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The Da Vinci Code couldn’t begin to rock the foundation of the church like scientist and former chief environmental officer at the Agency for International Development, Dr. Jeff Schweitzer, author of the book, Beyond Cosmic Dice: Moral Life in a Random World.

Dr. Schweitzer served at the White House for the Clinton Administration

Working under President Clinton, Dr. Schweitzer was assigned to provide scientific and technological policy advice and analysis for the President of the United States, Vice President Al Gore and the Director of the OSTP, and to coordinate the U.S. government's international science and technology cooperation (working with the president's cabinet and 22 technical agencies) in countries throughout the world.
Jeff says that from that perch, he realized "that one critical element was missing from global efforts to bring science, conservation and development together; there was no appropriate ethical foundation providing a compelling mandate." In the western world, morality is derived directly from religion, and has been for 2000 years. "But that morality is deeply flawed. What was appropriate in the ancient world works no longer. Since religion is based, by definition, on faith rather than facts, no mechanism exists to arbitrate between competing ideas. As soon as logic is removed from the debate, competing positions cannot be evaluated based on relative merit, but are supported as inherently right, immune to any reasonable counter arguments. The only way to support a position is simply to assert supremacy as loudly as possible since no objective facts are available to evaluate any particular claim. War, unrelenting poverty, overpopulation, re-emerging diseases and pandemics, environmental degradation, famine, indifference to the needs and rights of other life forms and intolerance of our fellow humans all result, to an important extent, from competing concepts of religious morality that are unable to check our behavior in modern times. We can ill afford to wait another 2000 years to figure out that our existing world-view is not sustainable."


Americans today are debating, with ever more animosity, the role of religion, science and ethics in our lives at a time of great vulnerability and opportunity. As chief environmental officer, Jeff oversaw projects in more than 80 countries, where he witnessed the devastating impact of ill-conceived policies perpetrated in the name of religion. "Our policies are not some theory – they affect real people every day. We pursue population policies that deny millions of women worldwide the right to choose their own reproductive destiny, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and despair. We deny funding for stem cell research and therapeutic cloning, which could cure devastating diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. We tragically missed the boat when the United States walked away from the Rio treaty to project biodiversity, and bailed from the Kyoto Protocol, unwilling to admit to the reality of climate change."

Religion penetrates ever deeper into our secular government. "Our Founding Fathers would despair if they saw what we have done with their precious gift. We now support federally-funded faith-based initiatives, promote prayer in school, advocate the display of the Ten Commandments in public spaces, even courtrooms, attempt to insert the teaching of Intelligent Design in science curricula, and teach Bible school at public schools. Religion now permeates government policies at all levels."

In Beyond Cosmic Dice, Jeff proposes a completely new way to look at morality and ethics, free from any religious influence, and challenges the intrusion of religion in public life. He proposes a new natural ethic that offers a real alternative. "We can begin by embracing our heritage as natural members of the animal kingdom, with no special privileges on earth and no special mandate from above. Our claims to superiority and our self-promotion to the image of god are simply embarrassing in the face of the biological reality on the ground. With a fresh and more humble perspective, we can do something uniquely human, something that no species in the history of life has done before: we can change our ways. We can adopt a new moral code firmly rooted in a modest view of our evolutionary history, one that encourages sound environmental stewardship, promotes a general respect for life, and strengthens humankind's better side."

Jeff has published more than 100 articles in an eclectic range of fields, including neurobiology, marine science, international development, environmental protection and aviation.

Jeff spent much of his youth underwater pursuing his lifelong fascination with marine life. Observing the antics and heroic aggression of little territorial damsel fish sparked an intense interest in animal behavior. Not satisfied with field observation alone, he went on to study brain function and organization in a wide range of critters. In graduate school, he moved on to shark brains and behavior, eventually graduating with a wife and a Ph.D. in neurophysiology. He has published in an eclectic range of fields, including neurobiology, marine science, international development, environmental protection and aviation. Jeff and his wife now live in central Texas, moving there after retiring from service in the White House as Assistant Director for International Science and Technology.

Dr. Schweitzer is an avid pilot and is the founder and editor of a popular aviation magazine.


Additional Areas of expertise:
Stem Cell Research
DNA
Pandemics and Diseases (i.e. Bird Flu, Polio, AIDS)
Weather
International Development
Politics
Evolution VS "Intelligent Design"
Religion
Morality
Biological Diversity (aka Biodiversity)
Population Issues
Pharmaceutical Development
Federal Funding
Environmental Sustainability