The End of God?
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Loading ... - Published date: January 5, 2011
- Category: Science
- Tags: BBC, Science
- Comments: 2 (Comment on this post)
- TinyURL: http://www.truththeory.org/?p=3571
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As the Pope ends his visit to Britain, historian Dr Thomas Dixon delves into the BBC’s archive to explore the troubled relationship between religion and science. From the creationists of America to the physicists of the Large Hadron Collider, he traces the expansion of scientific knowledge and asks whether there is still room for God in the modern world. The relationship between science and religion has been long and troubled: from the condemnation of Galileo by the Catholic Church in 17th century Italy, through the clashes between creationism and evolution in 20th century America, right up to recent claims that the universe does not need God.
Delving through the rich archive of programmes from Horizon and BBC Science, Thomas Dixon looks at what lies behind this difficult relationship. Using original footage from 1925, he tells the story of John Scopes, a Tennessee teacher who was tried for teaching evolution.
He sees the connections between religion and American politics in the story of a more recent court case -the trial of Intelligent Design. He looks at what happens when new scientific discoveries start to explain events that were once seen as the workings of God, and explains how some of our most famous scientists have seen God in the grandest laws of the universe. Finally, he finds intriguing evidence from brain science which hints that belief in God is here to stay.
Comments on this post
Good and well rounded documentary that mostly provides an unbiased view of the situation.
What I especially concur with this documentary is about how we are hardwired to need a higher authority figure to rationalize and feel safer with our own actions.
Further thinking got me a few more ideas as to why religion is so fundamental to every society-
1)Fear- the biggest of all reasons, especially of death and of uncertainty aka. for deluded security.
2)Rules-The need for a bond among the members of a group(or community)that everyone has to abide- religion fits this bill precisely, especially by making it implicit in the culture and not following orders damnable aka Groupism.
3)Failsafe- This is the most interesting of all, and often called Pascal’s wager, a typical type 2 error which would have been beneficial to our survival in savanna (since wrongly assuming a tiger in bushes would actually save you when there was a tiger there)
4)Spirituality-People often mistake spirituality with religion, inner peace is only dealt with by religion (and not “cold” science), which causes people to stay with religion.
5) Responsibility shift- We can all shift our responsibility of actions to the “greater” power whenever it suits us, perfect for times of moral conflict aka. disabling personal thinking.