Steven Weinberg's Opinions
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Agree
The final approach is to take the Schrodinger equation seriously... In this way, a measurement causes the history of the universe for practical purposes to diverge into different non-interfering tracks, one for each possible value of the measured quantity. ... I prefer this last approach.
Agree
The human mind remains extraordinarily difficult to understand, but so is the weather. We can't predict whether it will rain one month from today, but we do know the rules that govern the rain, even though we can't always calculate their consequences. I see nothing about the human mind any more than about the weather that stands out as beyond the hope of understanding as a consequence of impersonal laws acting over billions of years. There do not seem to be any exceptions to this natural order.
Disagree
Some nonscientists seize on certain developments in modern physics that suggest the unpredictability of natural phenomena, such as the advent of quantum mechanics or chaos theory, as signs of a turn away from determinism, of the sort that would make an opening for divine intervention or an incorporeal soul. These theories have forced us to refine our view of determinism, but not I think in any way that has implications for human life.
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Disagree
Mark Twain described his mother as a genuinely good person, whose soft heart pitied even Satan, but who had no doubt about the legitimacy of slavery, because in years of living in antebellum Missouri she had never heard any sermon opposing slavery, but only countless sermons preaching that slavery was God's will. With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion.
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Agree
...it seems to me that physics is in a better position to give us a partly satisfying explanation of the world than religion can ever do, because although physicists won't be able to explain why the laws of nature are what they are and not something completely different, at least we may be able to explain why they are not slightly different. ... Religious theories, on the other hand, seem to be infinitely flexible, with nothing to prevent the invention of deities of any conceivable sort.
Disagree
There do not seem to be any exceptions to this natural order, any miracles. I have the impression that these days most theologians are embarrassed by talk of miracles, but the great monotheistic faiths are founded on miracle stories—the burning bush, the empty tomb, an angel dictating the Koran to Mohammed—and some of these faiths teach that miracles continue at the present day.
Agree
...by doubling the amount of CO2 ... we're doing things that have an obvious potential for producing great harm. We ought to be pretty sure we're not doing harm before we are sanguine about continuing to do these things. I really think we should control the amount of CO2 we're putting into the atmosphere, even if we're not certain.
Disagree
The more we reflect on the pleasures of life, the more we miss the greatest consolation that used to be provided by religious belief: the promise that our lives will continue after death, and that in the afterlife we will meet the people we have loved. As religious belief weakens, more and more of us know that after death there is nothing. This is the thing that makes cowards of us all.
Mostly Disagree
The Templeton Foundation offers a large prize to those who argue that there is no conflict between science and religion. ... Stephen Jay Gould argued that there could be no conflict between science and religion, because science deals only with facts and religion only with values. This certainly was not the view held in the past by most adherents of religion, and it is a sign of the decay of belief in the supernatural that many today who call themselves religious would agree with Gould.
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Disagree
In essence, [the Cosmological Argument] argues that everything has a cause, and since this chain of causality cannot go on forever, it must terminate in a first cause, which we call God. The idea of an ultimate cause is deeply attractive, and indeed the dream of elementary particle physics is to find the final theory at the root of all chains of explanation of what we see in nature. The trouble is that such a mathematical final theory would hardly be what anyone means by God.
Disagree
...the worldview of science is rather chilling. Not only do we not find any point to life laid out for us in nature, no objective basis for our moral principles, no correspondence between what we think is the moral law and the laws of nature... We even learn that the emotions that we most treasure, our love for our [family], are made possible by chemical processes in our brains that are what they are as a result of natural selection acting on chance mutations over millions of years.
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Comparisons with Other Experts and Influencers
The similarity between
Steven Weinberg
and each expert and influencer is calculated by looking at how the same questions
were answered. These figures are used to calculate conforming, nonconforming,
and projected opinions. The accuracy of the analysis depends on
Steven Weinberg's coverage, which grows with
the number of their opinions entered into TakeOnIt.
Agree
Bertrand Russell
Iconic Philosopher of 20th Century
100%
agreement /
2 opinions
Max Tegmark
Professor of Physics
100%
agreement /
2 opinions
Steven Pinker
Psychology Professor
100%
agreement /
1 opinions
Elton John
Musician, Pop Icon
100%
agreement /
1 opinions
Adam Corolla
Radio Personality, Television Host
100%
agreement /
1 opinions
Eliezer Yudkowsky
Artificial Intelligence Researcher
100%
agreement /
1 opinions
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Mostly Agree
Richard Dawkins
Evolutionary Biologist, Writer, Atheism Activist
68%
agreement /
4 opinions
Richard Feynman
Nobel Laureate in Physics
62%
agreement /
2 opinions
Paul Collins
Catholic Priest, Author, Radio Host
75%
agreement /
1 opinions
David Chalmers
Philosophy Professor
75%
agreement /
1 opinions
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Mostly Disagree
Sam Harris
Writer, Speaker, Atheism Activist
37%
agreement /
2 opinions
Albert Einstein
Physicist, Icon of the 20th Century
25%
agreement /
1 opinions
B.P. Radhakrishna
Geologist, President of the Geological Society of India
25%
agreement /
1 opinions
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Disagree
Deepak Chopra
Inventor of Quantum Healing
5%
agreement /
5 opinions
The Catholic Church
Largest Christian Church
0%
agreement /
3 opinions
Sam Brownback
Senator, Republican
12%
agreement /
2 opinions
Roger Penrose
Mathematics Professor
0%
agreement /
2 opinions
John Polkinghorne
Physics Professor and Reverend
0%
agreement /
2 opinions
New Testament
Christian Specific Bible
0%
agreement /
1 opinions
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Steven Weinberg's conforming opinions are opinions
that align with the group of experts and influencers Steven Weinberg typically agrees with.
Projected Opinions
Steven Weinberg's projected opinions are opinions
Steven Weinberg is expected to have if their opinions align with the
experts and influencers that they typically agree with.
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