Why Atheists and Believers Are Actually Agnostic | Bill Nye | Big Think
Why Atheists and Believers Are Actually Agnostic
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Would a world full of atheists be best? Some people dream of the day religion fades away, but for others the mere hypothetical is a form of blasphemy. Imagine, just like John Lennon asked us to: would it be heaven on Earth? Would it be complete chaos? No one can accurately answer this question, just as no one can really know whether or not there is a god—technically speaking, we’re all agnostics, explains Bill Nye. What we do know is that community underpins religion, and communities are essential for humanity’s progress and existence. God or no god, we need to understand that we’re all in this together, urges Nye. Communities—whether they’re anchored in faith, science, art, or altruism—are essential to the future of humankind. Bill Nye’s most recent book is Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World.
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BILL NYE:
Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life.
In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle’s home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live.” This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®” was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle’s NBC affiliate.
While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmys in five years. In between creating the shows, he wrote five children’s books about science, including his latest title, “Bill Nye’s Great Big Book of Tiny Germs.”
Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries” airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye” airs on PBS stations across the country.
Bill’s latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens.” It’s about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you’ll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There’s also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It’s fun for him; he’s an engineer with an energy conservation hobby.
Nye is currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, the world’s largest space interest organization.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Wendy: Hey Bill. My name is Wendy and my question is: would the world be a better place if everyone was an atheist or had no beliefs in god or religion?
Bill Nye: Wendy, this is a great question. Practically, I don’t know. People get a lot of community out of religions. They get a lot of friendship and they have extended families as a result of religion. And my atheist friends—and, you know the old saying: “some of my best friends are atheists”—I mean I do have a large circle of atheist friends. We’re all very supportive. We have our own community in a different way.
So I think what we want is to transcend families, extended families and tribes to an understanding that everybody in the world is in this together. That all of our tribes are in this together. People from different religious traditions, we’re all in this together.
And whether or not there is one god that makes decisions for you, whether or not there is one god that influences your life based on what you’ve done in past lives, whether or not there is no god, these are all questions that are very important to ponder individually. But in the bigger picture I’m not going to claim the world would be better with or without communities. I think the communities and interactions of tribes, or tribal-style nations and groups, is very important to the future of humankind.
So as you may know, I am not a believer. I’m a non-believer. I spend a lot of time trying to understand my place in the c…
For the full transcript, check out https://bigthink.com/videos/hey-bill-nye-would-the-world-be-better-without-religion
@crazydayzgames9660
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
Ills of humanity is normally humanity (7 deadlies) no – they ain't worth defending Mr. Freeman (try living prison sometime rather than the loft of Hollywood)
@crazydayzgames9660
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
👍
@ChristianCentury2000
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
Your comments are understandable and logical from a secular humanistic world view Dr. Bill Nye! IF the Lord Jesus Christ NEVER came into my life and saved my soul, I would think just like you and Dr. Carl Sagan and Dr. Albert Einstein and Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson and so many others like Dr. Richard Dawkins. I was a lost soul and Jesus Christ came into my life and found me and saved my soul as 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 tells me! When I was just a 10–11-year-old boy, I remember being confronted by a Christian gentleman who asked me if I knew Jesus. At that time, I was a lost soul. I believed in my National Geographics regarding human evolution and geology and archeology. I believed that those like Dr. Richard Leaky and Dr. Jane Goodall was right that we are all just one of many biological mammals. And that humans evolved from apes and that there is no God, and the Holy Bible is just a book alongside the Quran and Bhagavad Gita and every other world religion. At that time, I viewed that Christian as a religious freak. I shied away from him and viewed him as a backward, ignorant individual. Jesus Christ came into my life and saved my soul because I couldn't save myself. IF Jesus had not done that, I would be totally lost and see no difference between Christianity and religion. All religion assumes that human beings can make peace with God through his or her own efforts and good works and decisions. Unfortunately, that is not true. We have only five limited senses and are just three-dimensional individuals greatly affected by our unique set of space and time circumstances. How can we possibly know God when we do not even have the senses to see God and hear God and communicate with God?! We cannot! That is impossible! That is why God had to reach us through His written Word, the Holy Bible, and through His Holy Spirit! However, knowing, through the Holy Bible, that God exists and that we are all fallen sinners doomed to the law of Sin and Death, does not cure the problem. Knowing what our problem is just the first step, like a patient learning that he has cancer. So, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into this world as God incarnate, so that He could do everything that we could not do – fulfill the law, satisfy and make peace with God the Father, shed His precious blood on the cross at Calvary and suffer the wages of the law of sin and death, through his death on the cross. That was not enough. God was not done. God conquered the law of sin and death forever by paying for the sins of all humanity and rising from the death on the third day. ONLY THE ETERNAL ONLY BEOGOTTEN SON OF GOD, JESUS CHRIST, COULD DO THIS MIRACLE! No other human being could possibly do this! In John 17, the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, is praying and talking to God the Father, as our mediator and intercessor to Jehovah, because Jesus is the only one who could possibly know and communicate with and make peace with the Eternal God, the Father Jehovah! By trusting only in the Eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, to make peace with God, can one satisfy God the Eternal Father and have a personal relationship with Him, through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Only the death and burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ can satisfy God the Eternal Father! And only through the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ can one truly have the faith to believe in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as Romans 8:9-11 tells us!
@michaelfelli7661
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
"I know that I know nothing."
— Socrates
@Rev792
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
Bill nye vs cliff nettleton
@Gman671
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
The whole atheist vs agnostic thing is just arguing semantics. I just say atheist now because I lack belief in any god/gods. "Asymmetric" means not symmetric. A "theist" is a person who believes in the existence of a god or gods, specifically of a creator who intervenes in the universe. (definition) So I'm "not" a person believes in any god/gods, and YES I can say I "lack" as it's just saying not. So saying agnostic to me is just redundant. I do not feel I need to say I "lack knowledge" (agnostic) about something I "lack belief" in (atheist).
@obidavekenobe
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
Admittedly, that’s a good answer and i can accept that view. Regardless of whether one believes in something higher than us (or a God) , we should, as human beings, treat one another respectfully. Treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves, the ol’ golden rule.
@AnarchoReptiloidUa
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
A comment to support this video and channel ❤
@hellawaits867
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
I'm glade I am an Antitheist Atheist when first coined by the Greeks was for the Jews later the Romans used it also for the Christians does he even know what agnostic means? I did not watch why should I care what Bill Nye "the science guy" ( he debate with Kent Ham was a train wreck) thinks on this subject stay in your lane!!!! Where is the his evidence of proofs what kind of science guy is he answer the nice* kind * look it up nice didn't mean what you think just like sin what does Hell mean a covered place also a god Hel what was the place where every one goes to when you die in the old testament Sheol not The Sky/Heaven and not hell a very stupid subject on any level hint the Earth is not flat there is no dome no 4 pillars the stars are not tiny nor do they fall to earth ( sand dollars) or talk or pick a fight with humans and no the Moon is not their mother ALL JUST A FAIRYTALE HAPPY THOR'S DAY is Bill agnostic on Odin, Thor, Frey & Freya does he think The Sun, Moon. Saturn are gods if not shut the Hell up what about Hades he is in the bible or Oceanus does he think the Ocean is also a god Tell what a god is I dare you are they beyond Time & space if so they don't exist in reality sorry simple science!
@lineaglehorse9615
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
atheist are always talking about God that's because in the back of their minds that they know it's possible there's a God and they cannot deny it. if atheists truly didn't believe in God then they would never mention Him. im a Christian and i speak about atheists because there are some that have crossed over to Christianity only because they are predestined to be saved. not everyone in the world is predestined to be saved. many will walk on the wide road to destruction til death. a third of the angels fell from heaven. a third of the world will take their place in heaven. we are called the elect. God gives us chances and chances but after ppl die there's no more chances. if your name isn't written in the book of life well…i feel very sorry for those bc it's going to be very very very hot where they're going. they will scream and beg God to give them one more chance but it'll be too late 😢
@GromitX
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
I think of it like this-
atheists = 99% sure there is no god
Religious= 99% sure there is a god
THERE IS STILL A ONE PERCENT. BE OPEN MINDED!
@LittleSeasonEschatology
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
You can no. Existence requires a first cause.
@RHl-b6w
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
Rule number one: no one must know.
@justintran3265
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
I know for sure God exist! No doubt and no magic trick as atheist always insist. But atheist and scientists always want proof. And even when they see the proof, they call it a magic trick. So, I can never side with the atheist but I can respect the scientist, for being rational but because of what I experienced, His direct proof to me trumps all others opinions! I feel great!
@jimmbear3998
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
I grew up Christian but would best be described as agnostic now. Despite that I still pray and still enjoy Christian traditions with my family such as Christmas. However, there is no way of knowing whether or not there is a God or how it all works. So my logical scientific mind simply won’t allow me to believe in any of the religions that have been created thus far. As Bill Nye mentioned, religion can create community, however, it can also divide.
@TMFearless1
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
I have said this exact thing to both believers, and non-believers many times. Most often I get a blank stare. As if I'm not choosing sides. Fact is, I am a non-believer. However, that does make my belief factual. As Bill says, nobody knows.
@AngusDanu
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
Here are some things Jesus Christ said of Himself.
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” John 14:6
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16
"Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son." John 3:18
Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. Matthew 16:13-17
Skeptics said for centuries, "The bible we have now has been corrupted through the years.". In 1947 the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and proved otherwise. They said, "There's no way Israel can become a nation again as God promised in preparation for the end times.". Israel became a nation again in 1948.
All this being said, it does require faith to believe. Hebrews 11:6 tells us, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Also John 20:27-29 states, "Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Don't be deceived, Jesus is the Son of God and the only way of being saved from God's judgement for our sin. Christ consciousness won't save you. Believing Jesus was an ascended master, a prophet or a good teacher won't save you. Romans 10:9 tells us how to be saved, "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved". Trust in Him, He shed his blood and gave His perfect life for you. Call on Him, He loves you, and He hears you.
@JordanGibson-k9j
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
I am a atheist ⚛️
@MDMC360
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
The correct question should've been 'If everyone followed cosmopolitan post-modern liberalism, would the world be a better place?' Since there's no doubt that these ideological frameworks have an affinity for atheists. An inconsistant, unepsitemological one at that. Ironically all having theistic foundations. Im sure John Adams and Immanuel Kant can vouch. Just saying 🙂
@colin1089
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
There's gotta be evidence before I believe in something, that's why I am an atheist. Some evidence for god/gods might make me agnostic, but since there isn't any – atheism is the only rational response.
@larrycarter3765
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 am
I am not agnostic.
Comments are closed.