So, is Neil Degrasse Tyson an atheist, an agnostic, or both? More specifically, is he an agnostic atheist who doesn't believe in any gods or an agnostic theist who believes there is or may be some higher spirit or supreme being, even if he can't identify what it is?
The evidence indicates very strongly that Neil Degrasse Tyson is an agnostic atheist -- by all accounts, including his own words, he doesn't believe in any gods. But while he won't claim to believe in any sort of "god," he also won't admit to the "atheist" label.
A forum member writes:
He calls himself an agnostic, but he clearly doesn't believe in a benevolent power behind the universe. One of the many views of his that I agree with is that the universe is out to kill us (in the sense that the vast majority of it is inhospitable to human life, not that it has volition and desire), and that does not work with the concept of a benevolent superpower behind it.
This is nice evidence of how low people's opinions of atheists and atheism is -- no matter how accurate the label "atheist" is, so many people are loathe to admit to it. There are few labels that are worse in terms of stigma in modern America.
You can be sure that many will insist that this problem is a product of "New Atheists" and it wouldn't happen if only atheists were more quiet and respectful -- but that's a lie. The people saying this know that atheists weren't more highly regarded before the so-called "New Atheism" became popular.
On the contrary, opinions of atheists were worse. That's why Carl Sagan never admitted to being an atheist, even though he never asserted any sort of belief in any sort of god. He lived and worked long before "New Atheism" started.
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