Calling oneself and atheist in America is often received with hatred, and will alienate many friends or followers. The famous astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, does not take a strong religious stance and calls himself agnostic. Although he does not believe in there being a God, he takes a less controversial stance by refraining from openly labeling himself an atheist. Because of the negative connotations with atheism, he does not want to be judged based on these connotations. On the Joe Rogan Show, Neil deGrasse Tyson defines Atheism as however people are using the word. Therefore, since there are negative connotations and negative proponents who are tainting the word, he does not want to associate himself with that word.
Tyson states that the dictionary definition of Atheist does in fact describe him, but in practice, the atheism is defined by what leading atheists do and say. He states that, “Most of their conduct I either don’t agree with, or don’t engage in. I don’t debate religious people and tell them they’re idiots.” Unlike many popular atheists, Tyson does not purge himself of words or phrases with religion in them. Tyson gives a story where he said “godspeed” to a friend who was going into space to repair the Hubble telescope. People attacked him because they thought he was an atheist, when he was only trying to say goodluck to a friend with the same phrase that Nasa used in an effort to respect the tradition.
Because many members of the atheist community do not use words or phrases that involve God, Tyson is ostracized for his use of “godspeed.” Tyson discusses the ubiquity of religious teachings throughout science and society. In his writings, Tyson continues to use A.D. and B.C. because of its understandability. Although the modern calendar was invented by the Catholic Church in 1580, it is still used today, and should not be thrown out by atheists simply because of its religious origins.
As discussed in World Religions class, two main classes of atheism are the positive atheist, who is not an anti-theist but rather lacking belief in a higher being. A negative atheist has the absence of belief, and is also known as Agnostic. Surprisingly enough, everyone is born an atheist, and everyone is an atheist in some sense because everyone does not believe in some Gods. For example, if you are a Catholic, you will not believe in the God of Desire, Mara, in Buddhism. Reversely, if you are a Buddhist, one would not believe in Jesus or the Catholic God.
