According to Movie Web, YS was at its peak during its first two seasons, when it overlapped with TBBT. To quote from the website:
Young Sheldon has had an impressive run, but unlike Big Bang Theory, which saw a rise and a steady average final season in the double-digit millions, Young Sheldon started strong but did have a notable fall. Season 1 had an average viewership of 16.30 million viewers, but by Season 4, it dropped below, averaging 10 million viewers. It is still an impressive run, with Seasons 4 through 6 averaging above 9 million viewers.
Again, for comparison, Wikipedia says that the series finale of The Office (in 2013), ‘was viewed by an estimated 5.7 million viewers.’ The point of all these numbers is that both TBBT and YS have been viewed by millions. That is, surely also by millions of people who wouldn’t be fact-checking what these series have to say about history, including that of science and religion. We watch a good series to be entertained, not to be engaged in critical thinking. But my hunch is also that the viewers would be, consciously or unconsciously, trusting Sheldon (both his young and adult version) regardless of the nature of the facts because of who he represents in the show – a super smart scientist, albeit a very quirky one.
It is especially YS that touches on many questions related to a belief in God, and the relationship between science and religion. This can be seen already in this 3-minute scene from one of its very early episodes (season 1, episode 3, ‘Poker, Faith, and Eggs’):
You might agree that that’s some good and fun scripting! However, if we took this a bit more seriously, there would be a lot of things to comment on (yes, notably, of course, whether God is a photon). But today, I’ll want to head in a different direction: What about the checking of scientific and other claims in these popular series?
Generally, both series should be well fact-checked. This is because their science consultant and fact-checker has been a UCLA physics professor David Saltzberg. It would seem, then, that the biggest scientific inaccuracies wouldn’t get on TV. For example, in one interview, Saltzberg mentions a few rather minor errors that got caught, or some, like getting a scientist’s name wrong, that were not caught. (Incidentally, Saltzberg was also a fact-checking consultant for the recent multi-Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer).
But even if the shows check for physics-related stuff, do they check (or care about) other things? Others have noted inconsistencies between TBBT and YS, but this is not what I have in mind. Here’s what I mean. What follows, is (to me) the most notable history-of-science-and-religion-related clip in YS that I remember. It will also serve well as an inspiration for a couple of my future posts. Here’s the clip from YS that we’ll look at. It’s from season 6, episode 18: ‘Little Green Men and a Fella's Marriage Proposal’. The scene begins at 2:51 and you can stop it at 3:22:
And here’s the transcript of the relevant part:
Sheldon: Dr. Prakash, I'm on the hunt for a mentor who's not afraid to challenge entrenched scientific paradigms.
Dr. Prakash: Well, mainstream science has always been threatened by new ideas.
Sheldon: True. Like Galileo being imprisoned for his heliocentric model of the universe.
Dr. Prakash: And did you know Semmelweis was put in an asylum for suggesting that doctors wash their hands?
Sheldon: I did. Did you know that Michael Servetus discovered pulmonary circulation and was burned at the stake?
Dr. Prakash: Or Henry Oldenburg was arrested...
Sheldon: ...Arrested as a spy for corresponding with scientists from other countries!
Obviously, the scene is funny. At this point, I’m quite sure the adult Sheldon in TBBT would remind us of his humorous line, ‘It’s funny because it’s true.’ I don’t dispute the first part, but is it true indeed? There are quite a few claims here and they will take several future posts to unpack! I don’t want you to keep waiting, but, then, a few more lines will be needed to evaluate these statements by Sheldon and Dr. Prakash. But here are my preliminary conclusions about the claims of the four historical characters mentioned in the scene:
Galileo Galilei - Well, yes and no. The story of Galileo is notoriously complex. Was Galileo put under ‘house arrest’ or was he ‘imprisoned’? I’ll point to two different perceptions among scholars regarding this question. And whether his troubles were caused by his acceptance of ‘heliocentrism’, might be a more complicated question than it at first seems. This could become a can of worms once we open this case, but it’s a can that just has to be opened.
Ignaz Semmelweis - While there’s some truth to this, it’s oversimplified & very misleading to state that he ‘was put in an asylum for suggesting that doctors wash their hands.’ We’ll need to correct this story.
Michael Servetus - Whereas Sheldon doesn’t claim that Servetus was burned because of his scientific discoveries, he at least implies (to my mind) that there was a connection. However, it was not his science but his theological views that led to his demise. I think Servetus’ fate deserves to be looked at as well.
Henry Oldenburg - Of all of these claims, this one is unproblematically true. Oldenburg was briefly arrested in 1667 on suspicion of espionage during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–67). But then, if that’s the case, what does this have to do with Sheldon’s willingness to challenge ‘entrenched scientific paradigms’? More could be said on this historical episode, but Sheldon doesn’t need correction here. If anything, it’s more a non-sequitur rather than a bad history.
One possible reply to some of these misconceptions might be that YS was not attempting to be accurate according to our current knowledge, but only according to the state of knowledge around 1990 when YS takes place. After all, Saltzberg said with regard to YS that ‘we still keep it accurate, and try to keep it accurate in that case for what was happening around 1990.’ But such an objection wouldn’t do in these cases. Given his smart brain, Sheldon could have and should have known it already in his youth.
Thus, in my future posts, I’ll explore Sheldon’s claims about Galileo, Semmelweis, and Servetus. I’d be happy to revise my preliminary conclusions above, if needed, as I’ll be thinking and writing about them. But in the meantime, I might get to watch a few episodes of YS.
Enjoy your sips,
Andrej