For Christmas, Neil deGrasse Tyson sets Twittersphere in motion

His Christmas Day tweet commemorating the birthday of Isaac Newton was retweeted more than 69,000 times as of this writing, making it the most popular of his Twitter career so far -- and, arguably, his most controversial.

"On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642," the StarTalk host tweeted.

He followed it up with a nod to the commercialization of Christmas: "Merry Christmas to all. A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA)." By then, he was on a roll. Earlier in the day, he tweeted, "QUESTION: This year, what do all the world's Muslims and Jews call December 25th? ANSWER: Thursday."

His comments drew criticism and name-calling from various corners of the internet. "Overly reductive, deliberately cynical and unnecessarily provocative," one person said on Twitter.

Another accused him of "trolling Christmas today to show you how smart he is."

Tyson's response to the controversy? "Imagine a world in which we are all enlightened by objective truths rather than offended by them."

Later Friday, Tyson pondered "My Most Retweeted Tweet" in a Facebook post. He did not defend or disavow his comments. Instead, in true scientific form, he attempted to qualify their popularity compared to previous tweets.

"My sense in this case is that the high rate of re-tweeting, is not to share my enthusiasm of this fact, but is driven by accusations that the tweet is somehow anti-Christian," he wrote. "If a person actually wanted to express anti-Christian sentiment, my guess is that alerting people of Isaac Newton's birthday would appear nowhere on the list."

According to his calculations, his average retweet rate falls between 2,500 and 3,500. "Fun" tweets can reach 10,000 while" boring tweets barely break 1,000." The Newton Christmas day tweet had surpassed 62,000 retweets by the time he posted his Facebook note on Friday. By Saturday evening, it had reached more than 69,000.

"I wonder if you are as astonished by this fact as I am," he wrote.

For example, he directly referenced Jesus in previous tweets that did not spread nearly as far. By way of example, he offered the following, which earned more than 13,000 re-tweets: "Some claim the USA is a Christian nation, compelling me to wonder which assault rifle Jesus would choose: the AR-15 or AK-47."

(CNN)