Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Why He Believes Faith & Reason Are Irreconcilable

Well, perhaps atheism is his religion. He probably has no greater understanding of science that many people who lean more toward conventional religion.

 

Please explain, cause it seems the opposite. belief in religion is specifically belief in the unprovable. That's faith. In science you do not look to believe in anything that isn't provable, or at least doesn't have significant tangible facts. In science, you try and disprove what you theorize, and if you can't, that strengthens the theory.

He did, but I have no idea if he was any good.

My guess is that he has a much greater understanding. Going to college, graduate school, becoming a researcher, teaching at University of Maryland, Princeton University, the American Museum of Natural History, and Hayden Planetarium, and writing books on the subject I would say is a hell of a lot more learned than almost anyone in their respective fields, especially religion. Honestly, your statement seems silly.

 

I think you succeeded in proving your opinion is different than mine.

 

Religion- personal beliefs or values: a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by. The religion of science is faith in what you can see or measure. But atlas...

'....this scientific method that we have developed to understand the known universe, reaches the limits of its effectiveness where it, as a process at best, measures reality as our fallible senses, limited objectivity and current use of our conditioned mental faculties are able to process physical existence…"

http://www.ted.com/conversations/9998/science_is_a_religion.html

 

Somewhat misleading as we can still measure things beyond what we can sense, and then convert them into things we can sense. One example being magnetism. We cannot sense it, but we can still measure magnetism.

 

Science is just a tool - one which a theist uses virtually as much as any atheist in their everyday lives. It is not in itself a belief system.

Perhaps you are actually referring to metaphysical naturalism?

 

"Atheism is a religion like abstinence is a sex position"

(Bill Maher)

 

That is cute. But it still leave atheist believing in something they cannot prove, or faith in their
believe just like people of any religion.

 

atheism does not imply a claim to provable knowledge that no possible form of creator exists. It wouldn't be describing anybody if it did, so your use of the word is essentially a straw man meant to validate theism.

also no belief (or disbelief) is ultimately "provable" in the sense you are using the word. so unless you want to call the belief the sun will rise tomorrow a "religious" belief your semantics are nonsensical either way.

 

I feel that one of the biggest mistakes religious people seem to make is trying to classify science as a religion because both deal with some similar unknowns. They then seem to reject science and view it as an attack on their beliefs, when they should be looking for ways to integrate the two. As understanding expands so should we.

 

I think a better translation of NDT is that religions view evolution as the enemy of their belief system. Evolution doesn't really give a shit it just keeps on doing what does or doesn't do, and the rest of us are working on figuring it out either way.

My observation is that some people get so fundamentalist in their view points that they end up completely discounting and even laughing at the other side as ridiculous. I think you have to get deeper into social psychology to understand why, or maybe its just fear of being wrong? Personally I think evolution is so obvious that you are fool if you believe otherwise. I've also felt spirituality and a connection to something bigger than myself, I've even had coincidences that I consider miracles. I don't know what that is but I have a few theories and they aren't scientific.

 

I admire those that are Christian, lucky people they are. I am not an atheist as I have no proof that God does not exist and I seriously doubt that is the smart bet.