Scientists on Religion

  • Thread starter Thread starter Charlemagne_III
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
“The Scientist will be forever showing us that things are not what they seem, expatiating upon the astonishing character of Scientific achievement. Thus, I read in a book which has sold by scores of thousands under the name of a chief scientific authority in the department of physics, that the hypothetical “electron” is “at once everywhere and nowhere”-----and this nonsense is swallowed whole by people who smile at the mystery of the Trinity.” Hillaire Belloc
 
G.K. Chesterton, Writer

“There were indeed venerable Victorians of the agnostic sort, who would have been very much surprised to learn that science had not destroyed religion by A.D. 2030. But they would have been still more surprised to learn that science had destroyed the indivisible atom, had broken through the conservation of energy, had cast doubts on the principles of Newton and reacted everywhere against the hypothesis of Darwin. Science is perfectly right to go on changing its mind if it sees reason to do so.”
 
C.S. Lewis, Christian Apologist

“Science works by experiments. It watches how things behave. Every scientific statement in the long run, however complicated it looks, really means something like, ‘I pointed the telescope to such and such a part of the sky at 2:20 a.m. on January 15th and saw so-and-so,’ or, ‘I put some of this stuff in a pot and heated it to such-and-such a temperature and it did so-and-so.’ Do not think I am saying anything against science: I am only saying what its job is.

And the more scientific a man is, the more (I believe) he would agree with me that this is the job of science–and a very useful and necessary job it is too. But why anything comes to be there at all, and whether there is anything behind the things science observes–something of a different kind–this is not a scientific question. If there is ‘Something Behind,’ then either it will have to remain altogether unknown to men or else make itself known in some different way. The statement that there is any such thing, and the statement that there is no such thing, are neither of them statements that science can make. And real scientists do not usually make them. It is usually the journalists and popular novelists who have picked up a few odds and ends of half-baked science from textbooks who go in for them. After all, it is really a matter of common sense. Supposing science ever became complete so that it knew every single thing in the whole universe. Is it not plain that the questions, ‘Why is there a universe?’ ‘Why does it go on as it does?’ ‘Has it any meaning?’ would remain just as they were?”
 
Francis Bacon, Philosopher of Science

"Aristippus said; ‘That those that studied particular sciences, and neglected philosophy, were like Penelope’s wooers, that made love to the waiting women.’”
 
Ronald Knox, Theologian

Knox was engaged in a theological discussion with scientist John Scott Haldane. ‘In a universe containing millions of planets,’ reasoned Haldane, ‘is it not inevitable that life should appear on at least one of them?’

‘Sir,’ replied Knox, 'if Scotland Yard found a body in your cabin trunk, would you tell them: ‘There are millions of trunks in the world; surely one of them must contain a body? I think the Yard would still want to know who put it there.’
 
Peter Kreeft, Philosopher

“There is no scientific proof that only scientific proofs are good proofs: no way to prove by the scientific method that the scientific method is the only valid method.”
 
David Elton Trueblood, Philosopher

“When scientists are honest, as most of them are, they are well aware of the fact that their competence in science does not give them a clue to the problem of how their science should be used in the service of man. The sensitive visitor to the mesas of Los Alamos is almost sure to meditate on the experience of that gifted man, Klaus Fuchs. Though his work in the laboratories was outstanding, his decision concerning the use of what he knew was disastrous. What if, in addition to his scientific competence, the younger Fuchs had shared something of the Christian conviction of his father, Emil Fuchs? Much of the subsequent history of our earth might then have been different.”
 
Jacques Maritain, Philosopher

“Since science’s competence extends to observable and measurable phenomena, not to the inner being of things, and to the means, not to the ends of human life, it would be nonsense to expect that the progress of science will provide men with a new type of metaphysics, ethics, or religion.”
 
Billy Graham, Evangelist

“I don’t think that there’s any conflict at all between science today and the Scriptures. I think we have misinterpreted the Scriptures many times and we’ve tried to make the Scriptures say things that they weren’t meant to say, and I think we have made a mistake by thinking the Bible is a scientific book. The Bible is not a book of science. The Bible is a book of Redemption, and of course, I accept the Creation story. I believe that God created man, and whether it came by an evolutionary process and at a certain point He took this person or being and made him a living soul or not, does not change the fact that God did create man… whichever way God did it makes no difference as to what man is and man’s relationship to God.”
 
George Bernard Shaw, Playwright

“Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.”
 
James Cardinal Gibbons

"Since reason and revelation aid each other in leading us to God, the Author of both, it is manifest that the Catholic Church, so far from being opposed to the cultivation of reason, encourages and fosters sciences of every kind. The more secrets science will elicit from nature’s bosom, the more the Church will rejoice; because she knows that no new revelation of nature will ever utter the words: “There is no God.” Rather will they whisper to the eager investigator, “He made us, and not we ourselves.”
 
Will Durant, Historian

“If another great war should devastate Western civilization, the resultant destruction of cities, the dissemination of poverty, and the disgrace of science may leave the Church, as in A.D. 476, the sole hope and guide of those who survive the cataclysm.”
 
Germaine de Staël, Writer

“Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man’s power is increased, the checks that restrain him from abusing it must be strengthened.”
 
Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr., Aviator

“I have seen the science I worshipped and the aircraft I loved destroying the civilization I expected them to serve.”
 
Sigmund Freud, Psychiatrist

“It is a mistake to believe that a science consists in nothing but conclusively proven propositions, and it is unjust to demand that it should. It is a demand made only by those who feel a craving for authority in some form and a need to replace the religious catechism by something else, even if it be a scientific one.”
 
J. Frank Dobie, Writer

“Putting on the spectacles of science in expectation of finding the answers to everything looked at signifies inner blindness.”
 
Albert Einstein, Physicist

“God is subtle, but he is not malicious.”
 
Aldous Huxley, Writer

“Science has ‘explained’ nothing; the more we know the more fantastic the world becomes and the profounder the surrounding darkness.”
 
James Jeans, Physicist

“Science should leave off making pronouncements; the river of knowledge has too often turned back on itself.”
 
Joseph Needham, Biochemist

“The place where we do our scientific work is a place of prayer.”
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top