A Chat with Prof. Philip Moriarty on YouTube Atheism

Dear Supporter of Carl Benjamin
By Philip Moriarty

When atheists ape creationists: Fallacies and anti-feminism

A wandering chat about YouTube atheism and the kinds of discussions that dominate, and whether they promote education, science, reason and the use of evidence.

0:00 Akward start because of the lagged On Air sign and intros
1:56 The atheist YouTube community?
4:11 STEM, the Arts, Humanities and Social Science in universities
16:28 Facts are socially constructed
26:00 Social science is not a monolith
35:42 Moriarty's experience with the social sciences
39:10 Trading deconversion stories
46:11 First reading from the Book of Sargon
50:24 We ramble a bit
53:23 Moriarty evaluates Carl's debate performance
54:54 Carl's petition to 'Universities'
58:16 Moriarty's channel shout outs
58:52 Anonymity
1:10:42 Politics, Perception, and Philosophy of Physics course at Nottingham

[Leinad]

All these people complaining Sargon wasn't in the hangout. What was he going to bring? I'm sure he doesn't know much about scientific method. Also, last time didn't go so well for him. Just admit it, he can't throw down with academics, he's completely clueless.

[MindForgedManacle]

I love seeing scientists geek out about their own fields. They get really excited, haha.

[olivial.m.]

This hangout resonated with me a lot. I'm a physics graduate student who studies quantum optics/photonics and I'm currently designing an on-chip experiment. It's so easy to lose sight of goals in an experiment because you're constantly focused on getting a mathematically and experimentally sound result. But then, you need to contextualize it and communicate it, and a lot of people underestimate that aspect. There are so, so many interpretations in atomic/molecular/optical physics, especially because you can't get an analytical closed form for *so* many problems.

It's so weird coming onto youtube and seeing people call themselves "rationals", when they don't account for the nuance social issues have and then fail to contextualize it. It's also weird to see so many people demonize the "F" word (feminism), when most people in my department identify with it and yet *somehow* people all generally get along and collaborate well. You can't take the extremes of an ideology and then generalize it to an entire group as a monolith to denounce it. It doesn't work in social issues, and of course it doesn't make for good science. Thanks so much for this hangout all. :)

[matt]

Dear Professor Moriarty,

With all due respect:
She is telling you that facts are a social construct, and you, as a physicist, just sit there and take it?
Are theories like Maxwell's equations or QED, agreeing with measurements with unparalleled precision since 1950, just social constructs for you?
What about constants of nature like the speed of light, Planck's constant, or e.g., the mass of a proton?

Please call her out on this, don't let these things just slip by.

[StepBackHistory]

This is why I am so unable to engage with hate comments. Not only are they arguing in bad faith, but I know it won't go anywhere.

[BareknuckleBill]

Did Phil Mason ever said that STEM is the only thing that matters? I remember he made fun of some social science "research", Anita Sarkeesians Thesis in particular, and I thought his critizism was pretty accurate. But I don't recall that he ever condemned social science as whole.

[Good_boi_prime]

Lot's of value here.
I really like the main point about communication between disciplines.
Providing those studies and explaining how some are more valuable than others gives the conversation a lot of power and depth.
Hope to see more!

[antoniolewis]

I really enjoyed this discussion between two people who went to the edge of human knowledge. It's a refreshing sight to see.

[SineadLeavy]

I really enjoyed this chat. I may be biased because I'm Irish, a scientist and I find social science both confusing and fascinating.

[chrisiousity]

Hello. I enjoyed listening to this hangout. It got me thinking about my background, how I came to not-theist, not-supernatural ideas after trying out more or less everything. I may do a ramble about it....

[tmsphere]

Ok Sargon you're right, you were robbed of the opportunity of talking over them and not giving them the opportunity to answer your questions so for next time they could just play the audio of one of your videos on a loop while having their next hangout.

[richardtowers]

"When you throw away the supernatural stuff, it's really good advice."
That cracked me up. I don't know why, perhaps just because I wasn't expecting it, but that was a a great throw-away one liner :-D

[conferencereport]

Really enjoyed the discussion by the way. Such a rare treat to see intelligent life on YT these days.

[shadowcat]

I like how Sargon is here, ready to talk while their talking smack about him and won't invite him in. Typical SJW Cowardice.

[AdamRainStopper]

What's the painting behind your left shoulder?

[airmanfair]

This is absolutely wonderful. Keep on doing what you're doing!

[QuadCoreJoe]

Old fan of Philip (from sixty symbols) and now a new fan of you :) Really enjoyed this thanks. I share your and Philips frustrations with the 'noted' youtubers . My wife and I have had to drop Armoured skeptic et al because of all the ****. At least youtube still has Aron and Matt. Look forward to when you get together again and have another erudite and informative chat. Best bit was when I found out there is another 3 seasons of radio Hitch-hikers woohoo

[STSgerman]

I do not follow the Feminism debate on youtube very closely, so I might misrepresent both sides here and I am sorry if that happens.
To me it seems like both camps agree that there are some people in the Feminist camp that spout idiotic ideas (like the one about constructivism and the book that Prof Moriarty mentioned).
One disagreement between the Feminists and Anti-Feminists seems to be that Feminists claim that this is a negligible minority and Anti-Feminists claim that this is the overwhelming majority.
1.) Am I correct with my assessment?
2.) Is there data on this topic?
p.s: I am sure there are many other disagreements between these groups, I just picked one of them

[TheLazyKey]

Oh hey! It's Professor Moriarty from ComputerPhile and Sixty Symbols. Never thought I'd find him on this side of YouTube.

[nickmeistersa]

Professor, does anyone ever make any Sherlock Holmes jokes?