Born on October 5th 1958 in New York City Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist,author, and science communicator. Tyson became interested in astronomy at the age of nine after visiting the sky theater of the Hayden Planetarium saying that “so strong was that imprint (of the night sky) that I’m certain that I had no choice in the matter, that in fact, the universe called me.”
So obsessively did he study the subject and so knowledgeable was he that at fifteen years of age he was already lecturing and had come to the notice of Carl Sagan who attempted to recruit the teenage deGrasse to Cornell for undergraduate studies.
Often linked to famous atheists such as Richard Dawkins deGrasse defines himself as an agnostic saying of the atheist community that “I’m constantly claimed by atheists. I find this intriguing. In fact, on my Wiki page – I didn’t create the Wiki page, others did, and I’m flattered that people cared enough about my life to assemble it – and it said “Neil deGrasse Tyson is an atheist.” I said, “Well that’s not really true.” I said, “Neil deGrasse Tyson is an agnostic.” I went back a week later it had been rewritten and it said “Neil deGrasse Tyson is an atheist.” – again within a week – and I said, “What’s up with that?” so I said “Alright, I have to word it a little differently.” So I said, okay “Neil deGrasse Tyson, widely claimed by atheists, is actually an agnostic.”
He has written several books on astronomy and science fact and is a popular speaker in the fields of astronomy and sciences and has been the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City since 1996. Here to celebrate one of the world’s most brilliant scientists of the modern era are 10 philosophical quotes from Neil deGrasse Tyson.
“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”
“We spend the first year of a child’s life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There’s something wrong there.”
“Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not.”
“The more I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there’s any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all.“
“The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.”
“There’s as many atoms in a single molecule of your DNA as there are stars in the typical galaxy. We are, each of us, a little universe.”
“Down there between our legs, it’s like an entertainment complex in the middle of a sewage system. Who designed that?“
“Some of the greatest poetry is revealing to the reader the beauty in something that was so simple you had taken it for granted.”
“Every living thing is a masterpiece, written by nature and edited by evolution.”
“You know that passage in the Bible that says, “And the meek shall inherit the Earth”? Always wondered if that was mistranslated. Perhaps it actually says, “And the geek shall inherit the Earth.“
If only my science teacher had been as cool or as engaging as Neil.
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