I thought this was a very good set of tapes. I'me giving it a high ranking because of some of the low rankings that it's received. I thought this might be a good set of lectures to listen to, but I seriously thought it might just be covering ground that I've already covered in other lecture series that I've listened to such as "Skeptics and Believers". I looked at the rating and thought, man that's a low rating (it's actually gone up since I first looked at purchasing the set) and then I started reading the reviews. It was the low reviews of this set of lectures that did it for me. I bought it listened to it and enjoyed it.
There is a belief system in the world that hates religion, and believes that they have co-opted science. When you question their world view at all they become rabid. I think some of the reviews show this. Can you imagine that someone might question Saint Sagan!!!??? One of their most rabid leaders is Dr. Richard Dawkins, perhaps Pope Dawkins is better — who I believe hung out with Saint Sagan and may become unquestionable as well once he dies — who actually believes that the power of the state should be used to stop anyone from questioning his world view. That sounds exactly like the Catholic Church that tried to shut down Galileo. However, as Dr. Principe tries to show there was a lot more going on than just that they disagreed with Galileo. I don't know why Dr. Dawkins thinks that anyone that disagrees with him must be insane, and won't even debate with them because to do so give them credibility (I believe that's what he told Saint Sagan now that I think about it). If Dr. Dawkins is so sure about the power of his ideas he ought to debate every time he get a chance, to overcome their ideas with the power of his, not try to shut ideas down, but no: Shut those heretical ideas down he believes.
Anyone that would like a more nuanced approach to what has happened in the interactions between religion and science should like this set of lectures.
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