Scientists on Religion

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Michael Turner Astrophysicist

“The precision [of the fine tuning] is as if one could throw a dart across the entire universe and hit a bullseye one millimeter in diameter on the other side.”
 
**Aristotle **Scientist, Philosopher

“God and nature create nothing that does not fulfill a purpose”
 
Paul Davies Physicist

“To postulate an infinity of unseen and unseeable universes just to explain the one we do see seems like a case of excess baggage carried to the extreme. It is simpler to postulate one unseen God.”
 
William James Psychologist, Philosopher

“The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.”
 
John Glenn Astronaut

“I don’t think you can be up here and look out the window as I did the first day and see the Earth from this vantage point, to look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God. To me, it’s impossible–it just strengthens my faith. I wish there were words to describe what it’s like. …truly awesome.”
 
George Gamow Theoretical Physicist

“There was a young fellow from Trinity,
Who took the square root of infinity.
But the number of digits, Gave him the fidgets;
He dropped Math and took up Divinity.”
 
Isidor Isaac Rabi Physicist, Nobel Prize

" [Physics] filled me with awe, put me in touch with a sense of original causes. Physics brought me closer to God. That feeling stayed with me throughout my years in science. Whenever one of my students came to me with a scientific project, I asked one question, “Will it bring you closer to God?”
 
**Arthur Eddington **Physicist

“The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory.”
 
Albert Einstein Physicist

“Don’t wait for miracles, your whole life is a miracle.”
 
**Charles Darwin **Evolutionist

“Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.”
 
Isaac Newton Physicist

“This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all. . . . The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect . . . and from his true dominion it follows that the true God is a living, intelligent, and powerful Being. . . . He is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite; he is not duration or space, but he endures and is present.”
 
“I am not an atheist … We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangements of the books, but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God." Albert Einstein

“The fifth way [of demonstrating God’s existence] is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result. Hence it is plain that not fortuitously, but designedly, do they achieve their end. Now whatever lacks intelligence cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is shot to its mark by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.” Thomas Aquinas.
 
Pope Pius XII

“True science discovers God in an ever-increasing degree — as though God were waiting behind every door opened by science.”

address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 22 November 1951
 
"Science develops best when its concepts and conclusions are integrated into the broader human culture and its concerns for ultimate meaning and value. Scientists cannot, therefore, hold themselves entirely aloof from the sorts of issues dealt with by philosophers and theologians. By devoting to these issues something of the energy and care they give to their research in science, they can help others realize more fully the human potentialities of their discoveries. They can also come to appreciate for themselves that these discoveries cannot be a genuine substitute for knowledge of the truly ultimate. Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish. " — Pope John Paul II

Letter to Rev. George V. Coyne, S.J., Director of the Vatican Observatory (1 Jun 1988).
 
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Monday, 6 November 2006

"This increasing ‘advance’ of science, and especially its capacity to master nature through technology, has at times been linked to a corresponding ‘retreat’ of philosophy, of religion, and even of the Christian faith. Indeed, some have seen in the progress of modern science and technology one of the main causes of secularization and materialism: why invoke God’s control over these phenomena when science has shown itself capable of doing the same thing? Certainly the Church acknowledges that “with the help of science and technology…, man has extended his mastery over almost the whole of nature”, and thus “he now produces by his own enterprise benefits once looked for from heavenly powers” (Gaudium et Spes, 33). At the same time, Christianity does not posit an inevitable conflict between supernatural faith and scientific progress. The very starting-point of Biblical revelation is the affirmation that God created human beings, endowed them with reason, and set them over all the creatures of the earth. In this way, man has become the steward of creation and God’s “helper”. If we think, for example, of how modern science, by predicting natural phenomena, has contributed to the protection of the environment, the progress of developing nations, the fight against epidemics, and an increase in life expectancy, it becomes clear that there is no conflict between God’s providence and human enterprise. Indeed, we could say that the work of predicting, controlling and governing nature, which science today renders more practicable than in the past, is itself a part of the Creator’s plan.

"Science, however, while giving generously, gives only what it is meant to give. Man cannot place in science and technology so radical and unconditional a trust as to believe that scientific and technological progress can explain everything and completely fulfil all his existential and spiritual needs. Science cannot replace philosophy and revelation by giving an exhaustive answer to man’s most radical questions: questions about the meaning of living and dying, about ultimate values, and about the nature of progress itself. For this reason, the Second Vatican Council, after acknowledging the benefits gained by scientific advances, pointed out that the “scientific methods of investigation can be unjustifiably taken as the supreme norm for arriving at truth”, and added that “there is a danger that man, trusting too much in the discoveries of today, may think that he is sufficient unto himself and no longer seek the higher values”.
 
“No real disagreement can exist between the theologian and the scientist provided each keeps within his own limits. . . . If nevertheless there is a disagreement . . . it should be remembered that the sacred writers, or more truly ‘the Spirit of God who spoke through them, did not wish to teach men such truths (as the inner structure of visible objects) which do not help anyone to salvation’; and that, for this reason, rather than trying to provide a scientific exposition of nature, they sometimes describe and treat these matters either in a somewhat figurative language or as the common manner of speech those times required, and indeed still requires nowadays in everyday life, even amongst most learned people” (Pope Leo XIII, *Providentissimus Deus *18).
 
“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.” — Jacques Maritain
 
“Why are there organized beings? Why is there something rather than nothing? Here again, I fully understand a scientist who refuses to ask it. He is welcome to tell me that the question does not make sense. Scientifically speaking, it does not. Metaphysically speaking, however, it does. Science can account for many things in the world; it may some day account for all that which the world of phenomena actually is. But why anything at all is, or exists, science knows not, precisely because it cannot even ask the question.”- Etienne Gilson
 
“How could science be an enemy of religion when God commanded man to be a scientist the day He told him to rule the earth and subject it?” - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
 
dmar198 said:
I agree with that.

I also think some people have more authority than others on certain issues. If my pool guy says that his experience of cleaning my pool has taught him that evolution is real, that’s not a very persuasive testimony to me. But if a prize-winning biologist says that all of his experience studying biology has taught him that evolution is real, that’s more convincing. Do you think that’s reasonable?
Click to expand...
I have seen doctors get schooled in medicine but laymen. The reason we created democracy is because unintelligent people can be high born and highly intelligent people can be low born.

Tim Allen is a self learned scientist…and he is just a goofy comedian who probably knows more about quantum physics that most people.

Here is a list of people who’s opinions didn’t matter until they became big enough to make this list:

businessinsider.com/top-100-entrepreneurs-who-made-millions-without-a-college-degree-2011-1

Maybe if we didn’t listen to just people we THINK we should…but rather listen to reasoned ideas and evaluated them on their merit…the world would be a smarter place?

I have talked to even some really dumb people who have insight.

In terms of authoritative speech I like this one:

If the Devil himself tells you God says “Do not kill” does it become less true???
 
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