Revealed by Belief and Action

Much is made of the growing number of people who have no particular religious affiliation with a religious faith – in particular Millennials – however this thought provoking discussion with Neil deGrasse Tyson on why he doesn't identify as an atheist suggests that whether one affiliates with a religious faith or not does not necessarily mean that one might not identify with its values or culture.

An intriguing lead for religious organizations looking for ways to remain relevant...

We classify people in all sorts of ways. Some categories are based on a person's beliefs: A theist, for instance, is a person who believes in one or more gods. Some categories are based on behavior: A vegetarian, for example, is a person who doesn't eat animals. And some categories seem to straddle beliefs and behavior: Being politically conservative could be defined in terms of beliefs, but also in terms of corresponding behaviors, such as voting for conservative political candidates or donating one's time or money to conservative causes. These different ways of defining categories of people — and in particular the category "atheist" — form the backdrop to an interesting episode of the Rationally Speaking podcast in which co-hosts Julia Galef and Massimo Pigliucci query astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on his resistance to identifying (or being identified) as an atheist.