I want to put on the table, not why 85% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences reject God, I want to know why 15% of the National Academy don’t.
Interpretation
The quote questions the reasons behind belief in God within a scientific community that predominantly rejects such ideas.
Neil Degrasse Tyson's quote prompts a reflection on the nature of belief, especially among scientists. Rather than focusing on the majority opinion that rejects the concept of God, he highlights the curiosity about the minority that still holds onto their faith. This serves as an invitation to explore the reasons behind differing beliefs, emphasizing understanding and dialogue over division.
In practice
This quote can be used during a discussion on the intersection of science and spirituality in a classroom setting.
The problem is that many people operate on the assumption that NASA should go to Congress every year with hat in hand and justify it every year. Well, I see it as the greatest economic driver that there ever was. Economic drivers don't need justification.
The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and put them up as if they're 50% of the research results. You in the public would have no idea that this is basically a done deal and that we're on to other problems, because the journalists are trying to give it a 50/50 story. It's not a 50/50 story. It's not. Period.
As a scientist, I want to go to Mars and back to asteroids and the Moon because I'm a scientist. But I can tell you, I'm not so naive a scientist to think that the nation might not have geopolitical reasons for going into space.
In just one year, the expenditure of of the U.S.'s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Lots of people think, well, we're humans; we're the most intelligent and accomplished species; we're in charge. Bacteria may have a different outlook: more bacteria live and work in one linear centimeter of your lower colon than all the humans who have ever lived. That's what's going on in your digestive tract right now. Are we in charge, or are we simply hosts for bacteria? It all depends on your outlook.
The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective.
Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening.
When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.
Quite often I can be in a bookshop, standing beneath a great big picture of myself and paying for a book with a credit card clearly marked John Grisham, yet no one recognises me. I often say I'm a famous author in a country where no one reads.
Begin to see yourself in all other beings.
When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat?
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