A lovely and toucing interview between Dawkins and James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA
Start watching from the 3 minute mark if you want to get direct to James Watson.
Hat tip to the ever fresh toomanytribbles from her post richard dawkins: god under the microscope - you've come a long way, baby.
There are some great quotes
"I can't believe anyone accepts truth by revelation"
"I don't think we're 'for' anything, we are just products of evolution. You can say life must be pretty bleak if you don't think there's a purpose, but, uh, yeah I'm anticipating having a good lunch"
For the rest of the videos search Youtube for "God under the microscope"
Showing posts with label science and religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science and religion. Show all posts
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
What do we need god for?
Once upon a time when people didn't know better they believed what an ancient cult told them about nature.
They believed the Earth to be the center of the universe but then, in 1543 Copernicus published a book that revolutionized the world view. It took the church until 1757 to accept his heliocentric worldview, but today nobody would argue for a sun circling around the Earth.
They believed in a mysterious force respnsible for all organic matter called vis vitalis but 1828 Friedrich Wöhler synthezised urea from anorganic chemicals. Later Stanley Miller made his famous experiment in which he showed that even complex organic molecules can be synthesized from inorganic precursors.
In the 20th century T.H.Morgan, Barbara McClintock, Arber et al. and N. Perimon (just to name a few) made discoveries that allow us to change the DNA and thus the attributes of plants and animals, probably including humans.
On July 25th 1978 the first baby was born that was conceived outside the human body
Since 2003 we know the complete sequence of the human genome. The genomes of other species are following in a nearly monthly pace.
What do we need god for?
God as the creator of the universe is retreating everytime science discovers something new. The Earth is just a tiny little rock in an endless universe, not created as its center. God doesn't need to give life to every organic molecule. Humans can change the attributes of plants and animals, offspring can come out of tubes and the origin of materia might be to complicated for my uneducated brain but physicists know a lot more about it than I do (just an example)
We don't understand everything about the origin of the universe but even if something supernatural should be necessary at the very beginning, his duty is restricted to the far sub-atomar level. Everything else can happen perfectly within natural limits. That's extremely far away from a god that created every star, every flower, every animal personally. Did god became less divine during the last 3000 years? I really think it's close to blasphemy to put god into the shrinking box of "we don't know".
Science and religion can co-exist, but only as long as god is kept out of science. Otherwise science will always be a threat.
Is there really nothing more to this Christian god than a shrinking box?
They believed the Earth to be the center of the universe but then, in 1543 Copernicus published a book that revolutionized the world view. It took the church until 1757 to accept his heliocentric worldview, but today nobody would argue for a sun circling around the Earth.
They believed in a mysterious force respnsible for all organic matter called vis vitalis but 1828 Friedrich Wöhler synthezised urea from anorganic chemicals. Later Stanley Miller made his famous experiment in which he showed that even complex organic molecules can be synthesized from inorganic precursors.
In the 20th century T.H.Morgan, Barbara McClintock, Arber et al. and N. Perimon (just to name a few) made discoveries that allow us to change the DNA and thus the attributes of plants and animals, probably including humans.
On July 25th 1978 the first baby was born that was conceived outside the human body
Since 2003 we know the complete sequence of the human genome. The genomes of other species are following in a nearly monthly pace.
What do we need god for?
God as the creator of the universe is retreating everytime science discovers something new. The Earth is just a tiny little rock in an endless universe, not created as its center. God doesn't need to give life to every organic molecule. Humans can change the attributes of plants and animals, offspring can come out of tubes and the origin of materia might be to complicated for my uneducated brain but physicists know a lot more about it than I do (just an example)
We don't understand everything about the origin of the universe but even if something supernatural should be necessary at the very beginning, his duty is restricted to the far sub-atomar level. Everything else can happen perfectly within natural limits. That's extremely far away from a god that created every star, every flower, every animal personally. Did god became less divine during the last 3000 years? I really think it's close to blasphemy to put god into the shrinking box of "we don't know".
Science and religion can co-exist, but only as long as god is kept out of science. Otherwise science will always be a threat.
Is there really nothing more to this Christian god than a shrinking box?
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