The Evolution of Scientists Faith
By spiderman05
@spiderman05 (851)
Canada
February 14, 2007 7:04pm CST
It is interesting to see how the faith of scientists, especially physicists, did evolve as they gained more knowledge about the inner workings of nature.
Ancient scientists like Galileo were known to be religious. Galileo even described mathematics to be the alphabet that God used to write the universe. French scientist Blaise Pascal also was known to be a pious man. He even wrote a book about Christianity. Sir Isaac Newton was a firm believer. He believed in an absolute truth, and in a deterministic universe that obeyed some fixed and simple rules and that operated so predictably as a clock.
Then came relativity that stated that there are no absolute truths. Einstein was an atheist, but he still believed in a deterministic universe.
Things started to change when scientists started to look under the hood to discover the strangeness of the subatomic world, this gave rise to a new physics, quantum physics.
Scientists found out that nature at the subatomic scale is non-deterministic, that particles exist in several superposed states. The idea of a clean and deterministic universe just vanished. No wonder why many quantum physicists like Richard Feynman are/were atheists.
Do you believe that scientists and people in general will tend to lose their faith as they learn more about the workings of nature?
6 people like this
9 responses
@Camellia_Sinensis (93)
• Australia
15 Feb 07
This year we had a large section on evolution at uni, and it was interesting that our lecturer was a preacher at a christian church.
I suppose those who take a less literal view of the bible, and just believe in a higher power can still study science, but I recall one person who was fiercely religious being completely unable to understand the concept.
3 people like this
@spiderman05 (851)
• Canada
15 Feb 07
That' s true, some religious persons are open-minded and they don't fear questioning their faith as well as comparing religious texts to scientific facts (generally, in a quest to reconcile both of them).
1 person likes this
@Thomas73 (1467)
• Switzerland
15 Feb 07
As Ras rightly said, faith is usually used to fill the gaps of our knowledge about life and the universe. When we do get proper answers after testing the hypotheses, we don't need any superstition anymore to explain natural phenomena. Besides, when we realise that the religious dogmas are completely mistaken on one point or another, we start questioning how much of the rest of what religions teach is false. Could it be that all is just one big fairy tale? Very possibly.
3 people like this
@suedarr (2382)
• Canada
15 Feb 07
In answer to your question, no I do not believe that faith is based only on the ignorance of science and nature. For instance a good friend of mine who is a prof in the Astro/physics department of our local University is also a practising Roman Catholic and attends his church regularly. I have another friend who is Jewish that is a professional scientist, she did not drop her faith simply because she attained her BSC. They could both argue that their faith has nothing to do with their capabilities as scientists. Not all scientists are Atheist. Cheers!
1 person likes this
@suedarr (2382)
• Canada
15 Feb 07
I should add that science is a methodology, not a philosophy, faith, or religion in and of itself. Often Atheists, of which I was raised to be one, confuse this when defending their own view in debate. My father was an Atheist and a scientist, and taught me this.
@sigma77 (5383)
• United States
16 Feb 07
I don't think so. There will still be those that believe in a God and those that don't. I don't think science will ever prove it one way or the other. I think that as more is discovered about quantum physics, we will find that we live in a universe that is an illusion that each one of us creates for our own purposes.
1 person likes this
@grinjaguar (571)
• Philippines
15 Feb 07
if people will question how things existed not why then it is likely that they'll lose faith.
1 person likes this
@spiderman05 (851)
• Canada
15 Feb 07
That is typically what scientists do, they are interested in the "how" of things and not the "why" of things. The "why" have been always the subject of philosophy. So, accoring to you, all scientists are meant sooner or later to lost their faith?
1 person likes this
@unusualsuspect (2602)
• United States
15 Feb 07
There's a pretty clear correlation between education and freedom from religion, so if science was taught in all schools, and not watered down, we would see a decrease in religious belief. But I don't think religion will ever disappear completely.
@karlasper (99)
• Philippines
16 Feb 07
Mmmm.... for the intellectuals with greater tendency toward science-based approach of knowing the Absolute will probably pull them further from believing the existence of the Absolute. Well, its different fromt the simple men whose faith in the Absolute they call God is rooted from their personal experience or encounter with It. For me science is good, but there is simply too large that mind has to discover and every now and then there are changes in the theories and principles underlying the universe and everything in it. For the men of the present time, waiting for the truth that science promise to unveil is very farfetched. The searching nan, needs to feel and experience that truth as an individual person and not as part of the human race that geneerations by generations have to discover what really is the truth of the matter about the Absolute. And the only way for to experience the Absolute is realize and discern in himself the "working" of the Absolute so that he himself can testify to its existence for his evernthough others, especially the science community that do not believe in the Absolute would refut the man's testimony. Faith is a personal experience and no one I believe can measure that in a believing person.
@im_theboss (384)
• India
16 Feb 07
who's God? he's the one who created us n this universe. a stage will come when human will be able to answer who created us n the universe. n that day science will be lnked with spiritualism. have u heard about rael n his theory. i laughed when i heard of him. but when i went through his book rael: intelligent design, my mouth remained wide open. if u believe that science n spiritualism: both leads us to one goal only..:God....then this book is a must for u.
u can download it for FREE from the site www.rael.org
