RE: Neil Degrasse Tyson
August 14, 2015 at 9:44 am
(This post was last modified: August 14, 2015 at 9:47 am by Dystopia.)
Commenting the OP:
I think people need to take some lessons on comprehending basic communication because most are missing what he is saying:
Firstly, he once said "I'm not convinced" to the question "Do you think there is a god?" so he's an atheist.
What he is saying and that's where we should pay attention, is that any movement, philosophy or label has baggage attached to it - That's true for religion, it's true for atheism and anything else - The fact atheism is just a lack of belief in gods is irrelevant because it has baggage attached to it like any other position of belief. People associate atheism with people like Dawkins and books like The God Delusion like they associate Islam with ISIS and Christianity with the Pope. It's part of our need to categorize people. NDT said previously that he doesn't like the word atheist because there isn't a similar word for people who don't play golf (agolfist) so there's not even a need to use it and call himself that (basically there shouldn't be a word to describe those who don't believe). I think he is being wise and I would behave somewhat similarly though I would be more open about being atheist. he called himself agnostic but that is merely his position on knowledge and nothing else, he is most likely atheist as he doesn't believe in any god that we know of. if you want to consider atheism simply a position of belief it is still something that has baggage and stereotypes like any other position in society. It isn't just one or two ideas that are prone to stereotypes, all of them are. If you expect that books like The God Delusion can be massively sold without creating stereotypes in society then you need to reconsider your stance.
Neil is wisely stepping away from stereotypes that don't benefit him and taking a more "liberal" position that I mostly agree with - Like he said before, if something is just a lack of belief in god, why create institutions about it, write books, give lectures and create twitter accounts to constantly tell people what you think is true?
I think people need to take some lessons on comprehending basic communication because most are missing what he is saying:
Firstly, he once said "I'm not convinced" to the question "Do you think there is a god?" so he's an atheist.
What he is saying and that's where we should pay attention, is that any movement, philosophy or label has baggage attached to it - That's true for religion, it's true for atheism and anything else - The fact atheism is just a lack of belief in gods is irrelevant because it has baggage attached to it like any other position of belief. People associate atheism with people like Dawkins and books like The God Delusion like they associate Islam with ISIS and Christianity with the Pope. It's part of our need to categorize people. NDT said previously that he doesn't like the word atheist because there isn't a similar word for people who don't play golf (agolfist) so there's not even a need to use it and call himself that (basically there shouldn't be a word to describe those who don't believe). I think he is being wise and I would behave somewhat similarly though I would be more open about being atheist. he called himself agnostic but that is merely his position on knowledge and nothing else, he is most likely atheist as he doesn't believe in any god that we know of. if you want to consider atheism simply a position of belief it is still something that has baggage and stereotypes like any other position in society. It isn't just one or two ideas that are prone to stereotypes, all of them are. If you expect that books like The God Delusion can be massively sold without creating stereotypes in society then you need to reconsider your stance.
Neil is wisely stepping away from stereotypes that don't benefit him and taking a more "liberal" position that I mostly agree with - Like he said before, if something is just a lack of belief in god, why create institutions about it, write books, give lectures and create twitter accounts to constantly tell people what you think is true?
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
