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AMERICAN ATHEIST
A JOURNAL OF ATHEIST NEWS AND THOUGHT
Bill Nye with a model of LightSail, a solar-powered spacecraft project at The Planetary Society.
Bill’s work as CEO of The Planetary Society is part of his mission to stop the spread of anti-
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF science thinking around the world. In “The Man Behind the Bow Tie” (page 5), filmmakers Jason
Pamela Whissel Sussberg and David Alvarado tell us the story of their new documentary, Bill Nye: Science Guy.
PWhissel@Atheists.org
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4 Letter From The Editor
RESEARCH ASSISTANT When Atheists Send Us Hate Mail | Pamela Whissel
Anthony J. Crincoli
A new documentary follows the former star of Bill Nye The Science Guy on his current mission as CEO of The
Planetary Society. Founded by Bill’s mentor, Carl Sagan, The Planetary Society advocates for the importance
of science, research, and discovery in public life. The behind-the-scenes portrait by filmmakers David Alvarado and Jason
Sussberg follows Bill as he takes off his Science Guy lab coat and takes on those who deny climate change, evolution, and a
science-based world view. Appearing in the film along with Bill are Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ann Druyan, and American Atheists’
National Field Coordinator Jim Helton.
W
Photo courtesy of Derek Knowles: Structure Films The thread of that story line is punctuated with Bill
engaging anti-science creationists and climate-change deniers,
e spent our middle-school years watching Bill Nye which include Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis
the Science Guy VHS tapes, which taught us about (which owns and operates the Creation Museum and the
everything from the ecosystem to the color spectrum. Bill’s Ark Encounter theme park in Kentucky) and meteorologist/
passion and enthusiasm stayed with us, which is one of the bodybuilder Joe Bastardi. During production, people in both
reasons we became science and technology documentary the science and film communities questioned why we would
filmmakers. When we learned that Bill was now working give screen time to such seemingly marginal and insignificant
tirelessly to champion science education and lead the fight voices. Our answer is that these people are not on the fringe
against climate change, we knew we had to tell that story. anymore. Today, a significant amount of anti-science rhetoric
Our work centers around profiling compelling people in is coming from those in positions of great economic and
the worlds of science, health, information, and technology.
Our first feature-length film, The Immortals, is an account of
the personal lives of two scientists who are determined to find
a way to halt the aging process in humans. Instead of focusing
on the technological “how to” of living forever, we tell their
stories from the angles of humanity, love, and death.
We take a similar approach with Bill Nye: Science Guy.
Because we had intimate access to his personal life, the
film includes much more than Bill’s journey from children’s
television host to serious science statesman. We were also
able to reveal the human side of a much larger social friction
between science and anti-science.
Bill is a dream subject for a documentary. Millions know
of him but hardly anyone really knows him, and he was totally
open to answering every question we wanted to ask: Where
Richard Dawkins’
Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist
by Mark Kolsen
Richard Dawkins
Photo by Lalla Ward
David Silverman
President of American Atheists
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In this sense, souls are real, seek the objective truth of the discoverable laws of nature.
These are distinct from human values, and the two must not
and we all have one. be confused. Take, for example, human eugenics. Most of us
may disagree with the aims of human eugenics, but our value
judgements cannot negate its existence.
Some might be taken aback by the word “soul” in the
Dawkins points out that this essentialism also bedevils title, but Dawkins explains that for him, the word refers not
teachers in the United Kingdom (who are allowed no grey to “some internal spook that survives bodily death” but to
areas in their requirement to categorize students as either the “constructed internal model of ‘the self ’ which the brain
first- or second-rate) while also exposing the absurd beliefs constructs in all humans.” The soul is “the useful illusion
of anti-abortionists and racists. In contrast, the enlightened of personal identity, an ‘I’ apparently residing just behind
“continuous mind” recognizes that reality is like evolution: the eyes, an ‘agent’ taking decisions by free will, a unitary
“there is a sliding scale of intermediates and probabilities, not personality seeking goals and feeling emotions.” In this sense,
hard and fast discontinuities” between x and y. souls are real, and we all have one.
The continuous mind also doesn’t stick to hard and fast For those who haven’t read Dawkins’ longer works, such as
rules, but exercises discretion. Every traveler will empathize The God Delusion or The Selfish Gene, Science in the Soul
with Dawkins’ rage against the Heathrow Airport officials offers a great introduction to this brilliant atheist biologist.
who forbade a young mother from boarding a plane because I have read much of Dawkins’ work. A signed first edition,
she had with her a small amount of ointment for her daughter’s first printing of The Selfish Gene is one of my most prized
eczema, as well as his rage against all other humans who possessions. Science in the Soul is a must for any Dawkins
have an “obsessive reverence for rules.” If he “ruled the enthusiast like me because not only does he include several
world,” Dawkins would “find ways to reintroduce intelligent previously unpublished pieces, he also shows his readers some
discretion and overthrow the unbending tyranny of going by of his own internal self, his soul.
the book without opening the door to abuse.”
“The Value of Science and the Science of Values,” a 1997
address dedicated to the late Carl Sagan, Dawkins succinctly Mark Kolsen recently retired from teaching high school in Wheaton,
explains why science is our best form of knowledge and how Illinois. He is an avid fan of the Four Horsemen, the late Victor Stenger,
its methods differ from hunches, gut feelings, revelations, and and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. He strives to understand all facets of scientific
other, less-reliable ways of understanding the world. Scientists cosmology and evolutionary biology.
Contact PWhissel@Atheists.org
– Alexander Ashendorf
Randy Winny
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Definitions:
A theism is the comprehensive world view of persons who are free from theism and have freed themselves of supernatural
beliefs altogether. It is predicated on ancient Greek Materialism.
A theism involves the mental attitude that unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a life-
style and ethical outlook verifiable by experience and the scientific method, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of
authority and creeds.
M aterialism declares that the cosmos is devoid of immanent conscious purpose; that it is governed by its own inherent,
immutable, and impersonal laws; that there is no supernatural interference in human life; that humankind, finding
the resources within themselves, can and must create their own destiny. It teaches that we must prize our life on earth
and strive always to improve it. It holds that human beings are capable of creating a social system based on reason and
justice. Materialism’s ‘faith’ is in humankind and their ability to transform the world culture by their own efforts. This is
a commitment that is, in its very essence, life-asserting. It considers the struggle for progress as a moral obligation that is
impossible without noble ideas that inspire us to bold, creative works.
M aterialism holds that our potential for good and more fulfilling cultural development is, for all practical purposes,
unlimited.
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