Readers may remember that late last year, Canada’s governor-general got some attention for ridiculing Canadians who do not think that life is random process. The Prime Minister supported her, though her job is essentially to speak on behalf of the Queen, who apparently does not support such views:
Can you believe that still today in learned society, in houses of government, unfortunately… we are still debating and still questioning whether life was a divine intervention or whether it was coming out of a natural process let alone, oh my goodness, a random process.
From Christopher Graney at the Vatican Observatory Foundation Blog:
Stuff happens?
Apparently both my students and the governor have somehow been taught that randomness is just part of the universe, and is an acceptable explanation for things. Stuff just happens. As a scientist, that bothers me.
…
But the bottom line is this: “stuff just happens” is an idea that has been dumped into the trash bin of science history. Neither my students nor Canada’s Governor General should be casually making reference to this discarded idea. That they do is bothersome. It says that something is wrong in how we scientists talk about science, because I can’t imagine that anyone who thinks that stuff just happens would ever be motivated to try to study why anything happens. That study of why stuff happens is an important part of science. Thus stuff just happens is bad science, and bad for science. More.
Dr. Graney offers an informative look at the notion of spontaneous generation (“stuff happens”) in biology.
“Stuff happens” is the ultimate statement of post-modernism, the creed in which the students were educated, and it is killing science.
See also: Here are some astronauts who are not named Julie Payette who doubt that life has a random origin
Biophysicist Kirk Durston: Canada’s governor general as a highly visible example of scientism
Can science survive long in a post-modern world? It’s not clear.
and
How naturalism morphed into a state religion