Religion

Hostility to atheists

While I’m shirking my blogging responsibilities by linking to series of posts elsewhere, there’s an interesting discussion about hostility to atheists at the Volokh Conspiracy: see here, here, here, and here. You’d be unsurprised (I suspect) to learn that Americans find atheists to be one of the most untrustworthy brands of people around. Just to get an idea, here are the answers from a 2005 poll that asked whether “your overall opinion of [the group] is very favorable, mostly favorable, mostly unfavorable, or very unfavorable?”

Group

Very favorable (%)

Mostly favorable

Mostly unfavorable

Very unfavorable

“Catholics”

24

49

10

4

“Jews”

23

54

5

2

“Evangelical Christians”

17

40

14

5

“Muslim Americans”

9

46

16

9

“Atheists, that is, people who don’t believe in God”

7

28

22

28

Well, I suppose it’s understandable, since atheists are constantly killing innocent members of other sects in the name of their belief system. Oh wait, no they’re not. Must be the War On Xmas that is hurting our ratings.

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A Brief History of Disbelief

Abbas Raza at 3 Quarks Daily, just before kindly linking to my martini post, mentions a recent BBC documentary, Jonathan Miller’s Brief History of Disbelief. Not sure how I will ever get to see it, but it sounds great; very similar in spirit to the Moments in Atheism course I taught with Shadi Bartsch some time back. The synopses look about right:

Shadows of Doubt
BBC Two
Monday 31 October 2005 7pm-8pm
Jonathan Miller visits the absent Twin Towers to consider the religious implications of 9/11 and meets Arthur Miller and the philosopher Colin McGinn. He searches for evidence of the first ‘unbelievers’ in Ancient Greece and examines some of the modern theories around why people have always tended to believe in mythology and magic.

Noughts and Crosses
BBC Two
Monday 7 November 7pm-8pm
With the domination of Christianity from 500 AD, Jonathan Miller wonders how disbelief began to re-emerge in the 15th and 16th centuries. He discovers that division within the Church played a more powerful role than the scientific discoveries of the period. He also visits Paris, the home of the 18th century atheist, Baron D’Holbach, and shows how politically dangerous it was to undermine the religious faith of the masses.

The Final Hour
BBC Two
Monday 14 November 7pm-8pm TBC
The history of disbelief continues with the ideas of self-taught philosopher Thomas Paine, the revolutionary studies of geology and the evolutionary theories of Darwin. Jonathan Miller looks at the Freudian view that religion is a ‘thought disorder’. He also examines his motivation behind making the series touching on the issues of death and the religious fanaticism of the 21st century.

I’m happy to see Baron D’Holbach in there, although a little surprised that Hume’s name wasn’t featured more prominently. And it’s too bad that he discounts the role of scientific discoveries; my own theory is that the mechanics of Galileo and Newton was actually much more influential in the development of atheism than people tend to believe.

Also interesting was this quote from the interview with the director, Richard Denton:

BBC Four: Were you surprised to find the first American presidents were so sceptical about religion?
RD: I was incredibly struck by their quotations – these guys wouldn’t even get considered as candidates if they said anything like that now. And I was depressed by that because it made me feel that we have not made a great deal of progress since the Age of Enlightenment. If anything, we’re going backwards at the moment.

Ain’t it the truth.

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The Kansas School Board is right

I find myself nodding in agreement with the wisdom of the Kansas Board of Education. Not very much agreement, to be sure; the recent move to introduce official skepticism about evolution into its new public school science standards is just bad. Bad, bad Kansas.

But, amidst the bemoaning of this setback for Enlightenment values, we all had a little fun with the school board’s attempt to change the definition of science, as Risa has already pointed out. (See also John Rennie at the new Scientific American blog.) Seems that they have decided to open the door to explanations other than the purely natural — obviously, so that they can include religious (“supernatural”) explanations within a science curriculum.

But only after reading Dennis Overbye’s story in yesterday’s New York Times did I really understand what they had done. Here’s the new definition of “science”:

The changes in the official state definition are subtle and lawyerly, and involve mainly the removal of two words: “natural explanations.” But they are a red flag to scientists, who say the changes obliterate the distinction between the natural and the supernatural that goes back to Galileo and the foundations of science.

The old definition reads in part, “Science is the human activity of seeking natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us.” The new one calls science “a systematic method of continuing investigation that uses observation, hypothesis testing, measurement, experimentation, logical argument and theory building to lead to more adequate explanations of natural phenomena.”

At the risk of alienating all my friends — the school board is right. Science isn’t about finding “natural” explanations vs. “supernatural” ones; it’s about finding correct explanations, without any presupposition about what form they may take. The distinguishing feature of science isn’t in the explanations themselves, it’s in the process by which we find them. Namely, we toss out hypotheses, compare them to data, and look for the hypotheses which account for the largest number of phenomena in the simplest possible way. Simplicity here is in the sense of “algorithmic compressibility” — the number of bits, if you like, required to specify the mechanism that purports to do all this explaining.

What the Kansas school board has tried to do is to open the door for unbiased consideration of natural and supernatural explanations by a common standard — that of scientific investigation. This is just what I’ve been arguing for all along. Scientists have to get off this kick that science and religion are completely distinct magisteria that have nothing to do with each other. Quite the contrary; religion (at least in its common Western forms) goes around making claims about how the world works, and it’s perfectly appropriate to judge such claims by the same standards that we judge any other suggested hypotheses about nature.

The thing is, if we judge popular religious vs. naturalist explanations for how the universe works by a common scientific standard, naturalism wins. Without breaking a sweat, frankly; by the beginning of the second half, we have to send in the scrubs from the bench, at the risk of being accused of running up the score. Intelligent Design, to take one obvious example, is laughably bad as a scientific hypothesis. It explains practically nothing (since it refuses to say anything about the nature of the designer, so we have no clue what such a designer would ever choose to design), while introducing a fantastic amount of new complexity in the form of an entirely distinct metaphysical category (the designer). I have no problem saying that ID is a “scientific hypothesis”; it’s just such a bad one that no sensible scientist would give it a moment’s thought if it weren’t for the massive public-relations campaign behind it.

Science doesn’t home in on naturalistic explanations by assumption; it chooses them because those are the best ones. That doesn’t mean that we have to “teach the controversy” in high schools; the number of grossly inadequate scientific theories is far larger than we could ever address in such a context. But it’s about time that we admitted that science is perfectly capable of judging supernatural claims — and finding them sadly wanting.

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The soul of a space alien

A couple of thousand years ago, we didn’t know much about how the universe works. It’s no surprise that our ancestors came up with a mishmash of beliefs about nature, humans, and our place in the cosmos.

What is a consistent source of surprise is that so many people still cling to these dusty beliefs, no matter what variety of silliness it leads them to. One of the foundational beliefs of mainstream Western religions is that humans are somehow special in God’s eyes. Could anything shake us from such a conviction? Majikthise and Cynical-C point to one such thought experiment: a story from Catholic News Service about whether space aliens have souls. What would happen to our belief in our own singular status within creation if we found that there were other sentient beings out there, capable of thoughts and feelings and launching wars of choice?

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno has thought about it, and reached an interesting conclusion: it wouldn’t change anything.

He said his aim with the booklet was to reassure Catholics “that you shouldn’t be afraid of these questions” and that “no matter what we learn, it doesn’t invalidate what we already know” and believe. In other words, scientific study and discovery and religion enrich one another, not cancel out each other.

If new forms of life were to be discovered or highly advanced beings from outer space were to touch down on planet Earth, it would not mean “everything we believe in is wrong,” rather, “we’re going to find out that everything is truer in ways we couldn’t even yet have imagined,” he said.

Not to be nit-picky, but the motto “no matter what we learn, it doesn’t invalidate what we already know” is not evidence that science and religion enrich each other, it is evidence of precisely the opposite. The distinguishing feature of science is precisely that it stands ready to invalidate its previous theories on the basis of new evidence. We approach the universe with an open mind, struggling to understand what it has to tell us; we don’t figure things out ahead of time and use the universe to fabricate a flattering story about ourselves.

But the next sentence was my favorite:

The Book of Genesis describes two stories of creation, and science, too, has more than one version of how the cosmos may have come into being.

That’s a tad misleading right there. Genesis does indeed have two stories of creation, one right after the other (the first starts at Genesis 1:1, the second at Genesis 2:4). The two versions are completely contradictory — in the first, God creates plants, and then animals, and then man and woman simultaneously; in the second, God creates man out of dust, then plants a garden, and woman is only an afterthought. And everyone knows why there are two mutually exclusive stories right after each other: they came from two different texts, written by different people at different times, edited together later into a single document. Fascinating as history, but not a stable foundation on which to build a view of the universe.

Scientists, it’s true, have lots of versions of how the cosmos may have come into being; heck, I have one myself. That’s how we work; we throw ideas out there, compare them to other pieces of information, and toss out the ones that don’t work. If new information comes along, we’re hoping that it conforms to our personally favorite ideas, but if not, that’s exciting and we look forward to learning something.

And when those space aliens get here, I’m definitely going to ask them what they think about the anthropic principle.

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Questions sought

Bob Park, author of the irreverent What’s New weekly newsletter from the American Physical Society, is soliciting suggestions for questions to ask Harriet Miers about her views on science.

1. SUPREME IRONY: SHOULD NOMINEES BE QUESTIONED ABOUT SCIENCE?

After nominating Harriet Miers for a seat on the Supreme Court, President Bush sought to reassure religious conservatives by stressing Miers’ evangelical Christian roots. Bush said it’s part of who she is. He’s right, but traditionally the personal religious views of nominees are not taken up in the confirmation process. If the First Amendment is upheld, it shouldn’t matter. So forget religion. Far more important in the Twenty-First Century is the nominee’s views on science. There are, after all, few cases that come before the courts today that do not have a scientific component. Scientists must construct a list of basic questions that would give some insight into the nominee’s views on science. For example: do all physical events result from earlier physical events, or can they be caused by clasping your hands, bowing your head, and wishing? Send your suggestions to What’s New. WN will print the best of them.

Suggestions can be sent to whatsnew@bobpark.org, although you’re welcome to leave them in the comments here as well.

In other news at the intersection of religion and politics, Eugene Volokh clears up a question that I know has been bugging me for quite some time. (Prompted by an actual complaint!)

For those curious about whether [a public high-school marching band] playing The Devil Went Down to Georgia would be an Establishment Clause violation, the answer is no; though some songs that mention God (or for that matter the Devil) may in some contexts be seen by a reasonable person as endorsements of religion, this song wouldn’t be.

I think it’s true that the Charlie Daniels song couldn’t reasonably be taken as an endorsement of Satanism. Because, you know, the Devil gets his ass kicked in that song. (Devil’s advocate here.)

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Let down

I tried to give the New York Times series on intelligent design the benefit of the doubt, I really did. While the first installment received a lot of heated criticism around the science blogs, I was cautiously optimistic. It did, after all, expose the Discovery Institute as a public-relations machine rather than a scientific institution. True, it didn’t emphasize the obvious shortcomings of ID, but I agreed with PZ that we should wait for the next installment — hopefully the science would be front and center there.

What a disappointment. Today’s article (by Kenneth Chang) is a disaster — the usual credulous rehearsal of “balanced” arguments on each side, leading the non-expert reader to imagine that there is some sort of real “controversy.” You wouldn’t know from the article that ID enjoys the same level of support among biologists as the flat-Earth theory does among astronomers. Pharyngula, Chris Mooney, Brad DeLong, Arthur Silber, Abnormal Interests, and Brian Leiter administer the requisite flogging. My heart’s not in it.

It’s sad to see the basic workings of science undermined by buzzwords and fast talk and misrepresentations and fallacious arguments in the name of a politico-religious agenda, and to see the media go along for the ride. If newspapers wanted to write straightforward stories about natural theology as a religious question, I wouldn’t care at all. But everybody knows it’s not science, and it’s depressing to see the charade treated with such seriousness.

Update: Tuesday’s article is about scientists’ attitudes toward God, by Cornelia Dean. Not especially good or bad; PZ is not very happy. But as Jay mentions in comments (and Thoughts from Kansas blogs about), there is a nice opinion piece by Verlyn Klinkenborg that muses on the mind-boggling timescales invoked by evolutionary biology, not to mention cosmology. It’s a nice reflection on real science and the awe it engenders; opening yourself up to the way the universe really works is infinitely more rewarding than making up your mind ahead of time and insisting that the world work that way.

Another update: Kenneth Chang, author of the second NYT piece, has left a comment on Pharyngula (and now here). He points out, correctly, that the article was not for us (scientifically literate blog readers). But I think he dramatically underestimates the extent to which he gives the wrong impression of the science — there is no scientific “controversy” whatsoever, and that message did not come through with nearly the clarity that it should have. It’s not a matter of factual errors, it’s about an accurate portrayal of the status of this conflict.

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Stories about Nature

As predicted, we had a great time (as it were) talking about the nature of time last night at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Antonia and David gave great presentations, Gretchen moderated with aplomb, and Angel Ysaguirre and the rest of the Illinois Humanities Council crew organized the whole thing with practiced professionalism.

I was happy to have a chance to catch up with David, who has become semi-famous for his appearance in the movie What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? (known informally as “What the Bleep?”). This movie was a travesty of a docu-drama, the basic gist of which was to push on an unsuspecting public certain New Age ideas about how quantum mechanics allows human consciousness to affect reality. David was interviewed by the filmmakers for hours, in which he patiently explained that everything they were saying was wrong. They then sliced his words to make it look like he was agreeing with the spirit of the movie, creating a willful misrepresentation of his views in the final product.

But since I last saw David in December, he had attended an event in Santa Monica in February featuring all of the speakers from the movie (such as Ramtha, a 35,000-year-old warrior spirit who is available for consultation for an appropriate fee). Although billed as a “conference,” it was really an excuse to sell expensive tickets to hundreds of gullible New Agers. The conference organizers were a different group from the filmmakers, who belatedly informed them that this was one person they should have left off the guest list — but too late.

After some hesitation, David decided to go, and thought very carefully about the talk he would give. I can’t do justice to the precision with which he worded his presentation, but the basic message was essentially this: “When you are trying to figure out how the world works, there are two ways to proceed. One is to invent a story about Nature which serves to say something flattering about yourself. The other is to listen to the story that Nature itself tells, no matter what it may turn out to be. What you are doing is the former; science is the latter.”

He was aiming specifically at pseudo-scientific mysticism, but I can’t think of a better characterization of the really fundamental difference between science and religion. There are differences in methods, and of course there are differences in results. But the most important distinction is in the initial attitude one takes toward the world. Real scientists will take what Nature tells them, and make sense of it as honestly and courageously as they can, regardless of what it says about their own place in the cosmos. If there was one lesson that we could spread through science education, that would be my choice.

The punchline was the response from the California audience. The other personalities on the speaker list were of course outraged, and attacked David in increasingly strident tones. But the audience, after the initial shock wore off, quickly took his side. Not really because they had become convinced of the superiority of reason and evidence to mysticism and quackery, but because they had transferred their reverence from the modern-day shamans to the philosophy professor from Columbia. They had found a new guru, who spoke more convincingly than the old ones. The more important lesson, that finding the right guru isn’t really the path to enlightenment, remained elusive.

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Only Jewish doctors for me, please

Even in a heightened state of cynicism, this isn’t something I would have guessed. In comments to the Santorum post, Becky Stanek points out that most medical doctors believe that evolution should be taught in schools. That brought me up short — “most”? Shouldn’t it be “essentially all”?

Actually, no. The poll results are, from my perspective, horrifying. Some lowlights:

  • 37% of physicians do not agree that the theory of evolution is more correct than intelligent design.
  • More than half of Protestant physicians (54%) agree more with intelligent design than with evolution.
  • 35% of those Protestants believe that God created humans in their present form.
  • Half of all doctors believe that schools should be allowed to teach intelligent design.
  • When asked whether intelligent design has legitimacy as science, an overwhelming majority of Jewish doctors (83%) and half of Catholic doctors (51%) believe that intelligent design is simply “a religiously inspired pseudo- science rather than a legitimate scientific speculation,” while more than half of Protestant doctors (63%) believe that intelligent design is a “legitimate scientific speculation.”

Don’t doctors have to, you know, go to college? I could imagine noise at the 10% level, but this kind of widespread superstition among purportedly educated people is appalling. What is going on?

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Free your mind, and your soul will follow

Atheists are often asked whether there is any sort of argument or evidence that would make them believe in God. Of course, the answer is yes. Jesse at Pandagon mentions one example.

After a July 14th commentary in the Philly Inquirer on Intelligent Design, ID proponents wrote in to the Inquirer to defend their rigorous scientific methodology.

Mr. Franek mentioned that “most educated religious authorities affirm that belief in God and evolution is not in conflict.” How can this statement be true if it leaves God (creator) out of the picture in creating man? God says he created man in his own image in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

How is it that scientists can examine a rock specimen from Mars and “affirm” that there was once water on Mars (which has no water), and look at our planet, which is 70 percent water, and declare that there is no evidence of a worldwide flood?

Scientists and religious authorities are, indeed, fallible.

It’s called “science”. You see, massive flooding leaves evidence. You do know what evidence is, don’t you? It’s that stuff that convicts the B-list celebrities on Law & Order. Think about that…but on a big, global scale.

You see, one thing has nothing to do with the other – whether or not there was ever water on Mars has no bearing on if the entire planet flooded several thousand years ago. It’s not like Noah built an intergalactic starship and bumped his ass to Mars to dump off the extra water, all the while bringing the pure power of funk to benighted Martians.

And if he did, I have to rethink this whole atheist thing, because that’s sweet.

It’s true. Any credible evidence of God using his omnipotence to help humans bring the funk to other planets, and I’d become a regular churchgoer.

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Science & Religion on Morning Edition tomorrow

Hangers-on from my days at Preposterous Universe will recall how (with encouragement from Mark) I managed to avoid a tempting apple offered by a slick-talking serpent … okay, that’s probably a bad metaphor. What I actually did was decide not to go to a conference sponsored by the Templeton Foundation, so as to not give even implicit support to that organization’s attempt to encourage reconciliation between science and religion.

I mentioned this incident to NPR science correspondent David Kestenbaum, who became interested in the entanglement between Templeton and the physics community. He’s been working on a piece about the story for a while now, and it’s finally scheduled to air on Morning Edition tomorrow. Details will vary, but in many places it will air between 6 and 6:30 a.m. Eastern time, and be repeated two and four hours later. It should eventually appear on the web site, and I’ll put up a link when it does. I haven’t heard the piece myself, so if I’m quoted saying anything especially silly — well, I’m sure I’ll come up with some excuse.

Tomorrow’s news today — all in a day’s work here at Cosmic Variance.

Update: Here’s the story; audio not available yet, but it will be soon. I didn’t say anything I’d take back; in fact, I think David chose not to use some of my more confrontational statements. The story brought out one aspect of the Templeton rhetorical strategy that hadn’t been clear before: rather than explicitly promoting “religious” themes in a scientific context, they try to promote discussion of “foundational” issues, the “big questions” that get lost in ordinary scientific discourse.

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