Brian Leiter linked this morning to a cleverly made video called “50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God.”
Some highlights:
No scientist bought the coordination of the constants argument—physical constants have to be just so for life to exist.Though it was put to a number of them, they were completely unimpressed.
A number of scientists said something like: "I am a scientist. I am used to the unknown. I don’t need God to explain mysteries."
A very clear video of Bertrand Russell. The interviewer asks, as if attempting to ambush Russell with Laplace, whether there was a practical reason for believing in God. "There can't be for believing something false," Russell responds. (I am not quoting exactly, by the way.)
Neil deGrasse Tyson of Princeton is the one comic in the show (most are movingly earnest) has a Powerpoint slide listing bad things about the galaxy: "Most places cause death instantly . . . Instantly!" How can God have done that?
David Attenborough, the maker of spectacular nature documentaries: "Most people cite beautiful things in support of God, but what about a young boy in Africa with a worm burrowing in his eye that will make him blind?"
Peter Singer: "Christians think we suffer because we descend from Adam and Eve who sinned. That's monstrous. And what do they say about animals who suffer though they don't descend from A&E?"
Dan Dennett: "The concept of faith is an adaptation that protects religions from evidence."
34 minutes of great clean fun. Share it with your kids tonight!
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