Neil DeGrasse Tyson Chooses not to Label Himself an Atheist

‘’—“”

Quite honestly, this could make a lot of sense.

There are two reasons I can think of why people label themselves, e.g. calling themselves an Atheist, or an Agnostic, or a Humanist, etc.

The first is to clarify for themselves which of these labels makes the most sense for them.  A lot of folks have put in a lot of thinking into this business, and —and this is important— and worked out all the implications of every label.  Bertrand Russel, an intellectual of the turn of the last century, wrote a brief article Why I am not a Christian, and I am embarrassed to say that, though Russel is a hero of mine as a mathematician, I never read the entire article, which is just a few pages.  Even if you don’t buy into all the assumptions of whoever makes the argument, at least you will be a lot further ahead than if you hadn’t thought about the issues.

The second is to make it easier for others to relate to you, and not make annoying assumptions about you.  Any assumption about one is annoying to some degree, but bearing in mind that for anyone who interacts with us occasionally, we are unlikely to be their entire preoccupation.  They have their own concerns, and if they can interact with you moderately tactfully, so much the better, but some assumptions are going to be made, and they may as well make informed ones.

Some of us are philosophers, and get a lot of excitement in worrying about these labels, and that’s fine; the logical consequences of adopting a particular position relative to “Religion” in the broad sense, including those systems of belief that explicitly exclude supernatural phenomena —after all, theists do not own the word Religion— are important to the individual, and often to their friends and acquaintances.

I can’t quite say why Neil DeGrasse Tyson has chosen to back out of the labeling option, but I think I read that he is not particularly interested in making life particularly easy for those who are interested in discrediting him, with a view to eliminating his influence in important debates about education and policy.

Read the article, and make up your own mind.

Arch