Humanists4Science: Stephen Fry

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Sunday, 3 April 2011

Stephen Fry: 'Without science, reason is almost akin to superstition' @ 8'35

source: http://www.humanistlife.org.uk/2011/03/stephen-fry-receives-humanist-lifetime-achievement-award-from-harvard/

Stephen Fry talks about revealed truth v discovered truth, why reason is almost akin to superstition, empiricism and science as humility before the facts, and why you should never try to own the minds of others.

1'05": 2 types of knowledge:

Revealed Truth: holy text eg Holy Bible or Koran from a divinity or a secular text eg Communist Manifesto), cannot ultimately be questioned
Discovered Truth: Anagnorisis - truth that can be shown by observation and apprehension, flourished in Athens (Aristotle, Socrates, Plato), quenched for a 1000 years and replaced by Christian revealed truth. In 17th Royal Society, Isaac Newton (laws of gravity and light and motion) and in France - ideas. Slowly and absolutely remorsefully and ineluctably the power of the Church was pushed back we call it the The Enlightenment

8'20":-

We call it the Enlightenment because the light of reason was shone into every corner of human experience... think with reason but more importantly empirically, which is to say, there is reason, it is reasonable to suppose this, that or another. The beauty of science and freethought is that it doesn’t stop there.

8’30”:-

"Reason is almost akin to superstition, surely humanism stands up for reason... no reason must be tested,

Blaisse Pascal reasoned about light (his theory seemed so reasonable), but he did NOT test his reason. Newton demonstrated by poking his finger through cardboard and demonstrated what Pascal said was untrue.

This was a great moment of empiricism, its testing. You don’t only question, you test - that is the very basis of science.

testing is the very basis of science"

If science has a definition mine is ‘humility before the facts’. It doesn't matter how reasonable what you say is, or how beautiful your theory is, you must be humble and supplicant in front of the facts that open up.

10'35"
I want you to understand it is no part of a humanists job to mock, an individually pious & devout individual, we are not interested in persuaded them against their religion, I've got no interest in telling the religious that there is no god, if they are happy, it is none of my business. However.... the corollary, it is not their business to impose their revealed truth on, a world of doubt, scepticism, empiricism, reason, Enlightenment values... a world that is insoluble, yet has the freedom to think and express ideas, without sense of metaphorical or literal hell-fire of abomination.

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About Humanists4Science (Hum4Sci)

Humanists4Science (H4S) Mission "To promote, within the humanist community, the application of the scientific method to issues of concern to broader society."

H4S Vision "A world in which important decisions are made by applying the scientific method to evidence rather than according to superstition."

H4S is for humanists with an active interest in science. We believe that science is a fundamental part of humanism but also that it should be directed to humane and ethical ends. Science is, in our view, more a method than a body of facts.

H4S take a naturalistic view and believe, like 62% of the UK population, that science, the scientific method & other evidence provides the best way to understand the universe.

H4S are a Special Interest Group of the British Humanist Association (BHA).

Since 2008 H4S members have discussed many Humanist-Science topics in our Yahoo Group.

Prof. Jim Al-Khalili - 11TH BHA President - On Scientific Method

'I have a rational unshakeable conviction that our universe is understandable, that mysteries are only mysteries because we have yet to figure out, the almost always logical answers. For me there is simply no room, no need, for a supernatural divine being to fill in the gaps in our understanding. We’ll get there, we’ll fill in those gaps with objective scientific truths: [with] answers that aren't subjective, because of cultural or historical whims or personal biases, but because of empirically testable and reproducible truths. We may not get the full picture, we may never get the full picture, but science allows us to get ever closer.’ Jim Al-Khalili, BHA AGM 2013

"A lot of people say science is just one way of looking at the world, at reality, and poets and musicians and, of course, people of faith, have said there are other ways. I don't buy that. For me there is an objective reality that is there and real. For a theoretical physicist who's trained in thinking about quantum mechanics, which involves the idea that by observing something you alter its nature, you have to have some sort of working definitions of reality"
Jim Al-Khalili in New Humanist magazine Mar Apr 2013

Lord Taverne

Science depends on reason and regard for evidence. For me, the scientific approach lies at the heart of humanism as well as atheism. We all accept that science has made us healthier and wealthier. What has been seldom acknowledged or realised is that since the Enlightenment, which it helped to bring about, science has played an essential part in making us more civilised.

Science is the enemy of autocracy because it replaces claims to truth based on authority with those based on evidence and because it depends on the criticism of established ideas. Scientific knowledge is the enemy of dogma and ideologies and makes us more tolerant because it is tentative and provisional and does not deal in certainties. It is the most effective way of learning about the physical world and therefore erodes superstition, ignorance and prejudice, which have been causes of the denial of human rights throughout history. Science is also the enemy of narrow nationalism and tribalism and, like the arts, is one of the activities in this world that is not motivated by greed.

What can compare, for example, with the recent achievement of the Large Hadron Collider, a venture of collaboration by 10,000 scientists and engineers from 113 countries, free from bureaucratic and political interference? Those people put aside all national, political, religious and cultural differences in pursuit of truth and for the one purpose of exploring and understanding the natural world.

Without the contribution of science, which is, in my view, the rock on which atheism and humanism are built, we would be less inclined to be critical, tolerant and understanding and more prone to prejudice, bigotry and tribalism. We would be a less civilised society.

Lord Taverne, 25th July 2013, House of Lords debate on contribution of Humanism and Atheism

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Sunday, 3 April 2011

Stephen Fry: 'Without science, reason is almost akin to superstition' @ 8'35