Thanks to Green Shinto supporter, A.J. Dickinson, for pointing out a collection of quotes in the Huffington Post about the compatibility of science and a religious outlook. Here follow a few interesting observations by members of the scientific community.
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Full moon at Shimogamo Jinja
Carl Sagan (1934-1996)–American astrophysicist
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual…The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958-) –American astrophysicist and science commentator
“So you’re made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?”
Francis Collins (1950-) –American geneticist, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute
“Science is…a powerful way, indeed – to study the natural world. Science is not particularly effective…in making commentary about the supernatural world. Both worlds, for me, are quite real and quite important. They are investigated in different ways. They coexist. They illuminate each other.”
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) –German physicist, created theory of general relativity.
While the New York Times noted that “Einstein consistently characterized the idea of a personal God who answers prayers as naive, and life after death as wishful thinking,” he also “described himself as an ‘agnostic’ and ‘not an atheist.'” One ambiguous quote, from Einstein’s response to a letter from a sixth-grade student named Phyllis Wright, reads “Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe – a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is indeed quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.”
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) –British biophysicist renowned for her work on X-ray diffraction.
“In my view, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer to success and that success in our aims (the improvement of the lot of mankind, present and future) is worth attaining…I maintain that faith in this world is perfectly possible without faith in another world.”
Victor J. Stenger (1935-)–American physicist
“With pantheism…the deity is associated with the order of nature or the universe itself…when modern scientists such as Einstein and Stephen Hawking mention ‘God’ in their writing, this is what they seem to mean: that God is Nature.”
In the grounds of Togakushi Jinja in Nagano
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