Thursday, July 23, 2009

How to Think

Here's an interesting panel discussion about science, thinking, and religion. I get an especially good chuckle out of Victor Stenger's lament about the poor results of science education expressed as "how can a person with a science education walk into a church without leaving his brains at the door?".

This is an interesting discussion among some very interesting people: Richard Dawkins, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Ann Druyan, D.J. Grothe, and Victor Stenger.



There are lots of good points made during the panel discussion. It is well worth your time to watch this.
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have gone to church in the recent past (I wanted to see how my second son was doing) and enjoyed the service. I think I am a little bit of a pragmatist.

This way of thinking or dealing with problems may not serve our president well or anyone else for that matter. I think maybe it leads to confusion. It also leads to thinking that maybe this is the best that can be done at this time and we should be grateful. I rebel a little at that notion. I think we can do better and it doesn't require faith or any other belief system to do that. We don't have to settle for what we have been given; or, do we?

I am a little off subject, sorry.

July 23, 2009 at 7:19 PM
RYviewpoint said...

I'm mostly in the Neil Degrasse Tyson camp, i.e. let's make sure that people understand science. It is a wonderful, open, non-authoritarian, proven method for gaining knowledge about the world. Religion may make you feel better, but it won't improve agriculture or enhance industrial productivity or provide new technologies.

I'm not as rabid as Dawkins who sees great danger in religious thinkers. Religious tolerance is an antidote to fundamentalism. The acknowledgement that religion doesn't have any answers about the material world would be a positive step for religious leaders.

But as Tyson points out, the most urgent need is to make sure that the next generation is educated to realize that science is a method for knowing the real world. Whenever religions make claims that they are "higher" or make factual claims, these must be kept out of schools so that the little kiddies can grow up with an open mind and a full set of knowledge on which to make their own decisions.

Religion is indoctrination. Science is simply a methodology. Some scientists are religious, most are agnostic, some are like Dawkins and rabidly anti-religion. Science is not indoctrination. That is why schools need to be able to teach without religions controlling the curriculum. To have a tolerant society, we have to sign up to secular ideals which says we treat everybody equally and religion -- which makes absolutist claims -- has to restrict itself in the public domain. There must be a separation of church and state. Religions are free to teach whatever they wish inside their communities, but the wider community must be secular, i.e. a neutral meeting ground where every belief system is accepted so long as it respects all other belief systems.

July 24, 2009 at 9:19 AM

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