Name: Is Neil DeGrasse Tyson an Atheist? | The Adam Friedland Show
Uploaded: 2023-05-18T14:30:07.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Is Neil DeGrasse Tyson an Atheist? | The Adam Friedland Show' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-05-18. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Is Neil DeGrasse Tyson an Atheist? | The Adam Friedland Show' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-05-18. Transcript available.

You've been championed kind of by like pop atheism.
Even though I never said I was an atheist, I think people try to claim you even
if...
It's like religious people try to claim Einstein for saying things like God
doesn't play dice with the universe.
What he's really saying is everything I know about the universe should be
deterministic and this isn't, so that's a problem.
But no, he was definitely an atheist.
But I have habits that don't match what strident and ardent atheists say and do.
You go to synagogue everyday.
So just as an example, my single favorite Broadway musical is Jesus Christ
Superstar.
And yesterday was Easter, of course I listened to the entire opera, rock opera.
What's your favorite song?
It has to be going into the Superstar song.
How does it go?
I can't carry a tune.
Come on, definitely you can. Listen to your speaking voice.
You've got the most beautiful...
My speaking voice.
Yeah, so you can definitely sing. Anyone can sing, Neil.
That doesn't mean I can sing.
I sing in the shower. Shower comes out really good.
Give us a couple of bars.
Give us a couple of bars.
I have to go high.
Jesus Christ Superstar, who do you think you are?
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah, that's great.
Also, I had a friend going to fix the Hubble telescope in the space shuttle.
And I said Godspeed to the shuttle crew.
I had people comment in my Facebook thread, I thought you were an atheist.
God damn it.
If I do confound people's understanding of me for them having thought I was an
atheist, I must therefore not be an atheist.
Okay, let's just get you on the record, because you've dodged this question for
a long time.
Dodged?
You don't know what the question is.
Dodged?
You don't know what the question is, Neil.
Did God love us so much that he sent his only son to die?
I am certain that at least a billion people think that.
But I remain unconvinced.
You're Muslim.
There are many ways you can be unconvinced without being yet another religion.
You're Zoroastrian.
I don't know.
It's kind of a boring debate, right?
People devote their lives to it.
But why do you think they do?
Because they need something in their lives.
Yeah, but there's a simpler answer, right?
What's that?
Dying is really sad.
It's really sad that you just die and it's over.
Except in the last chapter of my book, it's called Life and Death.
Yeah, I got there.
I got to the last one.
You went that far?
Yeah.
I don't expect it.
But in there, I say things that I think would have people celebrate life on a
much more deeply
and enriched level, such that when it's time to die, you're ready to die.
Yeah, I don't buy it.
You don't want to die?
I don't buy that anyone is like, "I'm cool with this," unless they think they're
going to heaven.
I get that you're like, "I'm going to return to the fabric of the universe."
No!
It's beautiful and stuff, but no, you don't want to die.
It sucks.
I don't want to die if I still had stuff to contribute to this world.
Do you want to do Playgirl magazine?
No.
No, okay.
I don't think they exist anymore.
Anyway.
You know Burt Reynolds did it?
Of course.
And then he found out that it was gay guys that were reading it and he got
pissed off.
He thought it was chicks that were going to see his penis.
And then he's like, "Oh, it's a bunch of fellas looking at my penis."
Plus, I think his legs were crossed.
I don't know that you, I think it was tucked in from what I remember.
Oh, I'm tucked right now.
No.
No, no, no.