Best of Isaac Asimov Amazing Arguments And Clever Comebacks Part 1

isaac asimov whatever you've read you probably read something of his science fiction of course his foundation series is a classic science fact chemistry astronomy physics biology children's books history math one scientist calls him the greatest explainer of the age the American Humanist Association has named dr. Asimov the humanist of the year and some religious folks have considered him the incarnation of the devil I feel that as seems to many civilized humane person should feel is that every person has a right to his own beliefs and his own securities and his own likings when I'm against is attempting to place a person's belief system onto the nation or the world generally you know we object because we say constantly that the Soviet Union is trying to dominate the world communist the world well you know the United States I hope is trying to democratize the world but I certainly would be very much against trying to Christianize the world or to Islamize it but you realize it or anything of the sort and my objection to the two fundamentalism is not that they are fundamentalists but that essentially they want me to be a fundamentalist soon now I can imagine their object they say I believe that evolution is true and I want everyone to believe that evolution is true but I don't want everyone to believe that evolution is true I want them to study what we say about evolution decide for themselves now they say they want to teach creationism on an equal basis but they can't it's not a science you can teach creationism in the churches and the courses on religion I mean they would be horrified if I were to suggest that in the churches they teach secular humanism open--it way of looking at the universe so they teach evolution as an alternate way of considering how the how life may have started in the church they teach only what they believe and rightly so I suppose but on the other hand in schools in science courses we've got to teach what scientists think is the is the way the universe works and they figure there was a collision with some object from outer space which perhaps cast up such a pool of dust and smoke that it cut off sunlight for a period of time killed most of the plant life and therefore killed most of the animal life and only about the stars is our Bethlehem well some people think it might have been Halley's Comet we showed up at 11 BC do you believe them no I don't it's because there are so many other theories about it that there's no way of telling which one if any is right it may have been entirely a pious fiction we can't tell at this date the only mention of the Star of Bethlehem is in a couple of verses of the Gospel of st. Matthew that's all there is no independent reference to the star anywhere are you religious me no I'm not why not ah well the easiest answer is I wasn't brought up so young and said but I mean you were obviously a very curious man and you have an open mind about everything I'm sure can tell you what you investigated religion and came to the conclusion that no I guess I investigated religion with any particular interest but I was interested in the Bible as a work of literature and so I wrote a two-volume book on that but only is the work of literature as as one of the earliest if not the earliest serious histories we have the book of kings the book of chronicles the book of Samuel and also as a repository of great poetry probably the greatest poetry we have certainly the greatest early poetry we have and also as teachings of rather excellent ethical ethical statements the one thing that the Bible isn't that some people seem to think it is it's not a biology textbook it's not an astronomy textbook the first the first chapter of Genesis the first couple of chapters of Genesis are the sixth century BC version of how the world might have started we've improved on that I don't believe that those are God's words those are the words of men trying to make the most sense that they could out of out of the information they had at the time you don't buy Adam and Eve either no I don't buy Adam and Eve either but it is undoubtedly a legend which has some significance but it's not historic what about the life of Christ well well this of course is in historic times it's at the time when the when the Roman Empire was at its height and the thing about it is that all the only information we have about the life of of Jesus in the Gospels in the New Testament Gospels there's no reference to any literature outside there's one dubious paragraph of histories of Josephus which may have a right there's no reference to Jesus out of the Mackay Mark Luke John and of course in the rest of our epistle in the epistles of Paul actually apostles but outside the sacred writings absolutely no mention no historian who was not who is not who is not a Christian that's part of that not in Bethlehem no one left any writing of any kind none none this doesn't mean that he didn't exist the chances are he did there were many people at the time who were lush we say Messianic who will believe to be messiahs by one group or another and Jesus survived and as an aside edible impact for someone who got says little notice at the time from historians I know that's true but that's the way that's the way sometimes it works out when Muhammad also receives little notice outside of Arabia and I dare say many founders of great religions were dismissed by people of the time except those who believed them is just one more cook but then you see in science fiction you're allowed to depart from scientific possibility provided you know that you're departing from it and can explain it the reader will go along with you into the realm of fantasy if you will give them an excuse but to do it without realizing you are going into empathy is insulting to the intelligent reader but of course this is what frightens many many believers they see science as uncertain always tentative always subject to revisionism they see sciences and complex and chilling an enormous universe rule by chance and and impersonal laws they see science as dangerous that is really the glory of science that science is tentative that it is not certain that it is subject to change but it's really in my way of thinking disgraceful is to have a set of beliefs that you think is absolute and has been so from the start and can change where you simply won't listen to evidence you say if the evidence agrees with me it's not necessary if it doesn't agree with me it's closed this is the legendary remark of Omar when they capture Alexandria and that's what to do as a library the said of the books agree with the Quran they are not necessary and may be burned if they disagree with the Quran they are pernicious and must be great well there is there are still these Omar like thinkers who think that all of knowledge will fit into one book called the Bible and refused to allow that there is even the conceivability of an error in their back to my way of thinking is much more dangerous than Airy than a system of knowledge which is tentative and uncertain I would choose the last one frames that I wrote when I was 21 which was in a way a steal from Samuel Johnson's that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel he in other words when you get a guy write down where you have backed up against the world he says I did at the National Security I remember a president obscenity but what I said was the violence is the last refuge of the competence I surely truly me allow to allow a dispute to come to the point of violence means if someone wasn't smart enough to settle the matter before then which and which written which is writ large the large problem we have where they were collectively smart enough not to destroy ourselves and one kid wrote to me instead of violence it's the last refuge of being competent why is there so much violence in the world and why does an incompetent and I live back but there's so many topics mm-hmm first the first thing that's important about Halley's Comet is that was the first comment to have its orbit worked out and it's returned predicted that made an enormous splash in the 18th century because until then nothing had been known about comments they're very mysterious people are scared of them they were omens the Romans of unusual things happening and unusual things are always catastrophes but once you can show they follow a fixed orbit and come back at predictable times there's nothing mysterious about them anymore and so that was the doorway into studying comets as a simple ordinary astronomical phenomena and then the other importance about them is that it's the largest and brightest of the short term short period comets the only ones that a larger and brighter coming from way out there when was the last time that we saw in 1910 1910 yes it was a much better show than this one is now because was it past Earth closer to it so that it looked larger and brighter so this is a big deal well it's a big deal this year for our for our astronomers because for the first time in history they're going to be sending our probes to pass close by Halley's Comet and study it study it as oviya to doing a better job and we're I'm doing everything well let's say human beings are sending out for probes it doesn't matter the nationalities there are two Soviets one Japanese one West European in the West European name Giotto will come closest little pest within 500 miles but whatever material they find out whatever showers shared by the International signs of money that's right so that human beings are doing it do you see any any room for reconciling that to world views the religious view the biblical view of the universe has God's drama constantly interrupted and rewritten by divine intervention and the view of the universe has scientists hold it always having to be subjected to the test of observation and experimentation is there any room for reconciling well there is if people are reasonable about this there are many scientists who are honestly religious you can rattle off the names of them Milliken was a truly religious man morally at the michelson-morley experiment was truly religious there are hundreds of others who did great scientific work good scientific work at the same time were religious but they did not mix their religion and science in other words they did not presume that if something they didn't understand took place in science they could dismiss it by saying well that's what God wants or at this point a miracle took place no no they know that science is strictly a construct of the human mind working according to the laws of nature and that religion is something that lies outside and will embrace science well on the other hand you know if there were suddenly to arise evidence scientific confirmable evidence the God exists then we'd have no choice scientists will no choice but to accept that fact on the other hand the fundamentalists don't admit the possibility of evidence like I say that would show that evolution exists because any evolution any evidence you present they will deny if it conflicts with the word of they think it to be so that the chances of compromise are only on one side and therefore I doubt that it will take place dr. animo most people when they think about the future try to reach out to the year 2000 let's try it 500 years from now what kind of planet do you see one of two depending on what happens by the year 2000 if by the year 2000 we have not solved the problems that face us today then I would say 500 years will see a world containing a technological civilization in ruins in which there will be a relatively small number of human beings sort of surviving and with New York City is the most magnificent ruin in the history of the human race in the other if we succeed if we succeed in solving our problems today and 500 years now we can well be living in a kind of utopia a world with a relatively small population carefully how to be their resources where they work in colony on the moon and perhaps on Mars reaching out to the entire solar system taking advantage of advances in technology we now can't even imagine living under conditions which when they look back on the present they will be horrified and wonder how we could have survived [Music] [Music]

Channel: Agatan Foundation

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Keywords: Isaac Asimov, creature, reason, evidence, clever, Amazing, Atheism (Religion), Atheist (Religion), Antitheism (Literature Subject), Religion, Philosophy, Science, great, nice, answer, anti-theist, anti, theist, intelligent, bright, smart, morality, humanism, theism, agatan, fnd, foundation, quote, quotes, Scientific, scientist, scientists, position, God, agnostic, afterlife, sciencefiction, Author, writer, richard dawkins, christopher hitchens, one, best, argument, arguments, comeback, comebacks, part, how to, free

Id: hXGFq42WylM

Length: 15min 33sec (933 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 05 2017