Re: [asa] Jerry Coyne sides with Dawkins and Hitchens

BTW, here is a great observation from Scott Atran:

“Now, according to Salam's colleague and co-Nobel Prize winner Steven Weinberg, scientists must rise up to the challenge of liberating humanity form "the long nightmare of religion" Biologist Richard Dawkins tells us that we need t"come out of the closet" and form a political lobby of committed atheists and scientists to do public battle with religion and other forms of "intellectual rubbish" that tyrannize the mind. For neuropsychologist Sam Harris, technological advances in the ability to terrorize and wage war require an uncompromising and unrelenting struggle to destroy religion - especially, but not exclusively, Islam - and banish unreason beyond the pale of civilization.

But how naïve are such calls to arms! I find it fascinating that brilliant scientists and philosophers have no clue how to deal with the basic irrationality of human life and society other than to insist against all reason and evidence that things ought to be rational and evidence based. It makes me embarrassed to be a scientist and atheist. There is no historical evidence whatsoever that scientists have a keener or deeper appreciation than religious people of how to deal with personal or moral problems. Some scientists have some good and helpful insights into human beings' existential problems some of the time, but some good scientists have done more to harm others than most people are remotely capable of.”

http://thesciencenetwork.org/BeyondBelief/conversation/

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Tue May 27 10:17:29 2008