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Title: Questions for Daniel C. Dennett' ... The Nonbeliever
Source:
nytimes.com
URL Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/magazine/22wwln_q4.html
Published: Jan 22, 2006
Author: DEBORAH SOLOMON
Post Date: 2006-01-22 09:53:27 by Architecture - 3000 !
Keywords: Nonbeliever, Questions, Dennett
Views: 11
Questions for Daniel C. Dennett' ... The Nonbeliever Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON Published: January 22, 2006 Q: How could you, as a longtime professor of philosophy at Tufts University, write a book that promotes the idea that religious devotion is a function of biology? Why would you hold a scientist's microscope to something as intangible as belief? Allan Penn Daniel C. Dennett. I don't know about you, but I find St. Paul's and St. Peter's pretty physical. Q: But your new book, "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon," is not about cathedrals. It's about religious belief, which cannot be dissected in a lab as if it were a disease. That itself is a scientific claim, and I think it is false. Belief can be explained in much the way that cancer can. I think the time has come to shed our taboo that says, "Oh, let's just tiptoe by this, we don't have to study this." People think they know a lot about religion. But they don't know. Q: So what can you tell us about God? Certainly the idea of a God that can answer prayers and whom you can talk to, and who intervenes in the world - that's a hopeless idea. There is no such thing. < death > Q: Traditionally, evolutionary biologists like Stephen Jay Gould insisted on keeping a separation between hard science and less knowable realms like religion. He was the evolutionist laureate of the U.S., and everybody got their Darwin from Steve. The trouble was he gave a rather biased view of evolution. He called me a Darwinian fundamentalist. Q: Which I imagine was his idea of a put-down, since he thought evolutionists should not apply their theories to religion. Churches make a great show about the creed, but they don't really care. A lot of the evangelicals don't really care what you believe as long as you say the right thing and do the right thing and put a lot of money in the collection box. Q: I take it you are not a churchgoer. No, not really. Sometimes I go to church for the music. Q: Yes, the church gave us Bach, in addition to some fairly spectacular architecture and painting. Churches have given us great treasures. Whether that pays for the harm they have done is another matter.
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