Destin from Smarter Every Day (extended interview) 

He's a very likeable guy

Great interview. Destin is such a relaxed guy. His optimism is stuck at a 12 year old state... In all the chaos of the world he never seems to have his dreams crushed.

I work with Destin. Great guy.

Destin is a really cool guy with an amazing family, gorgeous wife, AWESOME job working with ROCKETS... and in his spare time he travels around the world making science RU-vid videos about stuff like GUNS and RAPTORS and HELICOPTERS... He's also impossibly polite and respectful to everyone's beliefs, no matter who they are. Tell us a bit about you?

I just noticed one more time how Brady is an excellent interviewer, without his excellent questions his videos wouldn't even have half the value.

I dunno why ppl are so bogged abt his religious views. Dude, you're totally cool. I've downloaded all ur videos so far, and i watch 'em during my spare time, u know. for a change of mood or whatever, but its cool, i enjoy 'em all the way

I'm not turned off by Destin's accent because I'm not from the US, so Destin has always been a smart guy for me. Destin is a perfect example of why the question "Do you believe in a god?" is a shallow question and doesn't say too much about the person, I think the answer comes with tons of assumptions and you skip knowing the specifics about the person, his life experiences, his beliefs, his disbeliefs, you know very little about this person yet it's easy to judge so much about them with this single question, people can be wrong about things, or simply have different beliefs than you, that doesn't make them what they are as a person, it's just a very small part of their lives. I love Destin's videos, do I disagree with his beliefs? Maybe, I don't know his beliefs, maybe I would love to sit and have a cofee with him, would I ask him about his beliefs? Of all the questions I could ask about this men who is a superman in my eyes, I think that's the least important one. Buuuuuutt.... throwing a guess Destin sounds like a mix between Pantheistic and Christian, I think this is fine, I don't think Destin is someone who would deny reality because it conflicts with his beliefs. I don't think there is a single thing about his beliefs that is completely disconected from reality. At this point all he could do is read books on anthropology about christianity.

the humbleness of destin makes me want to hug him :) I wish he was my older brother

I find it interesting that he says he's tried to kill his faith whereas my own belief disappeared pretty much by accident just from watching science and history shows on tv.

"Fundamentally, I know, that I, as a creature, I'm wrong on many things." This is a wise man.

This guy is my hero.

Best channel on the internet. Shared liked subscribed.. If I ever came in to great money I would sponsor this man & his family and send him into space as well to put the icing on the cake :) I'm not a smart man but Destin makes me feel good. What a top bloke

These interviews would make a phenomenal documentary.

Thank you both for recording this.

Wow. Destin is right up the street from me (I'm in Greater Atlanta), and it's good to see that someone else understands the Southern Man's Blessing. Though he probably uses it differently than I. He seems more humble than to want to use it as a bludgeon for people who think they're smarter than you.

Yes! He flipped me on my head at the last minute. I just spent the last week watching all the Smarter every day clips and I loved the teaching kids science in Africa but the Why You Don't Die At Birth video was my favourite for many reasons.. class!

I love Destin's accent! And the way he talks is so humble! It's cute XD

I've been watching all these science videos on youtube, and they never fail to inspire me. Destin's interview was insightful, almost touching, for there are not many in this world right now who are so passionate about providing free, world-class education to the world. Thank you, Smarter Every Day, Brady and all those who made such videos.

I have the utmost respect for Destin when he says that he has tried to dismiss faith, but has been unsuccessful. I don't believe, but I also don't have any urge whatsoever of robbing others of their faith. As an agnostic, I believe that is one of the worst things you can do to another person. Live your life in whichever way you want to and do not try and impose it on others.

It's so encouraging that he got an opportunity to share his faith with you!

Killing one's faith (intuitive based) inclinations is much like learning to ride the backward bike ;)

Amen!I love that you can't get rid of your faith in Jesus even when you "try." I am also a very critical thinker and sometimes struggle with my faith immensely because of all of the people who insist that being a Christian means you're unintelligent.I watch many of the educational youtube channels like Veritasium,Vlogbrothers SciShow and Crashcourse, minute physics, Vsauce, and I absolutely love your show! I'm from Guntersville, AL so I definitely get the stereotype thing.

What a thoroughly splendid human being!

Great interview

awesome interview, thanks for doing this.

no you big lazy bones, go find them on his channel (which I have linked to)... then you'll see all his other cool stuff too!

There is an element of trust, to avoid using a word that seems to offend you, needed in science toward both your theories and experiments, more in the experiments than the theories, because the theories are what you are testing against your experiments. You still have to trust that what you are doing in your experiment will and does give you valid information toward rejecting or failing to reject your theory or hypothesis.

He seems like a really nice guy and I love his channel and efforts but as a man of science he should be aware that the burden of proof is always on the person making the assertion or proposition. This is a pretty basic and fundamental point in logical thinking.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I've been saying for years I'm a man of faith not a religious man. I'm glad someone else feels the same way! Especially one who has the same scientific hobbies as me!

How much of a conversation can I really have in 500 characters or less. I was condensing for space. Also, I can't begin to take your slap in the face seriously because I can't bring myself to believe you're an expert on the practical differences of those meanings for the greater breadth of english speaking humanity.

This guy is awesome.

Really great interview

I am glad to see another man of science who can be open to the idea of a creator. I myself am not a Christian but a diest. If one believe the universe to be finite, then there must be somthing beyond it, and therefore must have had a creator somewhere along the way. At least that is my opinion.

i completely agree with this guy !

“What’s your little project called” sounds so condescending 8 years on. Destin is Mr RU-vid now 😂

This guy is awesome...

For people that have that duality, both senses of the word are one and the same. I am one of those people.

It doesn't matter how he talks. He's still a rocket scientist.

What I like about Destin is he proves that science and religion aren't mutually exclusive. Science is using observation and tests to outline facts. Faith that there is or isn't a deity is simply how you appreciate the knowledge you have, be it through making those scientific observations or ignoring them outright. There are atheists who ignore science and there are people from many faiths who embrace it.

'I don't want to disrepect the audience'...destin's so ... smart!

Why is everyone so annoyed that he has faith and loves science? Let him continue to be awesome.

Amazing interview!

You can be a person of faith and passionately pursue science

I agree completely with Destin. I was raised believing in God, as well as evolution from school. but after I find out Santa, the Tooth Fairy etc. were not real I started trying to disprove God as well. But the more I studied on how anything could exist now and getting tired of wondering, well where did that come from? I found God had the answer of being the alpha and omega. Always existing was something I couldn't wrap my head around until trying to figure out how anything could exist now. I love science and in trying to understand the Big Bang I found these problems. 1. Where did that come from? 2. Some sources say it was from nothing which goes against energy/matter cannot be created or destroyed. 3. It is believed to have happened around 13 billion years ago. But size of visible universe is 40 billion light years from center. (some sources say farther) That does not include the calculation of where it would be now since that's where it was 40 billion light years ago. which is long before big bang. To have traveled that fast it would be over 7 times the speed of light assuming its always accelerating. Also found on multiple sources that at one point it started decelerating then went back to accelerating with no account of the opposite forces to cause that, 4. How would anything form if it exploded and traveled over the speed of light it would of broken down to very small particles with hardly any mass. With any explosion the farther any fragments travel the farther they get from each other. 5. We have 1 planet that spins in the opposite direction as the rest which goes against the law of angular momentum. 6. Spacing of galaxies shows no pattern of coming from 1 explosion source. 7. Explosion either perfectly forming Stars or planets. 8. Several galaxies with orbits coming from one explosion. And it goes on. The more I debate people on the subject the more I learn about new points they have which I end up researching and finding many more problems than solutions for how the big bang happened. Give it a try yourself do some research and pick it apart and try to understand how everything we have today came from one big bang.

I think it's a very good video, and it makes a good point about what and how we want to categorise people, and what we expect from them after we've managed to categorise them. They wanted to remain ambiguous about their faith and that's their decision. The vid still serves the purpose of making you consider why you even want/need to know. And yeah they give ideas and incentives to i.e. lend a book like I did today by introducing it, and they're different kinds of videos than Destin's.

Destin is awesome.

That's exactly how I reached my current position. Haven't been shown I'm wrong yet, but I know some things that would change my position.

I'm a fan of Brady and Destin and really enjoyed this video!

I really cried.

I admire Destin's scientific outreach. However, there must be the admission that he's at least inconsistent by being religious and adhering to the scientific method. He says at one point he was "...unable to disprove God". Thats an utter misunderstanding of the nature of burden of proof.

Destin, my agents love your videos. We would love to cooperate with you on a video on the matrix.

100% respect destin. keep up the faith, keep up the great vids. thumbs up big fella. and thanks to you too brady, of course :P

Hey destin, You rock!

Touche, brother!

A voice of the 'Everyman' covers more ground. Total respect to you, sir. :-D

When I worked at Goddard Space Flight Center, the one thing I found endlessly amazing was just how many extremely religious people work there. Folks like Destin are not nearly as rare as you would expect on the engineering side of things at NASA. (on the scientific side, that's a different story) What I like about entertainers like Destin and also Alton Brown (who is also a fundamentalist with a science bent) is that they leave their religion out of their product. What I don't like, however, is that these guys still disbelieve in well accepted science due to their religious beliefs and leave it out of their videos. Destin especially does a ton of videos on nature, yet you'll absolutely never see him discuss the curious evolutionary journey of some of the plants and animals he shows have taken. He doesn't, I assume, because he doesn't believe in evolution. Still, that's really just a missed opportunity and not a deficiency in the content. The content is great regardless.

You're right. I suspected that they were using 'faith' in a much more vague sense than I. To some, 'trust' is a synonym for 'faith'. I do not see it that way.

I enjoy smarter every day. I think Dustin is very down to earth guy, he presents curiosity and learning in a way that the rest of us can follow. I am curious and wish someone could ask Dustin for me, “Why is there an image of Reepicheep on your videos?”

Yes, I have no problem in ridiculing ridiculous comments.

Destin, I like your style, I like your curiosity, your freshness, your principles, and that Alabama accent of yours. Maybe being a foreigner makes me insensitive to pre conceive ideas about english accents... Anyway, keep it up, you are great.

For clarity, I'm going to give you my definition of faith: Faith (n) "To accept something as true without evidence or reason." It follows that, If I had faith that my hypothesis (not theory) were true, why would I test it? Trust is earned through validation. That's part of the reason we have the peer review process. "you are still not sure if that is exactly what happened in some cases." Yes. These are the gaps. Some people like to put their faith here.

Sixty Symbols in bed with Destin from Smarter Every Day ...

While I do not share Destin's beliefs, I have great admiration for him. He's intelligent, friendly, funny and always a joy on my You Tube feed. He's just wrong about that one bit, that's all ;-)

Great interview Brady. You ask some tough questions. Who made the best grade in physics class, Destin or his wife?

When it comes to Faith, I know exactly what he is talking about.

Destin for the win!

Better this way than the other way around. You know what someone articulate said about the writing of Emanuel Kant. "You can just tell he did not have a wife he had to explain it too". Having a wife is a good thing in o so many unexpected ways. ;^)

I'm not sure that i agree with Destin but i did enjoy the interview

Out of all the science YTers I'm subscribed to, I would like to have a conversation with Destin the most. He seems open to reason more than any other Christian I've seen and looks like he's about ||

I really don't get how you go from this video and to that conclusion :-/. He seems like a really kind and humble chap to me...

Correct, and especially with Newton it led him astray into studying things like alchemy.

Yes, I know. I was quoting his own comment back at him. Cheers.

There is a difference between reasonable expectations and faith. A huge difference. Faith and science are, always have been and always will be antithetical.

Really? I got the impression he is a talented, intelligent bloke who is grounded and laid back.

Agreed!

The brain has been object to scientific (and non-scientific) research for a long time and we still base the reasons of our research on our faith that we can actually grasp what is going on. We know where personality manifests but now how and why. Believing we can make progress here is nothing but faith. In the religious context the world and the existence itself are the pointers for believers that their faith is justified. Dismissing that is displaying ones failure to reconstruct others thoughts

Aye, you got it.

destins dad so reminds mr of richard feynman. wonderful man, both of them!

You still have to trust that your experiments are telling you what you think they are and before you have even conducted those experiments, you must have faith in your theory enough to put it to the test. Even after you have proven that your theory, at the very least, makes sense for what occurs in the experiments, you are still not sure if that is exactly what happened in some cases.

That's right, this very morning an angel gave me a lift to work on her magical unicorn!

This guy, Discovery Channel, hire him!

Well, one thing you should note is that faith isn't "a belief in something in spite of all evidence" as you put it, and rather "a belief in something in spite of any evidence". That just means that you believe something that you can't prove yet, which happens all the time in science and motivates a lot of studies and research. Finally, faith isn't synonymous to "religion". You can have faith without agreeing with scriptures and the beliefs of others.

Exactly.

Remember, there's more than one application of the word "faith". Faith that the bus won't turn up late, judging by it's past arrival times, also applies to both theists and anti-theists like us. After the bus turns up we can soundly use that result as scientific proof of being on time, until then we only have a hypothesis of what the results should be based on past records which is an insight (faith), but not scientific proof.

A large number of experiments, especially with more recent experiments fail many million times before they find any information pointing in any meaningful direction, so it may take more than 1000 tries.

dustin, ur awesome

The intellectually honest thing to do is not to disprove that a god exists (you can't disprove a negative), but to prove that a god exists.

@superdau Why there mother of course :). The key thing to realize is that on either side of the discussion we don't have enough evidence to form a belief, there is only enough information to form ideas.

Brady, you should link the three videos he mentioned in the description of the video so mobile users can see them easily. It would be a kind thing to do.

You *think* he is wrong. I think so too. That doesn't mean we are right. I think it's very important not to speak as we *know* something, when we only *believe* in it. Technically we can only believe something. But in this case the word "technically" is not even necessary.

"Science has not dis-proven anything from the bible" I almost spat my coffee over my keyboard then.

“Men became scientific because they expected law in nature and they expected law in nature because they believed in a lawgiver.” C.S. Lewis

I'm an agnostic and skeptic so I already know about anti-theism, thanks. Because religious faith mostly revolves around non-physical concepts you cannot actually scientifically say that it goes either way, but you can interpret the facts you do have (which is what I meant by "faith") to base your stance on. This is exactly how some scientists with the same mindset as Destin who see science as being proof of a god, some people like you and I don't see enough evidence to convince us personally.

Asma current student of the university of alabama in huntsville, hello friend :D

Thumbs up

Why not? The ACTUAL feeling of experiencing something is 'merely' a looong chain of biochemical and electric reactions. Can we quantify it? No. But who says we won't be able to do so in the far future?

You can, it simply takes an extra apparatus.

I apologize if I in any way sounded narrow-minded. I never want to come across as intolerant or lacking sympathy. Everyone will have their bias.

If there is any more video content, could it please be uploaded :)? Destin is such a great person.

52 And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet: 53 But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house: and it shall be clean.