Scientists on Religion

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Voltaire, Philosopher

“We are intelligent beings: intelligent beings cannot have been formed by a crude, blind, insensible being: there is certainly some difference between the ideas of Newton and the dung of a mule. Newton’s intelligence, therefore, came from another intelligence”
 
Albert Einstein, Physicist

“The scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation…His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an INTELLIGENCE of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire.”
 
Antony Flew, Former Atheist Philosopher

“It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of evolution of that first reproducing organism”.
 
Stephen Hawking, Physicist

“The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?"
 
Howard J. Van Till, Physicist, Astronomer

“The essence of God’s creative action is the giving of being to a highly capable universe that is called to effect the Creator’s intentions for its actions.”
 
Max Plank, Physicist Nobel Laureate

“Let no one enter here who does not have faith”

(Inscription over the door to Max Plank’s Laboratory)
 
David Henry Thoreau, Author

“There is more RELIGION in men’s SCIENCE than there is SCIENCE in their RELIGION.”
 
** Kitty Ferguson**, Science Writer

“It ill becomes any of us to take the attitude that all evidence for God is false evidence, beneath consideration, simply by virtue of its being evidence for God, or even by virtue of its being outside the purview of science.”

“We don’t know how large a proportion of the significant evidence about the universe is excluded by science. Perhaps hardly any. Perhaps so great a proportion that any body of knowledge which excludes it is hardly more than a caricature. Perhaps something in between - so that science finds truth but not the whole truth.”
 
William Blake, Poet

Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau!
Mock on, mock on: 'Tis all in vain!
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.
And every sand becomes a gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back they blind the mocking eye,
But still in Israel’s paths they shine.
The atoms of Democritus
And Newton’s particles of light
Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,
Where Israel’s tents do shine so bright.
 
Theodore Roosevelt, Statesman

“The claims of certain so-called scientific men as to ‘science overthrowing religion’ are as baseless as the fears of certain sincerely religious men on the same subject. The establishment of the doctrine of evolution in out time offers no more justification for upsetting religious beliefs than the discovery of the facts concerning the solar system a few centuries ago. Any faith sufficiently robust to stand the—surely very slight—strain of admitting that the world is not flat and does not move round the sun need have no apprehensions on the score of evolution, and the materialistic scientists who gleefully hail the discovery of the principle of evolution as establishing their dreary creed might with just as much propriety rest it upon the discovery of the principle of gravity.”
 
John F. Kennedy, Statesman

“The world is a very different one now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.”
 
G.K. Chesterton, Author

“Psychoanalysis is a science conducted by lunatics for lunatics. They are generally concerned with proving that people are irresponsible; and they certainly succeed in proving that some people are.”

“You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.”
 
William Faulkner, Author

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things.”
 
Albert Einstein, Physicist

“How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a …phenomenon as first love? “
 
Carl Sundell, Author

“There is both sacred and satanic music. The latter screams the devil’s pain. I do not know how to define Mozart other than as the sonorous and lilting voice of God. How would science define the difference?”
 
Frank Turek, Science Writer

"In fact—and this is the essential point—Krauss, Dawkins and the like can’t do science without philosophy. While scientists are usually seeking to understand physical cause and effect, science itself is built on philosophical principles that are not physical themselves—they are beyond the physical (metaphysical). Those principles help the scientist make precise definitions and clear distinctions, and then interpret all the relevant data rationally.

What exactly is relevant? What exactly is rational? What exactly is the best interpretation of the data –including what exactly is or isn’t ‘nothing’? Those questions are all answered through the use of philosophy. (Perhaps that’s why the “Ph.” in Ph.D. stands for ‘philosophy.’ The originators of advanced degrees knew that philosophy is the foundation of every area of inquiry.)

Einstein had an observation about the man of science. He said, ‘The man of science is a poor philosopher.’ Unfortunately, if you abandon good philosophy you end up with bad science. And if you disdain all philosophy, as Krauss and company tend to do, then you put yourself in the self-defeating position of holding a philosophy that disdains all philosophy. You can’t get away from philosophy. It’s like logic. To deny it is to use it."
 
Frank Turek, Science Writer

“It’s natural to be skeptical of a story like Noah. However, the greatest miracle in the Bible is not Noah and the flood. The greatest miracle in the Bible is recorded in the first verse: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If that miracle is true, then every miracle in the Bible is at least possible (including Noah’s Ark). If God created the universe, then He can do whatever He wants inside it.”
 
Abraham Lincoln, Statesman

“Of all the forces of nature, I should think the wind contains the largest amount of motive power—that is, power to move things. Take any given space of the earth’s surface— for instance, Illinois; and all the power exerted by all the men, and beasts, and running-water, and steam, over and upon it, shall not equal the one hundredth part of what is exerted by the blowing of the wind over and upon the same space. And yet it has not, so far in the world’s history, become proportionably valuable as a motive power. It is applied extensively, and advantageously, to sail-vessels in navigation. Add to this a few windmills, and pumps, and you have about all. … As yet, the wind is an untamed, and unharnessed force; and quite possibly one of the greatest discoveries hereafter to be made, will be the taming, and harnessing of it.”
 
Rosalind Franklin, Chemist

“You look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralising invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence. But science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.”
 
Samuel Johnson, Author

“The chief art of learning, as Locke has observed, is to attempt but little at a time. The widest excursions of the mind are made by short flights frequently repeated; the most lofty fabrics of science are formed by the continued accumulation of single propositions.”

“The mathematicians are well acquainted with the difference between pure science, which has only to do with ideas, and the application of its laws to the use of life, in which they are constrained to submit to the imperfections of matter and the influence of accidents.”

“You may translate books of science exactly. … The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.”
 
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