Thoughtful Tim gets a rocket... from the snooty BBC
Funniest moment of the week was BBC Radio 4 today programme presenter Justin Webb trying to lecture astronaut tim Peake about science and religion. Major Peake, though he does not believe in God, had told a group of schoolchildren that his time in space had made him wonder if the universe might be designed.
‘Although i say i’m not religious, it doesn’t necessarily mean that i don’t seriously consider that the universe could have been created from intelligent design,’ he said. ‘there are many things in science that lead us towards that conclusion. From a point of view of seeing how magnificent the earth is from space and seeing the cosmos from a different perspective, it helps you to relate to that.’
Professor Webb (who as far as i know has never been in orbit) knew better. After saying that this sort of idea was associated with hillbillies who ‘don’t think much of science’ he compared tim Peake’s view with the long-discredited opinion that the sun goes round the earth. then he chided the spaceman for opening up something that was ‘settled’ and ‘pretty closed’. You’d have to know almost nothing about either science or religion to think that scientists have ruled out the possibility of a designed universe. einstein, famously, was not an atheist, saying: ‘i prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.’ Good advice.
it is typical of the BBC and of its smug ‘flagship’ programme to think that issues which are still open are closed, while simultaneously not knowing much about them.