I received an email from the American Humanist Association in D.C. and they want to do a little Q & A with me about Faces of Atheists for their weekly e-zine!
I’m thrilled.
I’ll definitely link you all to it as soon as it’s out there. :)
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Neil deGrasse Tyson reacts to the news that Mars Rover Curiosity discovered evidence of an ancient stream on Mars, in an email to The Huffington Post. |
CERN is expected to make a huge announcement this Wednesday on the evidence of the Higgs Boson.
I answered several times to this question, but I will answer again.
You’re obviously wrong when you say that being an atheist cannot be scientifically tested and proven. I guess you meant: “the non-existence of a god cannot be scientifically proven”.
My answer to this is very simple: you cannot disprove the existence of the famous Russel’s teapot or that of the invisible pink unicorn, you can’t even disprove the existence of the Olympus and all the ancient Greek gods. Does it mean you’re agnostic about the invisible pink unicorn? No, you’re an atheist about that, you don’t believe it exists, and you have good reasons to believe that. What are the reasons? There’s no evidence. In the absence of evidence, the most reasonable position is disbelief.
That is true also for scientists.
Imagine someone says: I know of the existence of a mysterious energy that permeates everything, but you have to trust me, because this energy is so mysterious it can’t be detected with any of our instruments. Are you willing to believe in this statement just because you can’t prove this energy doesn’t exist? I hope not. If you claim something exists, you should give me evidence.
If there are no evidence, I choose disbelief, because disbelief is the most reasonable position.
What does the Sun look like from space? What do astronauts want to eat when they return to Earth? What does this button do?
If you’ve ever wondered things like this, we’re here to help. Here is a list of 20 astronauts to follow on Twitter (in no particular order). Veteran commanders and trainees alike, they have a unique perspective on the world—and since they’ve been in orbit, we mean that literally!
From behind-the-scenes pictures inside the International Space Station to thoughtful answers to your spaceflight questions, these astronauts are a wellspring of insight. It’s a shame that so few astronauts tweet regularly—where else can you hear about the final frontier first-hand?
