Vonnegut: Where you can see tribal behavior now is in this business about teaching evolution in the science class, and intelligent design. Scientists themselves are behaving tribally. They say that evolution "surely happened" and that the fossil record shows that, but look, my body and your body are miracles of design, and scientists are pretending to have the answers that this is how we got this way, when natural selection couldn’t possibly have produced such machines.
Interviewer: Does that mean you would be in favor of teaching Intelligent Design in the classroom?
Vonnegut: Look, it’s what we’re thinking about all the time. If I were a physics or science teacher, it would be on my mind all the time as to how the hell we got this way…if you go into the science class, you can’t think this? As soon as you leave, you can start thinking about it again without giving aid and comfort to the lunatic fringe of the Christian religion.
ON HUMANISM AND DARWIN
Vonnegut: These people called themselves freethinkers. They were impressed by Darwin…they’re called humanists now – people who aren’t so sure that the bible is the word of God. The trouble with being a secular humanist is that we don’t have a congregation, we don’t meet.
Kurt Vonnegut “Supports” ID on NPR2 min read
In a recent NRP interview, Vonnegut, an American novelist and satirist, had some interesting things to say about modern science. Now, he’s a little old and fruity, and still harbors some love for Karl Marx, but since he is no religious conservative, his position is interesting. You’ll have to listen to the interview (no transcript). Check in about 4:30 into the interview. (Partial transcript below)