Readers may recall the recent flap about Canada’s governor-general ridiculing anyone who thinks that life did not originate randomly, to which Canadian biophysicist Kirk Durston responded, among other things:
The third problem with the Governor General’s example of unquestioning faith in science is the corruption that has reached crises proportions in certain areas of science itself, with a special nod to the biological sciences. In 2012 the journal Nature published an exposé which found that 89% of “landmark” papers in the field of cancer research, could not be reproduced. More.
This is not a good time to be gung-ho for scientism but anyway, Durston notes: that other astronauts do not agree with Payette: On two different occasions, I spent time with one of the astronauts who had walked on the moon, Colonel James Irwin, as he spoke at the University of British Columbia and the University of Manitoba on the subject of his experience as an astronaut and his sincere faith in God. A friend of mine, Bryan Windle, has an interest in the faith of various astronauts, so I invited him to do a guest post here. (Kirk)
Guest post by Bryan Windle:
Julie Payette, former astronaut and Canadian Governor General recently created a firestorm when she expressed her incredulity that “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, lo and behold random process.” Coming from a well-educated, former astronaut, her opinion added force to the perception that in 2017, science (often confused with scientism) has settled all debate among surrounding the origin of life.
Her comments, with accompanying eye-roll, were not only an insult to millions of intelligent people of faith, but to many of her former colleagues in the astronaut corps (including her own shuttle pilot for STS-96, Rick Husband) -people who are as well educated and intelligent as she is. A significant number of astronauts, past and present, are people of faith who believe there was “divine intervention” involved in creation. More.
See also: Biophysicist Kirk Durston: Canada’s governor general as a highly visible example of scientism
and
How naturalism morphed into a state religion