‘Unraveling the mystery’: Assessing The Big Bang Theory as a secular fictional universe

Abstract

This essay seeks to meet the need for identifying and responding to secular worldview perspectives in popular culture from a Christian apologetic perspective. The focus in this case is on naturalism, scientism, and anti-religious attitudes, with the highly popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory (season 11) as a case study. The methodological approach is a content analysis with worldview theory as the hermeneutical perspective. The findings of the analysis suggest that naturalism and weak scientism seem to be the underlying worldview perspectives in The Big Bang Theory. Supernatural beliefs are rejected as irrational, but despite that the overall trust is in science, there are moments where other sources of truth and meaning seem to be given credibility. From these conclusions we identify both points of contact and points of tension to Christian faith, representing both opportunities and challenges for Christian cultural apologetics, both in relation to science and religious faith as well as the relation between them.