7.30.2009

OBAMA HAS NOMINATED DR. COLLINS TO BE THE DIRECTOR OF THE NIH

Most scientists who study the human mind are convinced that minds are the products of brains, and brains are the products of evolution. Dr. Collins takes a different approach: he insists that at some moment in the development of our species God inserted crucial components — including an immortal soul, free will, the moral law, spiritual hunger, genuine altruism, etc.

As someone who believes that our understanding of human nature can be derived from neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science and behavioral economics, among others, I am troubled by Dr. Collins’s line of thinking. I also believe it would seriously undercut fields like neuroscience and our growing understanding of the human mind....Dr. Collins has written that “science offers no answers to the most pressing questions of human existence”...

--Sam Harris, Science is in the Details


We [atheists] should go under the radar—for the rest of our lives. And while there, we should be decent, responsible people who destroy bad ideas wherever we find them.

--Sam Harris, The Problem With Atheism

3 comments:

davidboylan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
davidboylan said...

http://bit.ly/64ykk

SAM said...

"First, it raises a constitutional issue in advocating a religious test for holding public office....

Third, the attack is manifestly unfair to Dr. Collins, whom the vast majority of working scientists regard as a brilliant researcher and an evenhanded administrator."

Word.