This is about the idiocy at the La Jolla meeting, “Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival.” The priests of science were in attendance: Steven Weinberg, Richard Dawkins, Carolyn Porco, Richard P. Sloan, and Sam Harris. I thought some of them were intelligent, until now.
Science is the best hammer in humanity's toolkit. It is the most useful tool we have. Because a few religious extremists have irritated the grand priests of science, they propose to set up science as a religion. This is the dumbest idea I've ever heard. It's like a guy who has mice in his house. Instead of setting a few traps for them, he blows up the house. We're going to ruin the best tool humanity has because a few religious fundamentalists got up our noses? Even I can see that there are thousands of religions and only one science. You screw up science, you screw it up for good. Leave science alone. Science sees the universe as it really is. That's important.
We may be too late to save it. The idiots of science have already established a loyalty oath. It was working at the conference. For anyone to be heard, they had to preface every remark with "I don't have a flicker of religious faith," or "I'm not a religious person." This is the flip side to the religious right, not rationality.
I am a progressive. Progressivism is the union of rationality and morality, applied to politics. My progressive nature is repelled by the likes of Dawkins, Weinberg, Porco, Sloan, and Harris - just as I am repelled by Pat Robertson. There is the assumption in the comments by Dawkins and his buddies that they are morally better than the religious right because they are scientists. Oh, really? Many of the Nazi scientists working in the death camps thought the same. Some of them did real science, with demonstrable results. They had to drown and freeze to death hundreds of men to get their results. Science is a tool. A hammer can build a house for poor people to live in, or it can be used to club them to death. There is no morality in the universe. Does the giant black hole at the heart of our galaxy hesitate before eating a planet full of life? There is no morality in nature. Does the owl justify the death of a mouse? Evolution is not powered by right and wrong. The only place you'll find morality is in the human brain. I believe in hell, but hell is only for us. There are many popes and ministers and religious people in hell right now. We are warned that many who think they will go to heaven will burn, and many who are judged by others to be bound for hell will enter heaven. There are atheists in heaven. It must drive them nuts as they sit by the right hand of the Father. To quote from a recent movie: "Your actions echo in eternity." Actions speak louder than words. Actions speak louder than faith. Religious faith does not protect against error. Belief in science does not protect against error. I believe there are many scientists who are in heaven, and a few cooking in hell.
To adopt the tools of religion is to become a religion. By the way, hasn't this already been tried? Didn't it lead to the monstrous error of "the Great Chain of Being"? Didn't it lead to the oppression of black people and others because it was "demonstrably true" that white people were superior? Before every truth we have from science, there was a mistake that had to be proven wrong. Science can correct itself because it isn't a religion. The DNA of black people and white people is almost identical. There is no genetic predisposition of one race above another. If inner city kids could get out of poverty by studying math, we'd be asking ourselves why black people have a predisposition for excellence in mathematics.
For most of us trapped in the human condition, in a world and a universe at most indifferent to our existence, we crave a connection to something larger than ourselves. Science as it exists now is a tool. It cannot give us that connection. For that we seek out religion. There is a choice for everyone. Can I be a Taoist? Can I be a Christian? Can I be a Dervish? Can I be a Buddhist? Religion is not a tool, it is not a way to know the universe. It is a way to know ourselves, to order our lives with morality and faith. The religious right is in error if they think their beliefs inform them about the physical universe. The grand priests of science are in error if they think they can turn a beautiful tool for viewing the universe into a way into the human soul. Both corrupt what they love by trying to turn it into something it cannot be.