Author: geoff

Here’s Penn Jillette’s contribution to the NPR series this i believe. Forget about the subtle distinctions between positve atheism, negative atheism, agnosticism, and so forth: Penn just cuts to the chase. “I believe there is no God.” He expresses my belief exactly, but more wittily and with a bigger audience 😉 Key quote:

Believing there’s no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I’m wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don’t travel in circles where people say, ‘I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.’ That’s just a long-winded religious way to say, ‘shut up,’ or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, ‘How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do.’ So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that’s always fun. It means I’m learning something.

(Via Susan.)

Charles Krauthammer had an excellent piece in the Washington Post, entitled Phony Theory, False Conflict, on the farce of intelligent design. Money quote: “The school board thinks it is indicting evolution by branding it an ‘unguided process’ with no ‘discernible direction or goal.’ This is as ridiculous as indicting Newtonian mechanics for positing an ‘unguided process’ by which Earth is pulled around the sun every year without discernible purpose. What is chemistry if not an ‘unguided process’ of molecular interactions without ‘purpose’?”

As I’ve always said, creationists and ID’ers aren’t simply attacking evolution. They may not realize it (since they seem to have difficulty with logic), but they are taking on all of science – evolution, biology, chemistry, physics, geology, astrophysics, mechanics…. And ironically, by turning their backs on science they are rejecting the principles that underpin the technologies (radio, TV, computer networks) that they use to spread their ignorant blather.

Now I know that I’m not “supposed” to belittle these people. I’m supposed to treat their (presumably genuine) religious beliefs with respect. (Next thing you know, someone will hail their views as a “different way of knowing” – ugh!) But they are ignorant, in much the same way that a witchdoctor is ignorant of antibiotics and by-pass surgery. As a species, we have collectively learned important things about the world, and in many cases this knowledge has superseded earlier beliefs. For example, anyone who still thinks that epilepsy is caused by demonic possession is, quite simply, ignorant, and we expect that a parent who uses physical force to “drive out the demon” in their epileptic child will be arrested for child abuse. To fail to call the believers in creationism what they are – ignorant – is either patronizing or hypocritical.

(Via Sully.)