Neil deGrasse Tyson, StarTalk Radio host and director of the Hayden Planetarium, has always shown that the fun in astrophysics can be multiplied with the right amount of swagger. Tyson, appearing on Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show” with Larry Wilmore on Nov 4, presented some compelling reasons why the idea of a God or “intelligent design” does not sit well with his own understanding of the universe.

The Nov 4 edition of The Nightly Show had a discussion between Tyson and Pastor Carl Lentz on the basic theories of cosmology and the idea of intelligent design. Tyson said that, as an astrophysicist, he does not accept anything unless it is backed up with scientific evidence. He pointed out some hilarious pieces of evidence during the show, to disprove intelligent design.

“I think of, like, the human body, and I look at what’s going on between our legs,” Tyson spoke on The Nightly Show. “There’s like a sewage system and entertainment complex intermingling. No engineer of any intelligence would have designed it that way,” he said in his usual tongue-in-cheek manner.

Aside from this light-hearted dig at the idea of intelligent design, Tyson provided some concrete and serious reason for not believing in a god. “I look out to the universe and yes it is filled with mysteries, but it also filled with all manner of things that would just as soon have you dead — like asteroid strikes and hurricanes and tornadoes and tsunamis and volcanoes and disease, pestilence,” he told host Wilmore. “There are things that exist in the natural world that do not have your health or longevity as a priority. And so I cannot look at the universe and say that ‘yes there’s a god and this god cares about my life at all.’ The evidence does not support this.”

Lentz expressed the view that science and religion can coexist. He said that since god created science, exploring science will have the one simple outcome of leading us back to the source.

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