It’s Not That Simple
Just a quick post today for all of you thinking Pagans, mystical scientists, and citizens who fear the inroads fundamentalism has made into our schools, city halls, and the White House. I was deeply heartened a few months ago when I stumbled onto videos from the 2006 Beyond Belief Conference, where astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson had his way with intelligent design theory.
A video of his complete 40 minute lecture (actually there are two presentations of his from the conference) is available for viewing here, and there are overlapping fragments of it posted on YouTube. The presentation is based on his essay “The Perimeter of Ignorance“, published in Natural History magazine in 2005. (Art students and educators will want to see his second presentation, posted in two parts here and here, in which he describes the revelation of astronomy and a moment of enlightenment which came through drawing pumpkins in class.)
Basically, Tyson makes the point that throughout the history of science, when astronomers and mathematicians came to the edge of what they could account for using observation and calculation, they invoked God as the greater intelligence which created such complex mystery. So intelligent design does have a place in the history of science. It should not, however, be taught in the science classroom because it is a “philosophy of ignorance” rather than a “philosophy of discovery.” Once we decree that something is unfathomable because God made it, no further inquiry is possible.
Tyson does a great job of showing how socially sanctioned religious viewpoints shut down intellectual inquiry, going from 12th century Islam to 21st century North America. And towards the end of his talk he has a marvelous rant about “Stupid Design”, documenting how the majority of conditions in the universe, the cosmos, our planet, and our very biological structure are not intelligent at all, and in fact conspire against sustained life.
So that’s it for today, let’s keep thinking and talking about how to have a society where faith and belief are not pre-requisites for a seat at the table where public policy is hammered out.