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Science, Spirit and Religion

Started by Unbeliever, October 18, 2006, 04:29:08 pm

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Unbeliever

October 18, 2006, 04:29:08 pm Last Edit: March 17, 2011, 02:09:05 pm by Unbeliever

Quote from: Isaac AsimovTo rebel against a powerful political, economic, religious, or social establishment is very dangerous and very few people do it, except, perhaps, as part of a mob. To rebel against the "scientific" establishment, however, is the easiest thing in the world, and anyone can do it and feel enormously brave, without risking as much as a hangnail. Thus, the vast majority, who believe in astrology and think that the planets have nothing better to do than form a code that will tell them whether tomorrow is a good day to close a business deal or not, become all the more excited and enthusiastic about the bilge when a group of astronomers denounces it.


Quote from: Frederik Jozef Belinfonte, in [i]The World Within the World[/i] by John D. Barrow (1988)If I get the inpression that nature itself makes the decisive choice [about] what possibility to realize, where quantum theory says that more than one outcome is possible, then I am ascribing personality to Nature, that is to something that is always everywhere.
[An] omnipresent eternal personality which is omnipotent in taking the decisions that are left undetermined by physical law is exactly what in the language of religion is called God.


Quote from: Alexander Chase, [i]Perspectives[/i] (1966)Gods are born and die, but the atom endures.


Quote from: Charles Darwin, [i]On the Origin of Species[/i] (1859)For my own part, I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs - as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions.


Quote from: Paul Heinrich Dietrich d'Holbach, [i]Good sense[/i] (1772)Theology is but the ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system...[It] is a science that has for its objects only things incomprehensible.


Quote from: Charles Darwin, in a letter to Karl Marx, 1880, in [i]Ever Since Darwin[/i] by Stephen J. Gould (1978)It seems to me (rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against Christianity and Theism hardly have any effect on the public; and that freedom of thought will be best promoted by that gradual enlightenment of human understanding which follows the progress of science.
I have therefore always avoided writing about religion and have confined myself to science.


Quote from: John Morley, in [i]A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations[/i] by Alan L. Mackay (1991)The next great task of science is to create a religion for mankind.


Quote from: Herbert Spencer, "The Developement Hypothesis" (1852), [i]Essays: Scientific, Political & Speculatve[/i] (1966)Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution as not being adequately supported by facts, seem to forget that their own theory is supported by no facts at all.


Quote from: Stephen W. Hawking, [i]The Sunday Telegraph[/i] July 26, 1998People have always wanted answers to the big questions. Where did we come from? How did the world begin? What is the meaning and design behind it all? The creation accounts of the past now seem less credible. They have been replaced by a variety of superstitions, ranging from New Age to Star Trek. But real science can be far stranger than science fiction and much more satisfying.


Quote from: Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science", [i]The New York Times Magazine[/i], November 9, 1930The man who is thouroughly convinced of the universal operation of the law of causation cannot for a moment entertain the idea of a being who interferes in the course of events....He has no use for the religion of fear and equally little for social or moral religion. A God who rewards and punishes is inconceivable to him for the simple reason that a man's actions are determined by necessity, external and internal, so that in God's eyes he cannot be responsible for the motions it undergoes....A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.


Quote from: Albert Einstein, "My Credo", 1932, in [i]The Quotable Einstein[/i] edited by Alice Calaprice (1996)I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own - a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty....It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of concious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive and try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature.


Quote from: Albert Einstein, in a letter, March 4, 1950A human being is part of the whole, called by us " Universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his conciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole [of] nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such acheivement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.


Quote from: T.H. Huxley, responding to Bishop Samuel Wilberforce's question, in [i]The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley[/i] by Leonard Huxley (1900)I asserted - and I repeat - that a man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be a man - a man of restless and versatile intellect - who, not content with equivocal success in his own sphere of activity, plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them by an aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digressions and skilled appeals to religious prejudice.


Quote from: Gherman Titov, Soviet cosmonaut, in [i]The Seattle Daily Times[/i], May 7, 1962Some say God is living there [in space]. I was looking around very attentively, but I did not see anyone there. I did not detect either angels or gods....I don't believe in God. I believe in man - his strength, his possibilities, his reason.
"Some say God is living there [in space]. I was looking around very attentively, but I did not see anyone there. I did not detect either angels or gods....I don't believe in God. I believe in man - his strength, his possibilities, his reason."
Gherman Titov, Soviet cosmonaut, in The Seattle Daily Ti