WEBVTT 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. 00:00:08.733 --> 00:00:14.213 What is the fundamental nature of reality? What is humankind's role in the Cosmos? 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 00:00:21.262 --> 00:00:25.988 we can actually make progress towards at least understanding, if not agreement. 00:00:25.988 --> 00:00:27.641 Having said that... 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; 00:00:34.870 --> 00:00:39.423 there was no demarcation between what we would now call science and what we call religion, 00:00:39.423 --> 00:00:42.059 there was just attempts to understand the world. 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, 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. 00:00:56.778 --> 00:01:03.575 The basic thing that we learned by doing science for 400 years is something called 'naturalism' 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, 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. 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. 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. 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. 00:01:37.168 --> 00:01:42.106 And in response to this science developed techniques for giving ourselves reality checks, 00:01:42.106 --> 00:01:45.865 for not letting us believe things that the evidence does not stand up to. 00:01:45.865 --> 00:01:49.649 One technique is simply 'skepticism', which you may have heard of. 00:01:49.649 --> 00:01:55.551 Scientists are taught that we should be our own theories’ harshest critics. 00:01:55.551 --> 00:02:00.383 Scientists spend all their time trying to disprove their favorite ideas. 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. 00:02:07.531 --> 00:02:09.688 The other technique is 'empiricism'. 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. 00:02:15.205 --> 00:02:17.996 We have to go out there and look at the world. 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, 00:02:23.358 --> 00:02:28.044 that the world is one thing, the natural world, and it can be understood. 00:02:28.044 --> 00:02:32.210 This is very counter-intuitive; it is not at all obvious, this naturalism claim. 00:02:32.210 --> 00:02:36.982 When you talk to a person, they have thoughts and feelings and responses. 00:02:36.982 --> 00:02:40.655 When you talk to a dead person, a corpse 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. 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. 00:02:53.304 --> 00:02:57.870 Some sort of spirit, some sort of animating soul or life force. 00:02:57.870 --> 00:03:02.167 But this idea as it turns out does not stand up to closer scrutiny. 00:03:02.167 --> 00:03:04.087 You are made of atoms. 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. 00:03:10.366 --> 00:03:15.542 The laws of physics governing atoms are completely understood. 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. 00:03:22.104 --> 00:03:25.844 If you believe that the atoms in your brain and your body 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, 00:03:31.169 --> 00:03:34.507 then what you’re saying is that the laws of physics are wrong. 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. 00:03:40.331 --> 00:03:44.975 That may be true — science can’t disprove that — but there is no evidence for it. 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. 00:03:50.842 --> 00:03:54.891 That kind of reasoning is a big step toward 'naturalism'. 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; 00:03:59.024 --> 00:04:02.438 we could talk about neuroscience and what consciousness is, and so forth; 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... 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. 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. 00:04:15.741 --> 00:04:17.879 Naturalism has won. 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, 00:04:22.558 --> 00:04:27.721 go to any biology department, go to any neuroscience department, any philosophy department, 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 00:04:34.203 --> 00:04:35.861 — no one mentions God. 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; 00:04:41.637 --> 00:04:45.530 everyone knows that the naturalist explanations are the ones that work. 00:04:45.530 --> 00:04:50.359 And yet — here we are. We’re having a debate. Why are we having a debate? 00:04:50.359 --> 00:04:58.035 Because, clearly, religion speaks to people for reasons other than explaining what happens in the world. 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. 00:05:04.579 --> 00:05:09.317 They turn to religious belief because it provides them with purpose and meaning in their lives, 00:05:09.317 --> 00:05:13.473 with a sense of right and wrong, with a community, with hope. 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. 00:05:20.567 --> 00:05:23.551 And on that I have good news and bad news for you. 00:05:23.551 --> 00:05:26.857 The bad news is that the universe does not care about you. 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. 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. 00:05:42.858 --> 00:05:48.050 The good news is that that fear is a mistake. That there’s another option. 00:05:48.050 --> 00:05:51.817 That we create purpose and meaning in the world. 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; 00:05:56.354 --> 00:05:59.731 it is because you created that from inside yourself. 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. 00:06:06.006 --> 00:06:08.236 This is a very scary world. 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. 00:06:14.612 --> 00:06:19.579 But it’s also challenging and liberating that we can create lives that are worth living. 00:06:19.579 --> 00:06:21.838 I’ve never met God; 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. 00:06:27.864 --> 00:06:31.640 And I truly believe that if we accept the universe for what it is, 00:06:31.640 --> 00:06:35.120 if we approach reality with an open mind and an open heart, 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:38.550 then we can create lives very much worth living.