Neil deGrasse Tyson on Intelligent Design

"Science is the philosophy of discovery and intelligent design is the philosophy of ignorance." -- Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2006

My Sunday morning "church" session in my bathrobe with coffee led me to this 2006 lecture by Tyson on Intelligent Design. I'm sure many of you have seen this already, but for those who haven't it is 41 minutes or so, but a fun watch. He discusses how brilliant scientists in history invoked intelligent design once the limits of their discoveries were reached. The exception is Laplace in 1800 who, when asked by Napoleon about the effect of God in the universe, said, "Sir, I had no need for that hypothesis." Tyson goes on to point out that once scientists invoke "God" then their discoveries seem to stop.

He also had a great and funny point about an article that discussed the percent of people who believe in a personal god. He said that something like 90% of the American public believed in some kind of personal god in this survey but scientists, when averaged across fields, had about 41% belief in a god. However, 85% of elite scientists did not believe in a god. Tyson remarks, "The big story is not that 85% of elite scientists don't believe in a god but that 15% DO!"

Enjoy: