Nobody is afraid that not believing in the big bang or evolution will result in an eternity spent burning in hell. Science doesn’t make threats about the consequences of skepticism; in fact, science encourages debate and alternative explanations for a particular set of data. Flip-flopping in response to new information is a good thing in the objective world of science, while clinging to old ideas when new observations clearly demonstrate they are wrong is a dead end. Science offers a route to seeking truth that is not faith-based and is not clouded by fear or hatred of others with different ideas.
I don’t know the answers to questions about the meaning of life or how we got here. This uncertainty about our origins doesn’t scare me, and it doesn’t make me inclined to behave immorally or in a criminal manner. It does, however, motivate me to read about the amazing things scientists are learning regarding the beginning of the universe and the evolution of life. The slowly unfolding scientific story of our origins is complex and exciting and way better than any ancient creation myth written by people who didn’t know that the Earth is a planet orbiting an ordinary star in an ordinary galaxy in a universe with a hundred billion other galaxies, or that a molecule called DNA stores the code for life.
Many thinkers have observed that no matter what God a person believes in, the overwhelming majority of the rest of the people on Earth believe in a different God thereby making everybody an atheist and a heretic. This seems like a good reason to stop fighting about who has a monopoly on truth and to start thinking and communicating about big ideas in an objective, data-driven fashion.
I’ve decided to learn what I can about the universe in which we live. I began with a lecture series from the Teaching Company called Big History, which traces our origins from the big bang all the way through early human civilization. The series contains 48 lectures by Professor David Christian (yes, it is an irony that his name is Christian). It’s terrific. Next on my list is a book by the astrophysicist Eric Chaisson called Epic of Evolution. I’ve only just started, but the book seems to be well written, by which I mean I can understand it. However, to enhance my comprehension of the material I am simultaneously watching additional Teaching Company lectures on Einstein’s theory of relativity, particle physics, quantum physics, dark matter and dark energy, biology and evolution, the brain and behavior and a few others. The process is going to take some time.
I’ll update my progress in this blog.
The ability to learn and think abstractly is what makes us interesting as a species. It is also our best hope of avoiding self-destruction.
Monte