Dawkins & Tyson：自然科學的詩意美境

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist and science communicator. He is currently the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. From 2006 to 2011 he hosted the educational science television show NOVA ScienceNow on PBS.

Richard Dawkins (FRS, FRSL) is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.

Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the term meme. In 1982, he introduced into evolutionary biology the influential concept that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms; this concept is presented in his book The Extended Phenotype.

Dawkins is an atheist, a vice president of the British Humanist Association, and a supporter of the Brights movement. He is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design. In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, he argues against the watchmaker analogy, an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms. Instead, he describes evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker. He has since written several popular science books, and makes regular television and radio appearances, predominantly discussing these topics. In his 2006 book The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion—"a fixed false belief". As of January 2010, the English-language version had sold more than two million copies and had been translated into 31 languages.

點擊右下邊框裏第一個雪花鍵，可以選擇高清模式。

特別推薦1:02:48-1:06:00這一段有關哲學已死的提問與回答：
http://youtu.be/UD2f33UE4tg?t=1h2m48s

古風個人的經驗是：現實生活中許多受過高等教育的人士，特別是文科類的和從事第三產業的，都犯有情緒泛濫而理智不足的毛病，他們麵對客觀的事實，都能夠“指鹿為馬”，死抱著自己意識形態上的觀念不放，即可悲也可憐。這個事實本身就說明：現代的文科教育基本上都是垃圾，根本沒有好好培養學生的邏輯思維能力，即使僅有的一點點邏輯訓練，也產生不出嚴謹細密的邏輯思考力量來。難怪，現代科學的巨匠，史蒂芬·霍金在其最新的科普著作《The Grand Design》中很肯定地宣稱：至二十世紀二十年代以來，哲學已死！那麽，建立在哲學基礎之上的所有這些文科專業（還包括各類宗教），還能苟活嗎？回溯剛剛離去的二十世紀，我們不得不承認一個事實：自然科學已經遠行，而人文科學還在迷茫。正所謂：兩岸猿聲啼不住，輕舟已過萬重山。

若您有興趣繼續科普性地深入了解自然科學，下麵的八本書是必讀的：

The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics
by Roger Penrose (1989)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Emperors-New-Mind-Concerning/dp/0192861980

The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
by Roger Penrose (2005)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-Reality-Complete-Universe/dp/0679776311

Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness
by Roger Penrose (1994)
http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Mind-Missing-Science-Consciousness/dp/0195106466

The God Delusion (2006)
by Richard Dawkins
http://www.amazon.com/The-God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0618918248

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (2009)
by Richard Dawkins
http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Earth-Evidence-Evolution/dp/1416594795

The Selfish Gene (1976)
by Richard Dawkins
http://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Anniversary----Introduction/dp/0199291152

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (2006)
by Daniel C. Dennett
http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Spell-Religion-Natural-Phenomenon/dp/0143038338

Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanins of Life (1995)
by Daniel C. Dennett
http://www.amazon.com/DARWINS-DANGEROUS-IDEA-EVOLUTION-MEANINGS/dp/068482471X