Star Trek: Great Movie, but Why Inject Religion?

Ok, it was subtle reference, and didn't detract from the movie, but why is there any reference to God in a Star Trek movie?

If you're a Trekkie, and haven't seen the new movie yet, you'd better go soon, or you'll be the last person on the planet, and maybe off-planet too, who hasn't seen it yet.

Even with with modern filmmaking techniques and great special effects, it is amazingly true to the original concept. I thought the new actors for the most part did a fabulous job recreating the original roles. Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban ("Bones" McCoy), and Anton Yelchin (Chekov) were remarkably true to the original characters, yet brought fresh blood to the concept. But Chris Pine (Kirk) was the star, he was true to Shatner's original character, but without the over-the-top Shatnerisms that we know and love.

And the screenwriting was great, special effects and editing, all marvelous. I was a happy Trekkie!

But they had to throw in that one little line, "Godspeed." I can't even imagine why. Why not "Good Luck," or "Take care of yourself"? I suppose it's because the writers, actors, and director, unlike the advanced, highly-scientific civilization they portray, are not themselves scientists. Good writing and good directing are not related to good science or a rational view of the universe.

It was no big deal, but it was completely out of place in a movie about a future that has moved past illogic and superstition.

Juggler Bill Berry: Creation Science to Atheism

Last night I had the pleasure of dinner with creationist-turned-atheist Bill Berry, the fabulous and famous juggler. Bill is a close friend of my daughter, and good friends with my younger son Leo (who is also a champion juggler). You can see his AMAZING three-ball juggling that made him famous.

Bill's story of discovering that creationism, Christianity, and even the existence of God, were all false, is fascinating. It started off in the typical fashion: He was studying the pseudo-science of creationism, learning about young-Earth theory, how dinosaurs coexisted with humans, and so forth, and Bill was a total believer. But Bill has a sharp and inquisitive mind (if you're in the juggling business for long, you'll discover that almost all world-class jugglers have world-class intellects, too; it's a very intricate and scientific discipline), and he wanted to learn more, and more ... and it didn't take long for Bill do see through the "pseudo" part of the pseudo-science called creationism. Once the facade started to crack, the whole thing fell apart, and Bill began his real education and conversion to a rationalist, intelligent view of the world.

That part of Bill's story has been repeated uncountable times, by almost every Christian/Creationism who ever opened his/her eyes to real science. But the part I found most fascinating was Bill's reaction: He felt like the world had dropped out from under his feet. Everything he believed in, his entire understanding of everything around him, the foundation for how he lived his life and behaved, all evaporated. Bill talks about how he felt disoriented, almost frightened.

I never thought about that aspect of losing faith. It would be as though I discovered irrefutable evidence that science is false, and the world really does work by magic. It would be very hard to accept.

Luckily, Bill didn't stop there. It didn't take him long to find a new foundation for his world, and now (four years later), he is an avid reader, and is working on a long essay that details his reasons for abandoning pseudo science and magic in favor of a naturalistic, rational view of the universe. Bill is also considering writing a book about his experiences, and I hope he does.

Religious Medicine: Faith-Based Quackery

I live in an insular world, surrounded by scientists, engineers and business people who are, for the most part, non-religious or outright atheists. And since my "day job" is part of the mainstream of modern pharmaceutical research, these same people are by-and-large all well educated in the virtues of modern medicine.

Every now and then, I leave this insular world and meet people from all walks of life, and I'm always startled at the ignorance and outright rejection of modern science. Scientists can be arrogant, dishonest (witness the recent fake scientific journals published by a major science publisher on behalf of paying drug companies), or just plain wrong (e.g. thalidomide). But most of the scientists I know are dedicated and hard working, and genuinely care about helping people, and the science they do is solid, well done, and results in bettering people's lives.

So when a woman I met recently asked me, "What do scientists know?", then went on to say things like schizophrenia is mostly bad nutrition and poor diet, I was appalled. She continued on about a book of herbal remedies that had been passed down to her from her mother and grandmother, some sort of ancient wisdom that science knew nothing about.

Not surprisingly, this same woman was raised in a churchgoing family – I don't remember if it was Lutheran or Catholic, but one of the two. These are religions that, on the one hand, claim that science is the road to knowledge, but on the other hand, that a magical sky-god impregnated a virgin who bore a son, but that son was actually the sky god, who then arranged to have himself tortured to death by being nailed to a cross, where he died, but then came back to life, except that the stories about all of this conflict and you can't even figure out who saw him and when and how long he was alive, and ...

In other words, this woman was taught to deliberately accept hocus-pocus, beliefs that can't be reconciled with reality, and illogic. She was taught this from an early age, and it was reinforced by a culture that ejects non-believers via excommunication and a horrifying promise of burning for all eternity in Hell.

Is it any wonder that this same woman was later able to reject logical, rational science in favor of her great-grandmother's voodoo medicine?

Roadside Religion - The Bahamas

I'm back from vacation, as well as a week or so of leftover laziness. There are many changes in my life, not the least of which is that I find myself a single man again. Vacations can have strange side effects. Oddly enough, it was a pretty good vacation. But I'll spare you the details, my separation and impending divorce are not relevant to the topic of this blog, except to say thanks to all my loyal readers and subscribers for hanging with me as while I took a vacation and weathered a storm.

To get us back on track, here's a fun little item in my occasional theme, "Roadside Religion." (Click for an enlargement.)

Here's a word of advice: If you're building a church, you should try to finish it before words "coming soon" have faded! This picture was taken here on the island of Lesser Exuma (aren't Google satellite images amazing?).

The Bahamas are an overwhelmingly Christian. Even the newspaper had unabashed front-page references to Christian events, morality and theology in seemingly every story. Yet ... a half-built church sits crumbling in the tropical sun.

Vacation

For all of my faithful subscribers and readers, I'm going to be away for a couple of weeks, on vacation in a warm spot with sunny beaches and beautiful skies. It's the first real vacation I've taken in quite a long time, and while I'm snorkeling over coral reefs, bicycling through palm trees, or reading a book on the beach, I can promise I won't be thinking about blogging!

See you in May. Thanks for your loyalty, your comments, and for listening to my ramblings. Until then ... Cheers!

Hemant Mehta at UC Santa Cruz: The Friendly Atheist

I had the pleasure of meeting Hemant Mehta in my home town, Santa Cruz, California, where he spoke as an invited guest of the UCSC Secular Students Alliance.

Hemant's talk was a lot of fun and insightful. I was afraid it would be mostly a retelling of his great book, I Sold My Soul on EBay, and indeed, the first fifteen minutes or so of the hour were devoted to that story, for those who hadn't had the opportunity to read it. But even in the retelling, Hemant added new details, fun stories, newspaper clippings, and insights that weren't in the book.

Then he went on to talk about what's really on all of our minds: What can we do to make the world a better place, and to make atheism less stigmatized? Hemant's basic thesis is that atheists, agnostics, and most mainstream religious people have far more in common that the things that divide us. By working together, we could accomplish so much. He used some great "exercises" to illustrate these points: How do you feel about topics A, B, and C? And how do you think most religious people feel about these same topics? And indeed, when you enumerate all of the social issues that concern us, rather than just focusing on our differences, you find that the differences look pretty minor compared to the views we all share.

The reason we appear to be so divided on these issues is that the media love controversy. People who don't argue are not news. Hemant illustrated this earlier in the talk via the very title of his book: "I Sold My Soul on EBay," which is not what he did at all. But his publisher said, "That's OK, the title is catchy, and people will pick it up, read the back cover, and find out what you really did." Similarly, the media like to single out the most radical of each "side" of religion and present it as a "battle." That's what makes it news. Never mind that the vast majority of atheists and religious citizens actually agree on far more things than they disagree on.

Fight poverty? End child abuse? Help poor single mothers? Help Hurricane Katrina victims? Protect the environment? These, and many, many more issues — indeed, most issues — are things that almost all citizens agree on.

Hemant's message is a good one: We need to close the divide that separates us from Christians, Jews, Muslims and people of other faiths, and indeed, help them close the divide among their various groups, too. We have a lot to gain by accepting one another, and so much to lose if we don't.

Religion "Doctorate" is a Joke

One of my coworkers just finished his PhD in chemistry, and was very excited to learn last week that his paper will be accepted by Science magazine, the most prestigious scientific journal in the world. The story behind his PhD thesis and the Science paper is a classic of scientific enquiry: Insights and hypotheses, followed by years of hard work, setbacks, advances and discoveries. The results of his work are a genuine advance in human knowledge, and will ultimately improve our health and save lives.

We helped him celebrate with a dinner and champagne in a restaurant with a view of the sunset over the Pacific Ocean. It was great.

This morning, I opened my local newspaper and found this article, about a Christian college offering a "PhD" in "spirituality." This is so bogus it's an insult to every scientist who ever sweated and toiled for four years to get a real doctoral degree, and published a real thesis that advanced human knowledge.

A doctoral degree in any scientific field requires new, original research and discoveries. You have to actually do something relevant, discover something meaningful, and prove that your research is valid using proper scientific techniques.

What does a doctor of spirituality do that's comparable? They read the same book — the Bible of course — that has been read more than any other book in history, and has been analyzed ad absurdum. Then maybe they read some other books about spirituality and compare them to the Bible, mostly to show why the Bible is better. Finally, then they make up some new drivel about some purported insight about the Bible and spirituality, and that's their "doctoral thesis."

It's a complete hijacking of the term "PhD". They're riding on the coat tails of honest, hard-working academics who do real research and add genuine knowledge to the human ideosphere.