Neil deGrasse Tyson: “We are Literally Stardust,” And That’s What Makes Us Special

In a short video titled “The Secret to Happiness,” he opines:

We know! [O]ne of the greatest gifts of modern astrophysics to civilization, dare I call it a gift, is the knowledge that the atoms of your body are traceable, not only to the big bang origin of the universe itself, but especially to stars that have manufactured those elements and later in their lives, on death, exploded scattering that enrichment across gas clouds. So that their next generation of stars would have planets. And, on at least one of those planets, life.

So, we are not just, figuratively, we are literally stardust. . . . You have kinship with the cosmos. That feeling to me is greater than any ego you could have possibly walked into the room with.

So humans should feel special because we are made up of stardust?

Tyson continues:

So why not look around and say, “I’m not special because I’m different. I’m special, because I’m the same as you, as others, as the tree, as the brook, as the animals, you know, the woodland creatures.” And we can all sit here and look up at the night sky and say, “Yes, we have kinship with the cosmos. I feel large because of that, not small.”

So humans should feel special because we’re no different from trees, brooks, and “woodland creatures”? What an inspiring message—you are the same as a tick, a flea, a woodlouse, or a piece of rock. That’s how special you are!

If you watch the video of Dr. Tyson, you’ll notice his almost devotional tone as he speaks of the “wonders” of our supposed connectedness to the universe. Now he’s a materialist—he believes that what we see and touch and can scientifically test is all that there is. And yet he acknowledges this longing (an immaterial longing which is a problem for a materialist to explain) for identity and meaning each human has and answers it in a spiritual tone. It’s a reminder that humans will always worship something. Tyson may claim to be an atheist, but he knows that there is a God and there is more than simply this material universe. It’s Romans 1 right before our eyes!

Your life has value because you were created and are loved by him and were designed to bring glory to him—that’s your purpose and meaning!

As a human being, you are not the same as a “woodland creature” and you are not made of stardust. That false history is not what makes you special. In fact, it does the opposite. But you were intentionally, fearfully, and wonderfully created by God, in his image, when he knit you together in your mother’s womb. Your life has value because you were created and are loved by him and were designed to bring glory to him—that’s your purpose and meaning!

Don’t look to the universe for meaning. Look to God’s Word and the gospel for the truth of who you are and what your purpose is.

Get More Answers on Answers News

This item was discussed Wednesday on Answers News with cohosts Dr. Tim Chaffey, Avery Foley, and Patricia Engler. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum and broadcast on our Answers in Genesis YouTube channel and posted to Answers TV. We also covered the following topics:

• Geneticist fired for biblical beliefs.
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• Do feathers reveal which dinosaurs could fly?
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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.