1
00:00:01,899 --> 00:00:08,733
We come here for similar reasons. We share concerns. We're asking the same kind of questions.

2
00:00:08,733 --> 00:00:14,213
What is the fundamental nature of reality? What is humankind's role in the Cosmos?

3
00:00:14,213 --> 00:00:21,262
And this is why i will always remain stubbornly optimistic that through discussion, and reason and rationality

4
00:00:21,262 --> 00:00:25,988
we can actually make progress towards at least understanding, if not agreement.

5
00:00:25,988 --> 00:00:27,641
Having said that...

6
00:00:27,641 --> 00:00:34,870
Religion and science have gone their separate ways over the years. 500 years ago this debate would not have been held;

7
00:00:34,870 --> 00:00:39,423
there was no demarcation between what we would now call science and what we call religion,

8
00:00:39,423 --> 00:00:42,059
there was just attempts to understand the world.


9
00:00:42,059 --> 00:00:50,995
And what happened is that science came about by developing techniques, methodologies for gaining reliable knowledge about the world,

10
00:00:50,995 --> 00:00:56,778
and the reliable knowledge that we got was incompatible with some of the presuppositions of religious belief.


11
00:00:56,778 --> 00:01:03,575
The basic thing that we learned by doing science for 400 years is something called 'naturalism'

12
00:01:03,575 --> 00:01:10,151
— the idea that there is only one reality, there are not separate planes of the natural and the supernatural,

13
00:01:10,151 --> 00:01:17,681
there is only one material existence and we are part of the universe, we do not stand outside it in any way.

14
00:01:17,681 --> 00:01:25,062
And the way that science got there is through basically realizing that human beings are not that smart.

15
00:01:25,065 --> 00:01:32,658
We’re not perfectly logical; we as human beings are subject to all sorts of biases and cognitive shortcomings.

16
00:01:32,658 --> 00:01:37,168
We tend to be wishful thinkers and to see patterns where they’re not there, and so forth.

17
00:01:37,168 --> 00:01:42,106
And in response to this science developed techniques for giving ourselves reality checks,

18
00:01:42,106 --> 00:01:45,865
for not letting us believe things that the evidence does not stand up to.

19
00:01:45,865 --> 00:01:49,649
One technique is simply 'skepticism', which you may have heard of.

20
00:01:49,649 --> 00:01:55,551
Scientists are taught that we should be our own theories’ harshest critics.

21
00:01:55,551 --> 00:02:00,383
Scientists spend all their time trying to disprove their favorite ideas.

22
00:02:00,383 --> 00:02:07,531
This is a remarkable way of doing things; it’s a little bit counter-intuitive, but helps us resist the lure of wishful thinking.


23
00:02:07,531 --> 00:02:09,688
The other technique is 'empiricism'.

24
00:02:09,688 --> 00:02:15,205
We realize that we are not smart enough to get true knowledge about the world just by thinking about it.

25
00:02:15,205 --> 00:02:17,996
We have to go out there and look at the world.

26
00:02:17,996 --> 00:02:23,358
And what we’ve done by this for the last 400 years is realize that human beings are not separate,

27
00:02:23,358 --> 00:02:28,044
that the world is one thing, the natural world, and it can be understood.

28
00:02:28,044 --> 00:02:32,210
This is very counter-intuitive; it is not at all obvious, this naturalism claim.

29
00:02:32,210 --> 00:02:36,982
When you talk to a person, they have thoughts and feelings and responses.

30
00:02:36,982 --> 00:02:40,655
When you talk to a dead person, a corpse

31
00:02:40,655 --> 00:02:45,913
— hate to be morbid here — but, you don’t get those same responses, those same thoughts and feelings.

32
00:02:45,913 --> 00:02:53,304
It’s very natural, very common-sensical to think that a living person possesses something that a corpse does not.

33
00:02:53,304 --> 00:02:57,870
Some sort of spirit, some sort of animating soul or life force.


34
00:02:57,870 --> 00:03:02,167
But this idea as it turns out does not stand up to closer scrutiny.

35
00:03:02,167 --> 00:03:04,087
You are made of atoms.

36
00:03:04,087 --> 00:03:10,366
You’re made of cells which are made of molecules which are made of atoms, and as physicists, we know how atoms behave.

37
00:03:10,366 --> 00:03:15,542
The laws of physics governing atoms are completely understood.

38
00:03:15,542 --> 00:03:22,104
If you put an atom in a certain set of circumstances and you tell me what those circumstances are, as a physicist, I will tell you what the atom will do.

39
00:03:22,104 --> 00:03:25,844
If you believe that the atoms in your brain and your body

40
00:03:25,844 --> 00:03:31,169
act differently because they are in a living person than if they’re in a rock or a crystal,

41
00:03:31,169 --> 00:03:34,507
then what you’re saying is that the laws of physics are wrong.

42
00:03:34,507 --> 00:03:40,331
That they need to be altered because of the influence of a spirit or a soul or something like that.

43
00:03:40,331 --> 00:03:44,975
That may be true — science can’t disprove that — but there is no evidence for it.

44
00:03:44,975 --> 00:03:50,842
And you get a much stronger explanatory framework by assuming that it’s just atoms obeying the laws of physics.

45
00:03:50,842 --> 00:03:54,891
That kind of reasoning is a big step toward 'naturalism'.

46
00:03:54,891 --> 00:03:59,024
Now of course, I could go on. We could talk about modern cosmology and the origin of the Universe;

47
00:03:59,024 --> 00:04:02,438
we could talk about neuroscience and what consciousness is, and so forth;

48
00:04:02,438 --> 00:04:05,484
but i don't want to do that right now, we can maybe talk about it later...

49
00:04:05,484 --> 00:04:09,099
But, I don't want to do it right now basically because it's kind of boring.

50
00:04:09,099 --> 00:04:15,741
And the reason why it's kind of boring is because the argument is finished; the debate is over. We’ve come to a conclusion.

51
00:04:15,741 --> 00:04:17,879
Naturalism has won.

52
00:04:17,879 --> 00:04:22,558
If you go to any university physics department, listen to the talks they give or the papers that they write,

53
00:04:22,558 --> 00:04:27,721
go to any biology department, go to any neuroscience department, any philosophy department,

54
00:04:27,721 --> 00:04:34,203
people whose professional job it is to explain the world and come up with explanatory frameworks that match what we see

55
00:04:34,203 --> 00:04:35,861
— no one mentions God.

56
00:04:35,861 --> 00:04:41,637
There’s never an appeal to a supernatural realm by people whose job it is to explain what happens in the world;

57
00:04:41,637 --> 00:04:45,530
everyone knows that the naturalist explanations are the ones that work.


58
00:04:45,530 --> 00:04:50,359
And yet — here we are. We’re having a debate. Why are we having a debate?

59
00:04:50,359 --> 00:04:58,035
Because, clearly, religion speaks to people for reasons other than explaining what happens in the world.

60
00:04:58,035 --> 00:05:04,579
Most people who turn to religious belief do not do so because they think it provides the best theory of cosmology or biology.

61
00:05:04,579 --> 00:05:09,317
They turn to religious belief because it provides them with purpose and meaning in their lives,

62
00:05:09,317 --> 00:05:13,473
with a sense of right and wrong, with a community, with hope.

63
00:05:13,473 --> 00:05:20,567
So if you want to say that science has refuted religion, you need to say that science has something to say about those issues.

64
00:05:20,567 --> 00:05:23,551
And on that I have good news and bad news for you.


65
00:05:23,551 --> 00:05:26,857
The bad news is that the universe does not care about you.

66
00:05:28,387 --> 00:05:34,938
The universe is made of elementary particles that don’t have intelligence, don’t pass judgment, do not have a sense of right and wrong.

67
00:05:34,938 --> 00:05:42,858
And the fear is, the existential anxiety is, that if that purpose and meaningfulness is not given to me by the universe, then it cannot exist.

68
00:05:42,858 --> 00:05:48,050
The good news is that that fear is a mistake. That there’s another option.

69
00:05:48,050 --> 00:05:51,817
That we create purpose and meaning in the world.

70
00:05:51,817 --> 00:05:56,354
If you love somebody, it is not because that love is put into you by something outside;

71
00:05:56,354 --> 00:05:59,731
it is because you created that from inside yourself.

72
00:05:59,731 --> 00:06:06,006
If you act good to somebody, it’s not because you’re given instructions to do so, it’s that’s the choice that you made.

73
00:06:06,006 --> 00:06:08,236
This is a very scary world.

74
00:06:08,236 --> 00:06:14,612
You should be affected at a very deep level by the thought that the universe doesn’t care, does not pass judgment on you.

75
00:06:14,612 --> 00:06:19,579
But it’s also challenging and liberating that we can create lives that are worth living.

76
00:06:19,579 --> 00:06:21,838
I’ve never met God;

77
00:06:21,838 --> 00:06:27,864
I’ve never met any spirits or angels. But I’ve met human beings, many of them are amazing people.

78
00:06:27,864 --> 00:06:31,640
And I truly believe that if we accept the universe for what it is,

79
00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:35,120
if we approach reality with an open mind and an open heart,

80
00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:38,550
then we can create lives very much worth living.