Neil deGrasse Tyson: Science and Faith

person

vinlyn

I agree with what he's saying. In the 1970s while in college getting my degrees in the geosciences, virtually every professor I had was a regular church-goer. To be honest, and I can't say that this is generally true, but the majority of the anti-science people I have personally known were people with a high school diploma or less...no college.

Mountains

There's no way (that I know of) to say what I'm about to say without sounding elitist, just so you know. I'm not trying to sound elitist, but I think what I'm about to say is a fact:

Some people simply aren't intellectually capable of accepting science as fact. That's not to say they're bad people. Intellectual capacity is a large continuum. A lot of people who find it impossible to grasp the subtleties of many things in life will seek out simple answers and religions that provide them all the answers they need, with no further need to analyze or ponder. Scientific concepts that are beyond their ability to grasp represent a threat to the worldview that they are provided by these religious traditions, and so they are rejected.

I think it's really just about that simple in most cases...

DaftChris

I highly respect this man as a freethinker and as a scientist. More so than I do Dawkins or Hitchens.

Still, I did like Pluto as a planet...

person

Still, I did like Pluto as a planet...

Lol, nice one. :pirate:

DairyLama

Scientific concepts that are beyond their ability to grasp represent a threat to the worldview that they are provided by these religious traditions, and so they are rejected.

I experienced this recently when talking to somebody about creationism v. evolution. They just couldn't imagine natural selection working over millenia, and thought it was beyond them, so they didn't want to know.

Tosh

When someone gets themselves into an irrational position, no amount of rationality will get them out of it.

I know quite a few JWs and they disagree with the whole Evolution thing; they call it a 'theory', as if it's just an flimsy idea, but they don't understand how the scientific community use that word.

person

I know quite a few JWs and they disagree with the whole Evolution thing; they call it a 'theory', as if it's just an flimsy idea, but they don't understand how the scientific community use that word.

This bothers me, I make a conscious effort to always use hypothesis instead of theory when talking about some hypothetical idea.

DairyLama

When someone gets themselves into an irrational position, no amount of rationality will get them out of it.

So do we just accept the irrationality?

vinlyn

There's no way (that I know of) to say what I'm about to say without sounding elitist, just so you know. I'm not trying to sound elitist, but I think what I'm about to say is a fact:

Some people simply aren't intellectually capable of accepting science as fact. That's not to say they're bad people. Intellectual capacity is a large continuum. A lot of people who find it impossible to grasp the subtleties of many things in life will seek out simple answers and religions that provide them all the answers they need, with no further need to analyze or ponder. Scientific concepts that are beyond their ability to grasp represent a threat to the worldview that they are provided by these religious traditions, and so they are rejected.

I think it's really just about that simple in most cases...

I'll be honest...I don't find that elitist.

Theswingisyellow

We will always have religion, be it in whatever form, as life completely stripped of it's myths is too much for most to bear. We live a finite existence in a world that is irrational. This is not comforting. A loving God in heaven, an afterlife, and a world that is rational is comforting.

Theswingisyellow

As to the OP there is nothing inhently contradictory between science and faith. Though in having faith one must suspend reason. To believe in Man-Gods, virgins births, and realms we cannot know requires one to suspend reason and to believe solely on faith.

DairyLama

We live a finite existence in a world that is irrational.

I'm not sure the world is irrational, in many ways it's sadly predictable.

vinlyn

As to the OP there is nothing inhently contradictory between science and faith. Though in having faith one must suspend reason. To believe in Man-Gods, virgins births, and realms we cannot know requires one to suspend reason and to believe solely on faith.

I'm not sure I agree. I think what is essential is to understand the difference between what you believe in terms of science, and what you believe in terms of faith. It's not seeing that there is a difference that is a problem, because that's delusion.