I ran into an exchange that captures my own reaction (esp. via Scott Atran’s response) to the very stimulating Beyond Belief conference on science, religion, reason and survival held at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA (read additional views on Edge). I watched the whole event glued to my laptop for two days last year and I strongly recommend it.

Many brand name scientists had struck me then as total yahoos in their view of religion, religious people, and the human condition in general. They included Richard Dawkins, Steven Weinberg, and Sam Harris (the Dick Cheney of the conference, whose ass justly got whipped by many). I saw them as not only unscientific, prejudiced, and ignorant, but also positively dangerous — they descended into the same metaphysical swamp of fear, intolerance, and unreason that they purportedly criticized, all under the banner of science and truth. It you need illustrations on how even the most brilliant scientists can so readily abandon reason and evidence in matters outside science, get it here.

Fortunately, the conference was saved by Scott Atran and Melvin Konner — the stars of the event for me — followed by Susan Neiman, Lawrence Krauss, James Woodward, and Neil Tyson. They either evinced a more nuanced view of religion and human nature backed by empirical data, or proposed a more rational strategy for promoting the “constituency of reason” in the world. By the way, this year’s conference has just concluded and the videos will be available online in the days ahead. This year’s theme is Enlightenment 2.0 (no kidding!) and I intend to review the conference in some detail.