Watch: Neil deGrasse Tyson on Science, Religion and the Universe

While astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson believes all individuals have a right to their own beliefs, he's passionate about what should be taught in science class -- science.
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Previously published on BillMoyers.com

A new poll by Pew Research has found that one-third of Americans do not believe in evolution, with Republicans far less likely to believe that humans evolved over time than Democrats. That may be why the teaching of evolution to children continues to be an often temper-flaming debate. In states like Texas, some public school students are opening their biology textbooks to find evolution described as "dogma" and an "unproved theory."

While astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson believes all individuals have a right to their own beliefs, he's passionate about what should be taught in science class -- science.

"If you have a religious philosophy that is not based in objective realities that you then want to put in the science classroom, then I'm going stand there and say no, 'I'm not going to allow you in the science classroom,'" Tyson tells us.

In this second part of our multi-part series, we discuss whether science and religion can ever be reconciled, explore the cosmic enigma known as dark matter and the possibilities of parallel universes.

Dr. Tyson is the Frederick P. Rose director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and host of the upcoming Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey premiering Sunday, March 9, 2014 on Fox.

Moyers & Company airs weekly on public television. Explore more at BillMoyers.com.

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