Science and religion with David Berlinski: Chapter 1 of 5

[CelestialEmbodiment]

Good riddance to the braying jackass Christ' Hitchens who supported the sanctions and the war of pelf against Iraq. [Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: "We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?"; Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it." — "60 Minutes" (5/12/96)]

[doowop62]

Modern private scientific research begs to differ with theories that science and religion does not merge firmly. It will be greatly appreciated should you approve my video submission.

Dave Stacey

[TheManWithTVEyes]

Science IS knowledge as defined by like-minded men, as agreed upon by committee.

[TheWorldFarOff]

The Beatles were the Teresa Teng of the Occidental World.

[procommenter]

Expertise = licensing, consolidation, monopoly, exclusivity, black-balling...

[OneCerebralSamurai]

Love this channel - but this guy is a dope.

[gerontodon]

This is an inspiring man, but I think the cospiracy of 'experts' goes deeper than he realises.

[adammar5hall]

I have, in my short lifetime, found myself on either side of this debate. The greatest problem for both camps is "big think" --statements such as, "athiests are out to destroy religion," or "the religious are undoing rational thought."

Instead of valid, objective criticisms, the individuals debating the issue usually lodge sweeping ad hominems, accusing their detractors of intellectual incompetency or dishonesty.

And that is why this dialog will continue, fruitlessly.

[13thLegio]

I stopped at conspiracy of experts. What a clown.

[maosw]

Just a quick suggesting to everyone getting all riled up about Mr. Berlinski:

Go to Wikipedia and read the page about him, especially the Criticism, before watching the other parts. Sums it up pretty nicely IMHO.

[indukayam]

@maosw wiki genetic fallacy before you comment

[redeyetime]

@maosw Can you give a specific example where Berlinski is wrong? The criticisms on Wikipedia are weak!

[dcyates]

Several here are making some unwarranted assumptions. Dr. David Berlinski is, in fact, not a theist. As he describes himself in his book: "I am a secular Jew. My religious education did not take. I can barely remember a word of Hebrew. I cannot pray." In his book "The Devil's Delusion," he is not making claims for theism, but rather inveighing against exactly what is contained in the subtitle: "Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions." Simply put, "There is no God" is not a scientific statement.

[glennd7962]

@dcyates Go pound sand. He's playing semantic games. Do you realize he's on the board of the Discovery Institute, an organization dedicated to peddling intelligent design mythology, run by Christian Fundamentalists, who believe in the inerrancy of scripture? Rhetorically, he's actually saying nothing that most atheists don't say themselves. We simply observe that there is no evidence of the God that so many people talk about as though real. We are open to new evidence. Period. That's it.

[monkeywolf]

@glennd7962 ....There is no proof against God either...you see the fallacy?

[redeyetime]

@glennd7962 Do you believe you are more objective if you pretend that God doesn't exist? What is more logical, If there is a knock at the your door #1 Someone did it #2 The door knocked itself? Since there was a "Big Bang" is it more logical to believe that the universe banged itself into existence or that someone banged it into existence? The cause must be sufficient to explain the effect.

[EntinludeX]

If theists arn't comfortable with the supposed condecending nature of scientific evidence being a "Put up or Shut up" sort of game of demonsterable facts...

...perhaps they should go play a role-playing fantasy game. I believe it's called "Relgion"

[glennd7962]

This guy is just making the wildest of silly statements. The anthropic principal, for example. Our universe is not in any way friendly to the evolution of life, in fact the lions share is probably barren. However out of 200 billion star systems, it's entirely plausible that a few other planets might have life. Why does he claim that the universe is uniquely designed to support life when it in fact does not support life in the vast majority of it?

[dempsey771]

@glennd7962 The guy in the video is just tossing out different ideas, just because they don't fit in your box don't disregard them, cut him a little slack.

[glennd7962]

What's clear is that there is no evidence for what the religious have been selling for thousands of years and that's the point of Darwin and others. That science is young and still maturing is clear and those of us rejecting the magical thinking of the religious and the "spiritual" are wide open to better arguments with evidence.

[glennd7962]

Little evidence for evolution? I'm almost done listening and I"m not even 10 minutes in.

[JBrazosCole]

@glennd7962 That's interesting, because it's not even 10 minutes long.

[glennd7962]

Oppressed by the scientific community? What garbage, I feel much more oppressed by religious types who make the wildest of claims without a shred of evidence. Fyi, he's positioning himself as an "expert" who can debunk other "experts", apparently an irony he doesn't appreciate.

[Donnievil]

@glennd7962 You have the freedom to voice your opinion without Federal or religious reprisals because of Christian ideals in the 17th century...clearly you're oppressed by religious people.

Atheists are constantly making claims that "we need to destroy religion" or "we teaching children about God is akin to child abuse".

Obviously it's the religious people who are oppressive. We call them atheists.

[glennd7962]

@Donnievil Lol, so ignorant, I hardly no where to start. The ideas of my freedom stem from Greeks and pre-Christian Romans such as Cicero, not from the 17th century. Of course, religious people participated in this debate and the great philosophical/political changes that we all benefit from. However, that does nothing to aggrandize your religion - whether you understand that or not. Stop watching David Barton and his pet, Glenn Beck - they are corrupting your brain.