Neil deGrasse Tyson - 2006 Beyond Belief: Science, Reason, Religion & Survival

Just 40 years after a famous TIME magazine cover asked "Is God Dead?" the answer appears to be a resounding "No!" According to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in a recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine, "God is Winning". Religions are increasingly a geopolitical force to be reckoned with. Fundamentalist movements - some violent in the extreme - are growing. Science and religion are at odds in the classrooms and courtrooms. And a return to religious values is widely touted as an antidote to the alleged decline in public morality. After two centuries, could this be twilight for the Enlightenment project and the beginning of a new age of unreason? Will faith and dogma trump rational inquiry, or will it be possible to reconcile religious and scientific worldviews? Can evolutionary biology, anthropology and neuroscience help us to better understand how we construct beliefs, and experience empathy, fear and awe? Can science help us create a new rational narrative as poetic and powerful as those that have traditionally sustained societies? Can we treat religion as a natural phenomenon? Can we be good without God? And if not God, then what?

This is a critical moment in the human situation, and The Science Network in association with the Crick-Jacobs Center brought together an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers to explore answers to these questions. The conversation took place at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA from November 5-7, 2006.

Visit their website here: http://thesciencenetwork.org/programs/beyond-belief-science-religion-reason-a...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Beyond Belief
• Science
• Reason
• Religion & Survival
• Darwin
• Debate
• Richard Dawkins
• Design
• Creationism
• Intelligent
• Truth
• Logic
• Proof
• Theory
• Evidence
• Neil deGrasse Tyson

[mutley2209]

Degrasse for president

[LogicinspiresLiberty]

@mutley2209: He would get my vote. Thanks for commenting.

[soygoratsu]

Put him in a church now! I've listened to soooo many debates with Dawkins, Hitchens, Krauss, Craig, popes, Coyne, Deen, D'Souza and others. But this speech just desimates anything that can come from religious person. Seriously! This is brilliant, clever, entertaining, easy to understand and enlightening!

[LogicinspiresLiberty]

@soygoratsu: The first time I saw Mr. Tyson was on PBS (some time ago), since then I've become a fan of his. Thank you for commenting.

[Doyle251]

When when Tyson says "85% of the national academy rejects god." what study is he referring to?

[LogicinspiresLiberty]

@Doyle251: I am not sure, I would have to research it.

[bcipolli]

@Doyle251 I think this is the study; search:

"Leading scientists still reject God"

(couldn't get link to post here)

[TruthNumber1]

Brilliant (but sad) comments about Islam in the last few minutes of his talk.