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SCIENTISTS
BELIEVE IN GOD
From - "American Enterprise
Online"
The
scientific community
should recall that most of the founders of modern science believed in
God, albeit often unconventionally. To Copernicus, Kepler, Newton,
Boyle, Bacon, Pasteur, and Einstein, science was not simply
contradictory to religion.
Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473-1543) developed the theory that the sun was at the center of the
universe and the Earth spins on its axis. He believed his model of the
universe demonstrated the wisdom of God's layout: 'At rest in the
middle of everything is the sun. For in this most beautiful temple, who
would place this lamp in another or better position?'
![]() Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
carried on Copernicus's work and calculated the
orbit of the planets.
Kepler began his studies with the intention of becoming a theologian
but switched to astronomy when he realized Copernicus was right about
the placement of the sun. 'I believe this,' Kepler noted, 'because I
have constantly prayed to God that I might succeed if what Copernicus
had said was true.' 'For a long time I wanted to become a theologian,'
Kepler wrote to a friend, 'for a long time I was restless. Now,
however, behold how through my effort God is being celebrated through
astronomy.'
To Kepler, the mechanics of
nature did not negate God; rather they were His tune in a grand melody.
'Man can play through,' Kepler wrote about the mechanics of nature, to
'the delight of God, the Supreme Artist, by calling forth that very
sweet pleasure of the music that imitates God.' Kepler even compared
his discoveries to the birth of Christ. 'I am writing the book' to be
read now or by posterity, it matters not. It can wait a century for a
reader, as God himself has waited 6,000 years for a witness.'
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
formulated the laws of gravity and motion and the elements of
differential calculus, and found no contradiction between faith and
science. He thought science's scope should be limited to the provable:
'We are to admit no more causes of na
tural
things than such as are both
true and sufficient to explain their appearances.' Newton, who lived
before philosophy and science split into two disciplines, believed
scientists should follow empirical evidence and not be afraid to see
the hand of God in their conclusions. 'All sound and true philosophy is
founded on the appearance of things; and if this phenomena inevitably
draws us against our wills, to such principles as most clearly manifest
to us the most excellent council and supreme dominion of the All-Wise
and Almighty Being, they are not therefore to be laid aside because
some men may perhaps dislike them.' Nor did Newton believe that
scientists could find a place in time or in nature devoid of God: 'He
endures forever; and is present everywhere, by existing always and
everywhere, He constitutes duration and space.'![]() Religious-minded founders of
modern science were not limited to physics and astronomy.
Robert Boyle
(1627-1691), the founder of modern chemistry, began every day with a
prayer and spent all of his income from lands in Ireland as a good
Christian (two-thirds went to help the poor and support the Protestant
church, one-third to spreading Christianity among American Indians).
Boyle devoted many of his later writings to arguing that modern science
was not atheistic, nor would mechanics replace God. He was in awe of
the beauty of nature: 'When I study the book of nature' I find myself
often times reduced to exclaim with the psalmist, 'How manifold are thy
works, O Lord, in wisdom hast thou made them all!'
I find it interesting that
some of the greatest scientific minds in history, many who were also
persecuted by the church for there views and findings, still believed
in God, don t you? The more they learned, the more they believed in a
God.
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 11 August 2005
About two-thirds of
scientists believe in God, according to a new survey that uncovered
stark differences based on the type of research they do.
The study, along with
another one released in June, would appear to debunk the oft-held
notion that science is incompatible with religion.
Those in the social sciences
are more likely to believe in God and attend religious services than
researchers in the natural sciences, the study found.
The opposite had been
expected.
Nearly 38 percent of natural
scientists -- people in disciplines like physics, chemistry and biology
-- said they do not believe in God. Only 31 percent of the social
scientists do not believe.
In the new study, Rice
University sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund surveyed 1,646 faculty
members at elite research universities, asking 36 questions about
belief and spiritual practices.
"Based on previous research,
we thought that social scientists would be less likely to practice
religion than natural scientists are, but our data showed just the
opposite," Ecklund said.
Some stand-out stats: 41
percent of the biologists don't believe, while that figure is just 27
percent among political scientists.
In separate work at the
University of Chicago, released in June, 76 percent of doctors said
they believed in God and 59 percent believe in some sort of afterlife.
"Now we must examine the
nature of these differences," Ecklund said today. "Many scientists see
themselves as having a spirituality not attached to a particular
religious tradition. Some scientists who don't believe in God see
themselves as very spiritual people. They have a way outside of
themselves that they use to understand the meaning of life."
, Discovery
Institute, June 20, 2006 Dissent From Darwin “Goes Global” as Over 600 Scientists From Around the World Express Their Doubts About Darwin’s Theory The list is now located at the website, www.dissentfromdarwin.org SEATTLE — Over 600 doctoral scientists from around the world have now signed a statement publicly expressing their skepticism about the contemporary theory of Darwinian evolution. The statement, located online at www.dissentfromdarwin.org, reads: “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.” The fastest growing segment of the list is scientists from outside the United States. International scientists now represent just over 12% of all signers, and as a group has seen nearly 40% growth in the past four months. “I signed the Scientific Dissent From Darwinism statement, because I am absolutely convinced of the lack of true scientific evidence in favour of Darwinian dogma,” said Raul Leguizamon, M. D., Pathologist, and a professor of medicine at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, Mexico. “Nobody in the biological sciences, medicine included, needs Darwinism at all,” added Leguizamon. “Darwinism is certainly needed, however, in order to pose as a philosopher, since it is primarily a worldview. And an awful one, as Bernard Shaw used to say.” The list of 610 signatories includes member scientists from National Academies of Science in Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary, India (Hindustan), Nigeria, Poland, Russia and the United States. Many of the signers are professors or researchers at major universities and international research institutions such as Cambridge University, British Museum of Natural History, Moscow State University, Masaryk University in Czech Republic, Hong Kong University, University of Turku in Finland, Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Mexico, University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, Institut de Paléontologie Humaine in France, Chitose Institute of Science & Technology in Japan, Ben-Gurion University in Israel, MIT, The Smithsonian and Princeton. “Dissent from Darwinism has gone global,” said Discovery Institute President Bruce Chapman, former US Ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna. “Darwinists used to claim that virtually every scientist in the world held that Darwinian evolution was true, but we quickly started finding US scientists that disproved that statement. Now we’re finding that there are hundreds, and probably thousands, of scientists all over the world that don’t subscribe to Darwin’s theory.” Discovery Institute first published its Scientific Dissent From Darwinism list in 2001 to challenge false statements about Darwinian evolution made in promoting PBS’s “Evolution” series. At the time it was claimed that “virtually every scientist in the world believes the theory to be true.” Prominent signatories include U.S. National Academy of Sciences member Philip Skell; American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow Lyle Jensen; evolutionary biologist and textbook author Stanley Salthe; Smithsonian Institution evolutionary biologist and a researcher at the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Biotechnology Information Richard von Sternberg; Editor of Rivista di Biologia / Biology Forum --the oldest still published biology journal in the world-- Giuseppe Sermonti; and Russian Academy of Natural Sciences embryologist Lev Beloussov. |
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