Scientists on Religion

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Austin Farrer, Theologian

“The existence of perfection requires no explanation, the existence of limited being requires explanation.”
 
C.S. Lewis, Author

“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?”
 
Alan Lightman, Physicist

“We live in a highly polarized society. We need to try to understand each other in respectful ways. To that end, I believe that we should make room for both spiritual atheists and thinking believers.”
 
G.H. Hardy, Mathematician

“The mathematician is in much more direct contact with reality. … [Whereas] the physicist’s reality, whatever it may be, has few or none of the attributes which common sense ascribes instinctively to reality. A chair may be a collection of whirling electrons.”

“The mathematician’s patterns … must be beautiful … Beauty is the first test; there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.”
 
Stanley Jaki, Philosopher of Science

"If a physicist does not wish to consider the possibility that the mind is capable of understanding reality because both mind and reality are the products of the … [Creator], then the very same physicist must rest satisfied with what Gilson called “the paradoxical experience of the unintelligibility of intelligibility.”

“… the single-minded attention which in scientific work is given to quantitative correlations cannot help weakening sensitivity for the realm of qualities and values.”
 
James R Newman, Mathematician

“The discovery in 1846 of the planet Neptune was a dramatic and spectacular achievement of mathematical astronomy. The very existence of this new member of the solar system, and its exact location, were demonstrated with pencil and paper; there was left to observers only the routine task of pointing their telescopes at the spot the mathematicians had marked.”
 
Henrik Ibsen, Playwright

“It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.”
 
Woody Allen, Humorist

“It is impossible to travel faster than light, and certainly not desirable, as one’s hat keeps blowing off.”

“I’m astounded by people who want to “know” the universe when its hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.”
 
Martin Rees, Astronomer

“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

“Scientists surely have a special responsibility. It is their ideas that form the basis of new technology. They should not be indifferent to the fruits of their ideas. They should forgo experiments that are risky or unethical.”
 
John F. Kennedy, Statesman

“Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.”
 
Lewis Thomas, Physician

“The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry about from Science, along with behaviour control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers.” Lewis Thomas
 
John von Neumann, Mathematician

“Young man, in mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.”

“There’s no sense in being precise when you don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.”
 
Erwin Chargaff, Biochemist

“Science is wonderfully equipped to answer the question ‘How?’ but it gets terribly confused when you ask the question ‘Why?’”
 
Craig Venter, Geneticist

“Most people don’t realize it, because they’re invisible, but microbes make up about a half of the Earth’s biomass, whereas all animals only make up about one one-thousandth of all the biomass.”

“Genome design is going to be a key part of the future. That’s why we need fast, cheap, accurate DNA synthesis, so you can make a lot of iterations of something and test them.”
 
Carl Sundell, Author

“The essential defect of being self-taught in any field of knowledge is that you tend to learn many things you don’t need to know and you fail to learn many things you do need to know. The arrogance of the student is that he doesn’t need the teacher because he knows more than the teacher can teach him and is probably smarter than the teacher anyway. This is not to say that a student cannot be a great deal smarter than his teachers.”
 
Stephen Webb, Science Writer

“If the universe is teeming with Aliens … where is everybody?”
 
Alexander Vilenkin, Cosmologist

It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man. With the proof [of the universe’s beginning] now in place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past-eternal universe. There is no escape: they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning.

:bowdown2:
 
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Poet

“Science arose from poetry… when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends.”
 
Sir Martin Rees, Astrophysicist

“I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms that we can’t conceive. And there could, of course, be forms of intelligence beyond human capacity—beyond as much as we are beyond a chimpanzee.” Sir Martin Rees

" If we ever establish contact with intelligent aliens living on a planet around a distant star … They would be made of similar atoms to us. They could trace their origins back to the big bang 13.7 billion years ago, and they would share with us the universe’s future. However, the surest common culture would be mathematics."
 
Jacob Bronowski, Mathematician

“No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.”
 
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