America’s favorite astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson warns that lawmakers who mistake their personal truth for objective truth could bring about the end of democracy and the beginning of dictatorship.

In a Salon exclusive released earlier this week, Tyson discussed his popular show “Star Talk,” the state of science in America, and the political dangers associated with personal belief systems.

When asked about the “anti-science demagoguery in our political discourse right now,” Tyson declared:

The moment you start bringing your personal belief system into governance, then that’s the end of pluralistic democracy. We have words for governance like that and they’re called dictatorships.

The following is an extended excerpt from that exchange:

SALON: What do you make of that anti-science demagoguery in our political discourse right now? Is that just ideological biases triumphing over good thinking? TYSON: The moment you start bringing your personal belief system into governance, then that’s the end of pluralistic democracy. We have words for governance like that and they’re called dictatorships. You have a belief system, you have a philosophy, and that philosophy has some adherence and others have their own philosophies. Those are your personal truths. One of them is, “Jesus is your Savior.” I’m not going to say that Jesus is not your savior. That is your personal truth. But, in a country where we have different religions, if the person who said: “Jesus is your Savior” is going to govern a pluralist country, then their legislations must be based on objective truths, not personal truths. And personal truths are not only religious. You can have political personal truths. You keep those to yourself or your political group. But, to impose them on others is to do away with the freedom that a free democracy gives you. Now, getting back to your point, we have people in Congress whose job is to pass laws. If they pass laws based on things that are not objectively true, that’s the beginning of the end of an informed democracy.

Tyson is right to be concerned about elected officials imposing their “personal truths” on others. Currently Christian extremists are driving the GOP, and they are determined to take this country into a new era of darkness informed not by objective truths, but by personal truths informed by ignorance and religious superstition.

For conservatives, the false and erroneous claim that the U.S. is a Christian nation founded on Christian values is not even controversial, it is just another Republican talking point accepted as truth. That is, many Republicans are convinced that their personal truth – conservative Christianity – is the objective truth we should all be forced to live under.

Bottom line: The right wing Christian extremists in control of the Republican party are eager to transform this secular nation into a Christian nation, a Christian theocracy, a religious dictatorship; and they are more than willing to substitute their personal truth for objective truth to make that happen.