Renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared on Logan Paul’s IMPAULSIVE podcast for a wide-ranging conversation that tackled some of humanity’s biggest questions, from the existence of God to the legitimacy of the moon landing.
When co-host Mike Majlak directly asked whether God exists, Tyson didn’t mince words. “Based on what people say about what that God is supposed to do and its influence in the world, based on that, I remain unconvinced that anybody is in charge of anything in this world,” he stated.
The scientist identified himself as agnostic rather than atheist, explaining that he would “welcome better evidence” for the existence of a divine being than what has been presented.
The conversation took a particularly pointed turn when discussing whether biblical and scientific explanations of the universe can coexist. Tyson was blunt in his assessment: “The history of that exercise has not boded well for the Bible.” He elaborated that whenever someone has used the Bible to make predictions about how the universe works, “it has shown to be false.”
Tyson drew a clear distinction between the historical figure of Jesus and religious claims about God, noting that Thomas Jefferson published a version of the New Testament with all miracles and supernatural elements removed, focusing solely on Jesus’s moral teachings.
“Enlightened religious people today don’t use the Bible as a science textbook,” Tyson observed. “They use it as a source of inspiration and a source of moral compass.”
The podcast also covered Tyson’s views on alien visitations, which he approached with characteristic skepticism. He coined the phrase “aliens of our ignorance” to describe how people attribute unexplained phenomena to extraterrestrial activity without sufficient evidence.
“Just because you don’t understand what you’re looking at, it doesn’t mean it’s aliens,” he argued, emphasizing that eyewitness testimony is “the lowest form of evidence” in science.
On the moon landing conspiracy theories, Tyson was equally dismissive. He pointed out the logical absurdity of faking nine moon missions and noted the physical evidence, including moon rocks shared with laboratories worldwide.
His most memorable counterargument: “Where do you think those rockets were going? To the Piggly Wiggly down the street?”
Throughout the discussion, Tyson emphasized the importance of proportioning belief to evidence—a principle he sees violated frequently in the age of social media and AI-generated content.
He predicted that artificial intelligence will “transform the internet into a cesspool of fake everything,” potentially leading people to distrust even legitimate information.
Despite his skepticism about supernatural claims, Tyson described himself as an “optimistic realist” who continues to hope for humanity’s improvement.
When asked to describe the future, he envisioned electric self-driving cars, medicine tailored to individual DNA, and optimistically a world where tribalism evaporates and humanity lives together harmoniously.
