Posted on 8/23/2005, 4:39:09 AM by Crackingham
At a recent scientific conference at City College of New York, a student in the audience rose to ask the panelists an unexpected question: "Can you be a good scientist and believe in God?"
Reaction from one of the panelists, all Nobel laureates, was quick and sharp. "No!" declared Herbert A. Hauptman, who shared the chemistry prize in 1985 for his work on the structure of crystals.
Belief in the supernatural, especially belief in God, is not only incompatible with good science, Dr. Hauptman declared, "this kind of belief is damaging to the well-being of the human race."
But disdain for religion is far from universal among scientists. And today, as religious groups challenge scientists in arenas as various as evolution in the classroom, AIDS prevention and stem cell research, scientists who embrace religion are beginning to speak out about their faith.
"It should not be a taboo subject, but frankly it often is in scientific circles," said Francis S. Collins, who directs the National Human Genome Research Institute and who speaks freely about his Christian faith.
Although they embrace religious faith, these scientists also embrace science as it has been defined for centuries. That is, they look to the natural world for explanations of what happens in the natural world and they recognize that scientific ideas must be provisional - capable of being overturned by evidence from experimentation and observation. This belief in science sets them apart from those who endorse creationism or its doctrinal cousin, intelligent design, both of which depend on the existence of a supernatural force.
Their belief in God challenges scientists who regard religious belief as little more than magical thinking, as some do. Their faith also challenges believers who denounce science as a godless enterprise and scientists as secular elitists contemptuous of God-fearing people.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
INTREP - false dicotomy ALERT
As one (near) atheist to another, Hauptman, you strike me as one lacking much intellectual or moral wisdom or imagination. Maybe you are spending too much time in the lab. Maybe you should get out more.
"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom." ___ Albert Einstein
"What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can
comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking personwith a feeling of "humility." This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism" ___ Albert Einstein
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." ___ Albert Einstein, Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium (1941) ch. 13
All fools! [/sarc]
This Hauptman sounds like a Marxist nut. I mean, come on, "No!" The audience should have been roaring with laughter.
Blaise Pascal, Gregor Mendel (Augustinian Monk and key figure in the study of Genetics),...
Moral Absolutes Ping. FYI...
One of a gazillion articles lately about evolution, ID, religion and science lately. Hmmm, it sounds to me as though blind belief in the hard sciences is wearing a little thin.
One can have faith in something that is false. Just a thought.
Also, even if - just for argument's sake - science could really come up undeniable truth about, well, whatever is within its particular purview - it would still leave God out of the picture. No microscope, telescope, scanner, measuring device, theorem or eqation can ever pin down or dissect the Supreme God.
For one thing, all such devices are created by the mind and hands of man, and all men are fallible. Prone to mistakes. Sometimes cheat and lie.
Freepmail me if you want on/off this pinglist.
Note: Does this mean God cannot ever be known or perceived? Of course not. There are other means of perception besides the eyes, ears, skin and even the limited mind.
| "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." | |
| — | Albert Einstein "Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium", 1941 |
Stop quoting that crackpot.
We all know his religious beliefs rendered him useless...
;-)
It takes faith to believe in evolution just like it takes faith to believe in God and "intelligent design".
One scientist is still perplexing over consciousness and another over "irreversible complexity".
Full disclosure: Former non-charismatic born again.
**This belief in science sets them apart from those who endorse creationism or its doctrinal cousin, intelligent design, both of which depend on the existence of a supernatural force.**
Why does belief in God contradict belief in science? I suppose science has disproven God's existence.
Isaac Newton believed in creationism and God. He famously said that he was "thinking God's thoughts after Him". This notion - that nature's laws were set by a divine Lawmaker - is beyond some people's ability to grasp.
Newton also said, "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done." Did Isaac Newton not believe in science, because of his evident belief in a "supernatural force"?
If science had not said so adamantly that there is no God ... science would not be so distrusted and despised. They accuse the religionists of mixing religion and science ... but they started it.
Louis Pasteur
Let's put it this way.
Can you measure the sun's heat with a wooden ruler, or even a porch thermometer?
Can you measure the vast distances of space by spreading your thumb and little finger apart?
Can you see the back of your eyeballs - WITH your eyes directly?
No?
This does not mean, as I said above, that God's existence and presence cannot be perceived and realized, at least to some degree (the degree that He allows).
The degree that any of us perceive His presence depends upon His will. He can't be chased down with scientific instruments. THe most science can do is to some little degree measure the energy that He manifests in this world. And after all, every one of us is perceiving his energy right now - who else's energy is making up the atoms that are in front of our eyes, and are our eyes?
In order to see the truth of God, one has to be willing to serve the truth of God. He's not a butterfly to be caught and pinned.
It isn't blind belief. It's backed up by success after success.
Only those that are blind can ignore the successes of science.
You want to get rid of science and go back to a "god only" world? Fine. Live with the most backward, tribal, primitive people that don't have science and only god.
You can test your faith in god by praying to him when you get the plague, or are starving to death. It's a good experiment. Maybe you'll finally open your eyes to the truth, which is that god is a myth, and that science, in about 400 years did more to advance humanity than 1,000s of years of belief in the big daddy in the sky.
Note that neither of your quotes includes the word "god".
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