Neil deGrasse Tyson — "I don't have a problem with people believing in God. I have a problem with peopl…"
I don't have a problem with people believing in God. I have a problem with people who believe in God and use that as an excuse to be ignorant.
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More from Neil deGrasse Tyson
"I would say, if you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough."
"My biggest problem with flat-Earthers is that they're not asking good questions. They're starting with the answer and working backward."
"I'm often asked if I believe in UFOs. I'm open to the possibility, but I need evidence. I need the aliens to land on the White House lawn, or at least in my backyard, and say hello."
"I'm not trying to convince you of anything. I'm just trying to get you to think."
"I'm not saying I'm a god. I'm just saying I have a really good telescope."
About Neil deGrasse Tyson (born 1958)
American astrophysicist, Hayden Planetarium director, and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey host who carries the Carl Sagan public-science mantle. Closely associated with Bill Nye (fellow science communicator) and Brian Greene (theoretical physicist and string-theory popularizer). For an intellectual contrast, see Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum — Ham's career has been organized around defending biblical 6-day creationism — exactly the science-education position Tyson's mainstream-science communication is structured to refute.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Faith is personal and Tyson has no quarrel with it. His objection is specifically to people who weaponize religious belief as justification for rejecting established knowledge — whether evolution, cosmology, climate science, or vaccines. The quote draws a clear boundary: believe what you wish spiritually, but don't let that belief become a reason to dismiss evidence, ignore expertise, or refuse to engage with how the world actually works.
Relevance to Neil deGrasse Tyson
As director of the Hayden Planetarium and host of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Tyson has spent decades bridging science and public understanding. Though personally agnostic, he consistently avoids attacking religion itself, preferring to target scientific illiteracy. He has debated creationists and spoken against faith-based objections to evolution and cosmology. His career rests on the conviction that curiosity and evidence must guide humanity, making willful ignorance his central adversary.
The era
Tyson rose to prominence during fierce culture-war battles over science education — the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover intelligent design ruling, climate denial gaining political momentum, and the New Atheism movement pushing a harder line against religion entirely. His quote carves a deliberate middle path: defend science rigorously without dismissing believers. Later, COVID vaccine hesitancy claimed through religious exemptions reinforced the same tension between faith communities and public health consensus.
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