Randal Rauser

Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses religion, bacteria, and the meaning of life

Neil deGrasse Tyson, writer, scientist and host of the PBS program Nova, is my favorite science-popularizer. However, that doesn’t mean I agree with him, certainly not when it comes to metaphysics or theology. Here is a great piece of rhetoric from Tyson on whether there is a meaning to life (or the universe on the whole). I offer it without further comment but will circle back to offer comment later. But for now let’s let the armchair atheologian speak for himself:

“To assert that the universe has a purpose implies the universe has intent. And intent implies a desired outcome. But who would do the desiring? And what would a desired outcome be? That carbon-based life is inevitable? Or that sentient primates are life’s neurological pinnacle? Are answers to these questions even possible without expressing a profound bias of human sentiment? Of course humans were not around to ask these questions for 99.9999% of cosmic history. So if the purpose of the universe was to create humans then the cosmos was embarrassingly inefficient about it.

“And if a further purpose of the universe was to create a fertile cradle for life, then our cosmic environment has got an odd way of showing it. Life on Earth, during more than 3.5 billion years of existence, has been persistently assaulted by natural sources of mayhem, death, and destruction. Ecological devastation exacted by volcanoes, climate change, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, pestilence, and especially killer asteroids have left extinct 99.9% of all species that have ever lived here.  

“How about human life itself? If you are religious, you might declare that the purpose of life is to serve God. But if you’re one of the 100 billion bacteria living and working in a single centimeter of our lower intestine (rivaling, by the way, the total number of humans who have ever been born) you would give an entirely different answer. You might instead say that the purpose of human life is to provide you with a dark, but idyllic, anaerobic habitat of fecal matter…”

“Does the Universe have a Purpose?” New York Times (October 7, 2007) WK, 8.)