Alan Sokal on Religion

Alan Sokal is an American physicist famous for successfully submitting a nonsense hoax article to a postmodernist journal (Journal "Social Text", the title of his article "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity").

This clip is taken from a speech he gave in May 2009 to the Swedish Humanist Association. He looks at the adversaries of an evidence-based worldview, including religion. To watch his entire presentation, which also includes the topics of alternative medicine and spin doctor politics, go to:
http://humanisterna.se/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6...

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[divvy1400yam600]

The many are bamboozled by the tremendous success achieved as a result of applying the scientific method to investigate nature

Most of those who believe evolution by NS to be true do not practice physics / chemistry etc.

They are gadfly philosophers with an aversion to religion.

They select their evidence and omit the really difficult stuff because they know it undermines their position. eg DNA / protein synthesis

Read with an OPEN mind my other responses and you will see my point.

[wimsweden]

@divvy1400yam600

"Most of those who believe evolution by NS to be true do not practice physics / chemistry etc. They are gadfly philosophers with an aversion to religion." Most people who accept evolution are religious believers. Try again.

"Read with an OPEN mind my other responses and you will see my point." I don't see "your point". Am I close-minded now?

[Adamalgorithm]

@simulachra Separating religion from superstition is like separating bullshit from cow-shit.

[TsekourasS]

Videos like this one should be taught in schools!

[truthspeaker3and1]

His Hoax paper was an enjoyable and outrageously funny peace of comedic writing though...

[truthspeaker3and1]

Dr. Sokal handily misrepresents belief in God (i.e. any religion) as an inherently absurd position. Relying upon his authority as a physicist, and employing a large vocabulary, he may very well convince naive viewers that his bold assertions are really facts. All religions do not give the same evidence for their purported veracity, and the essential ideas of the world's major religions are few enough in number that they can be considered individually.

[wrichik]

@divvy1400yam600

Which mysteries are you talking about ? The age of the universe ? The size of the universe ? We have made progress on so many things that were once considered unknowable, and have no reason to believe that these questions cannot be answered either.

More importantly, even if these answers were unknowable ... how would "God " be the answer to anything at all ? It is like saying ... "I have no way of knowing how big is Poland. Ergo, it must be divine !"

[wrichik]

@divvy1400yam600

I said 'the surface of the earth' is unbounded but finite, not the earth itself. The difference is in the number of dimensions. Imagine 2D flatlanders wandering on the earth's surface, unaware of any other dimensions. They would never be able to find a border, while reamining very much limited to a finite space. Over time they might be able to detect this too, but that's all.

[divvy1400yam600]

@wrichik To say the earth has no borders is incorrect. It is possible to fly off into outerspace via a border.

The infinitude or otherwise of space is, as you say, a conundrum.

It clealy exposes the problem I have been trying to highlight.

It is not possible for humans to unravel these mysteries.

They are too profound for human intellect.

You intrinsically recognise that difficulty when you say'..it makes no sense etc...'

[wrichik]

@divvy1400yam600

There is a third alternative.

Time is a property of the universe and it makes no sense to speak of "before the universe". Please note that this is not the same as "It has always existed" except in a trivial way.

An equivalent conundrum would be "Either the universe is infinite in size or it must have finite boundaries" The third possibility would be a finite but borderless universe, like the surface of the earth ... which is finite in area but without a beginning or an end.

[wimsweden]

@divvy1400yam600

"What I am trying to get you to understand is that fact will never be explained" How do you know that?

"It follows there must have existed something that transcends the human intellect but not the imagination to conceptualise." How?

"That entity is called God." If all you believe in is some deistic being and don't really bother anyone with "what it wants", I would have no problem with that.

[divvy1400yam600]

Respond to this video... Nearly ALL of the arguments used to debunk religion concentrate on the diverse and somtetimes odd moral teachings of the major religions.

The underlying principle that gave birth to religious thought is that life is the most profound of mysteries which in fact is no nearer to being explained now than ever it was.

Nowhere is it experienced that purposefull complexity can create itself.

The scientific method is limited in its grasp whatever anyone may believe.