On Wednesday, the Nightly Show valiantly took on a question that has bedeviled mankind for centuries.

"The war between science and religion is like one of the oldest wars … and we're going to solve it tonight!" Larry Wilmore joked to a panel composed of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, comedian Tom Papa and Pastor Carl Lentz.

While Wilmore and the other guests tried to rationalize why advances in science are not incompatible with religious belief, deGrasse Tyson pointed to some unpleasant realities about the natural world that are not suggestive of a kindly deity.

“Anytime someone describes their understanding of god, it typically involves some statement of benevolence or some kind of kindness,” he said.

“I look out to the universe — and yes, it is filled with mysteries — but it’s 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 and pestilence,” Tyson said.

Pastor Carl Lentz trotted out the intelligent design argument. "I think God created science, so for me I don't think exploring any of this stuff is bad, I think it's going to lead you to the knowledge that something had to begin this and there's something more."

But Tyson pointed out a problem in that reasoning, evident even in human genitals. “I think of, like, the human body, and I look at what’s going on between our legs,” Tyson said. “There’s like a sewage system and entertainment complex intermingling. No engineer of any intelligence would have designed it that way.”

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