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Salon: Shermer, Darwin and Belief

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Salon: Shermer, Darwin and Belief
Topic: Science 11:58 am EDT, Aug 30, 2006

If you believe God created the world, it's reasonable to ask, How did he do it? What were the forces and mechanisms he used? Why not look to science and see that he started with the big bang, the force of gravity, inflationary cosmology, quarks and natural selection. Those were his tools. To that extent, science is not a threat, it's your best friend. It's the best tool you have for illuminating the grandeur of creation.

Salon interview with Michael Shermer on evolution, religion and belief. He is sharp as ever, but more respectful and gracious than usual.

The natural inclination in all humans is to posit a force, a spirit, outside of us. That tendency toward superstitious magical thinking is just built into our nature. What's more, it doesn't cost anything to have a false positive, to assume there's a force behind the lightning or a spirit in the rock. In the ancestral environment, when we evolved, we might think spinning around three times is going to bring rain. Well, once in a while it works and makes everybody happy. And it doesn't cost much to keep doing it. It doesn't take you out of the gene pool.

Salon: Shermer, Darwin and Belief



 
 
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