RE: Neil Degrasse Tyson
August 14, 2015 at 12:37 pm
(This post was last modified: August 14, 2015 at 12:39 pm by Confused Ape.)
(August 14, 2015 at 11:12 am)Napoléon Wrote: It's pretty well known, and implied by a multitude of talks and quotes, that NDT doesn't believe in a god. Bottom line is, if that's the case, then he meets the criteria for being an atheist. Whether NDT himself likes being called one, is irrelevant to the fact that he is one.
What he might have implied by talks and quotes is one thing. He has now clearly stated that he's an agnostic and wishes to be known as one.
(August 14, 2015 at 11:12 am)Napoléon Wrote: even saying "I don't know" to the question, is basically, for all intents and purposes == to not believing. And that is the only requirement for being called an atheist.
If that were true there wouldn't be the term Agnosticism. Just to make things REALLY complicated, scroll down to Note No.2 from the following Wikepedia article where a still living philosopher would disagree with your definition.
Agnosticism
Quote:Rowe, William L. (1998). "Agnosticism". In Edward Craig. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-07310-3. In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in God, whereas an atheist disbelieves in God. In the strict sense, however, agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist. In so far as one holds that our beliefs are rational only if they are sufficiently supported by human reason, the person who accepts the philosophical position of agnosticism will hold that neither the belief that God exists nor the belief that God does not exist is rational."
NDT is a scientist, not a philosopher so I'm guessing that he's going by the popular definition of the word.
The neuroscientist, Ramachandran, doesn't class himself as an atheist even though he doesn't believe in a personal God.
Quote:Noted neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition at the University of California (San Diego). His work has been featured on a NOVA special 'Secrets of the Mind' [1] on PBS.
From a BBC interview [2]
Like most scientists I'm agnostic. If you're talking about God in some very abstract sense, like in India the Dance of Shiva or in the Spinoza sense of the word God, then I'll say I have no problem with it. But if you're talking about an old guy there who's watching me and making sure I behave myself and that I pray to him every day and that I will be punished in Hell if I do something wrong, I don't believe in that. And I don't want to offend anybody here, but that's my personal view.
He explains his view in this video (start at 1.16) Maybe he wouldn't be too pleased if people insisted he's an atheist just because he doesn't believe in the God of the Bible.
Where are the snake and mushroom smilies?