Neil deGrasse Tyson on "Intelligent Design"

This clip picks up where the one I'm responding to ("Gods retreat from cosmology") leaves off -- it is advisable that you watch that clip first. Both clips are from Neil deGrasse Tyson's presentation titled "The Perimeter of Ignorance" at Beyond Belief 2006. Among other things, Tyson asserts that the religiosity of some of history's greatest scientists and their willingness to invoke the philosophy of intelligent design limited the scope of their inquiry into the natural world, to the detriment of scientific progress in general.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• science
• intelligent
• design
• stupid
• desigh
• ignorance

[nofec]

I don't know how much I believe the statement that people who believe in God limit their ability to continue science. Newton wasn't "basking in the majesty of God". That's a little unfair to Newton, simply because I think that we all have our limits. If one disbelieves in God, one does not simply gain the ability to continue for science. Laplace could just not believe in God. There are many possibilities. To say that religion limits science is sort of unfair, particularly to Newton.

[M1ST3RHYDE]

@nofec

Fair enough but if one has no added hurdels to jump or boundries too big to cross it can easily be argued that the journey to truth and understanding will be an easier path.

[Bill1275w]

As we grew numerous and spread North, we grew and stored crops and domesticated animals because North Africa and West Asia didn't have as much to gather as subsaharan forests. A few idiots got lost in the desert, suffered brain damage from heat and dehydrration and started babbling religion and we lost 1000 years in the dark ages. Without God, we would be colonizing other galaxies by now. Instead, we just sit on this rock, waiting for an asteroid to come along so we can all go extinct.

[M1ST3RHYDE]

@Bill1275w

NICE! :~D

[karadan100]

ID is the philosophy of ignorance. Nice.

[BeAsTm0aD]

People say that God did it because saying they didn't know was more embarrassing in those times. Especially for Isaac Newton with the Catholic church all over him.

[nofec]

@NUTCASE71733 It's not bullshit though. The internet doesn't always work. Your car doesn't always start. Sure, one can assume that it will start every time, but there is still some faith that it will happen. That is why there is room for error. Sure, I could be wrong, but I feel that there are many definitions of faith, including ones that happen in the realm of even science. It's just my opinion. You don't need to hate over it, jeez.

[NUTCASE71733]

@nofec

Thats bullshit and you know it. Does it require faith to now ow your coputer works so you can spew your fucktard nonsense ont he Internet? Does it take faith for your car to start when you turn the key in the ignition slot?

[Bill1275w]

@Wyldwulf "points" are irrelevant. Only survival is relevant. Every penny spent stockpiling weapons and not educating and taking care of children is another nail in the coffin of our species. The space rock is coming. 14k people already die daily from lack of food. The environmental devastation wrought by 19th century internal combustion energy technology we refuse to replace is just beginnig to destroy us. We have to be smart enough to handle them all, or it's the end of the line.

[nofec]

@PimpingRice lol, alrighty ;)

[PimpingRice]

@nofec Lol you still don't get it. From the looks of things you really don't know what the word "faith" and "theory" means so from here on out this argument is no longer valid since you don't have the exact knowledge of what I'm implying AND what your are implying in your statement. You sir is ignorant.

[nofec]

@PimpingRice lol, really? Science absolutely requires faith. You have to have faith in the right or the wrong in order to find the answer in the first place. Notice how there are few "laws" in science and many "theories". A theory is a belief that can guide behavior. You need faith to believe. Of course Newton has run out of ideas. He's dead, just like this argument. And dude, change your name, your hurting your legitimacy.

[PimpingRice]

@nofec But later as the world progress, I forgot who, a person has solved the answer to which Newton was stuck on