Hawking asks some Big Questions about our universe — and discusses how we might go about answering them.
Month: May 2011
Is Science Just a New Religion?
Are we doing ourselves a disservice when we speak about our “belief” in evolution? Should we find a new way to talk about the “theories” that underlie our ideas? What about when we talk about the “design” of human anatomy? Why are we always finding ourselves on the defensive? Doesn’t all of the natural evidence that the universe has to offer support the conclusions that scientists have drawn (and modified) over the past five centuries? I’ve had religious friends confront me about my passion for neuroscience, noting that my excitement often sounds suspiciously like religious fervor. And, very matter-of-factly, I must explain that there are two enormous differences between science and religion: doubt and faith.
Science is riddled with doubt, and religion is completely founded on faith. Rely on faith, and the scientific method falls apart. Insert doubt, and religious certainty quickly dwindles. Something tells me that the fundamentalist religious folks who want to add “creation-science” to state mandated science curricula don’t really understand what the hell the word science actually means. Because let’s face it, once intelligent design squeezes its way into the pages following evolution in our biology books, we might as well add astrology to our astrophysics lectures and toss some alchemy education into the chemistry lab.
Robert Wright the evolution of compassion
Wright explain(s) why we appreciate the Golden Rule, why we… ignore it and why there’s hope that, in the future, we might all have the compassion to follow it.
Jared Diamond on on why societies collapse
Jared Diamond talks about the signs that collapse is near, and how — if we see it in time — we can prevent it.
Dan Dennett: Response to Rick Warren
Dennett takes on The Purpose-Driven Life, disputing its claim that, to be moral, one must deny evolution.
Michael Specter: The Danger of Science Denial
His new book, Denialism, asks why we have increasingly begun to fear scientific advances instead of embracing them.
Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions
Sam Harris argues that science can — and should — be an authority on moral issues.
36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
Reading: October: 2010
An atheist with a soul is in for a lot of soul-searching in MacArthur genius Goldstein’s rollicking latest. Cass Seltzer, a university professor specializing in the psychology of religion, hits the big time with a bestselling book and an offer to teach at Harvard quite a step up from his current position at Frankfurter University. While waiting for his girlfriend to return from a conference, Cass receives an unexpected visit from Roz Margolis, whom he dated 20 years earlier and who looks as good now as she ever did. Her secret: dedicating her substantial smarts to unlocking the secrets of immortality. Cass’s recent success and Roz’s sudden appearance send him into contemplation of the tumultuous events of his past, involving his former mentor, his failed first marriage and a young mathematical prodigy whose talent may go unrealized, culminating in a standing-room-only debate with a formidable opponent where Cass must reconcile his new, unfamiliar life with his experience of himself. Irreverent and witty, Goldstein seamlessly weaves philosophy into this lively and colorful chronicle of intellectual and emotional struggles.
Watch Steven Pinker Interview Rebecca Newberger Goldstein: A brief interview from Amazon.com.
Read the NY Times Review of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction.
Good without God: What a Billion Non-Religious People Do Believe by Greg Epstein
Reading: January 2010
In his first book, Epstein (humanist chaplain, Harvard Univ.) ambitiously attempts to present humanism as a positive life stance that consists of much more than just the absence of belief in a deity by combining history, philosophy, inspiration, and personal confession and generously sprinkling literary, philosophical, and pop cultural illustrations throughout. Opposing the two extremes of the new atheism and religious fundamentalism, he carves a middle path alongside religious moderates. By focusing on ethics and action rather than theology and belief, Epstein’s vision is highly inclusive and emphasizes the vast common ground between the religious and nonreligious without diminishing or compromising the obvious differences. In this passionate collection of thoughts and ideas, he endeavors to educate the religious about the true nature of humanism and to inspire the nonreligious to consider constructively what they do believe rather than what they do not. …….., this is recommended for anyone interested in a positive and more tolerant contribution to the current God debate. Brian T. Sullivan, Alfred Univ. Lib., NY
Watch a short video promo with author Greg Epstein for Good Without God: What a Billion Non-Religious People Do Believe
Prove It
Imagine, if you can, a novel that imbues pot roast, green beans and scalloped potatoes with Gnostic import not just evoking the aroma of Sundays past, with their old orderliness, aloof from all disruption, as in Marilynne Robinson’s last novel, Home, but embodying specific doctrinal precepts and divine mysteries. Reason recoils. Yet, in the philosopher-novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s latest work of fiction, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, the rotund and orotund Jonas Elijah Klapper, the Extreme Distinguished Professor of Faith, Literature and Values at Frankfurter University (think of Brandeis), proposes the traditional Jewish Sabbath meal of cholent (bean and potato stew) and kugel (pudding) to his overawed grad student, Cass Seltzer, as a worthy dissertation topic. And he’s not kidding. All of the dishes have kabbalist significance, he tells Seltzer. The tzaddikim, or righteous ones, proclaimed that there are profound matters enfolded in the kugel.
Klapper, a Jewish walrus in a shabby tweed jacket and the author of The Perversity of Persuasion, among other masterpieces, is given to staring upward as he orates, letting the riches of his prodigious memory spill forth. He is evidently a caricature of Harold Bloom or someone uncannily like him. He is also, Seltzer regretfully concludes, going off the deep end.
Only a year into his Ph.D. program, Seltzer watched his guru throw over Matthew Arnold for Yahweh, trading the ethereal embrace of academe for the meaty bear hug of his Hasidic brethren at America’s only shtetl, an upstate New York community called New Walden. Named for the town of Valden, in Hungary, New Walden happens to be the place where Seltzer’s mother grew up. She left the village and raised her family in a non-kosher, non-Sabbath-observing home, but Klapper persuades Seltzer to rekindle his Valdener ties and wrangle an invitation to a members-only feast at the rebbe’s table. It is after this memorable meal that Klapper orders his disciple to explore God’s indwelling immanence through the intriguing mystery of the kugel Seltzer balks. There’s no way I’m writing a dissertation on the hermeneutics of potato kugel he protests.