Science And Religion Quotes: What World's Greatest Scientists Say About God

Figuring God into the world of science is a nebulous task. What happens when observers of the fact-based natural world must come to terms with the faith-based spirituality of the mystical world?

Over the centuries, scientists' opinions have varied—from a reconciliation of the two to a complete rejection of one or the other. These days, many scientists span a middle ground—admitting the possibility of an omnipotent force, but refusing to assert one exists because, well, "we just don't know."

Below are science and religion quotes from 20 top scientists, ranging from the founding fathers of science to modern researchers who chose to speak out about their religious beliefs.

And if you just can't get enough, here's footage of 50 more famous scientists talking about God.

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Comments

[lastwarning2earth rev14]

18 hours ago ( 9:21 PM)

Of course its impossible for a scientist to prove the existence of God.
God i.s well aware that scientist exist, after all. Its God that created science

[LisaLore]

7 hours ago ( 9:14 AM)

No, it's not God that created science. Science is a human endeavor. Our attempt to understand the natural world. Which may have been created by God. So if God exists, and created this universe, science studies what God made. But that study is our HUMAN attempt to understand what God probably already knows.

However, since there's no evidence of God (for or against), science is and must remain neutral on God. Even if some individual scientists do not (one way or the other).

[OneCryingPrepare]

10:28 AM on 05/26/2012

Bring all the great minds of secular humanism throught world history together, and what has been said is nothing of importance that anyone should take into consideration concerning what is believed by these ignorant people about GOD. GOD has laughed at our ignorance, but now GOD commands that we all repent and trust in Christ for the saving of our souls. Who is man to GOD? Nothing...

[David Weidner]

08:59 AM on 05/28/2012

Wow, it's almost like you have a hotline directly to Zues. You are pretty important to the future of mankind with all of your direct contact with the creator. Next time that you talk with god, can you relay a message to her for me? Tell her, "Thankfully, you do not exist." Thanks man.

[OneCryingPrepare]

02:58 PM on 05/29/2012

Regretfully one day you will realize that you are terribly wrong!
 

[lastwarning2earth rev14]

18 hours ago ( 9:23 PM)

Yes right on. We need another reformation

[Zaida Adams]

09:40 AM on 05/14/2012

God is everything and nothing all at once, nowhere and here now, ever silent and neutral in judgement, yet the greatest creative artist of all... but who or what is God? Is everything that harbours life, such as ourselves, the God living experience? Or is he the life giver that lets life live freely? Do we walk within him or is he within us? ... Seems he thrives on mystery, and yet will whisper, I am that simple that your complexity will not see me... Yet I whisper in your ear, through your blood, I am your beating heart and your enquiring mind... I often picture evolution as one soul in orbit of self discovery, like a student in learning, and I wonder, when we finally do come to stand before God, will we be looking at ourselves?... I found a quote from Khalil Gibran over the weekend and it reminded me of that thought... He said: "Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.”
God is that beauty, the master, and we are the mirror, the pupil... and when he looks through the mirror of eternal life, into the depths of his own pupils, he sees all of us, his scholars, sparkling like diamonds through universal skies.

[Liam Pravarde]

02:25 AM on 05/11/2012

Who on earth thought Sam Harris "one of the world's greatest scientists?"

[ZenSufi]

11:35 PM on 05/13/2012

Sam Harris.

[thefastestgazelle]

11:29 AM on 05/26/2012

I've never even heard of the guy

[Kyrani99]

12:03 PM on 05/04/2012

The scientists that deny God are also the very ones that cover up the truth about disease as you can see here http://kyrani99.wordpress.com/ We are sold misinformation so that Big Pharma can rack in a profit.

[rough neck]

07:18 PM on 04/27/2012

watch this scientist crush creationism once and for all!!!! Good riddance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfuhW7aa_eY&feature=g-vrec

[LisaLore]

6 hours ago ( 9:35 AM)

Folks, go to that link if you want a laugh, but it's deceitfully mislabeled creationist propaganda from Kent Hovind.

[dos hombres]

09:12 PM on 04/18/2012

I don't have a problem with religion and science, as long as they are not both in the science lab at the same time. Also I notice that the words spirituality and religion seem to be often used interchangeably. Many religious people look at faith healing as 'real' whereas spiritual people who are not religious would see faith healing as a fraud. In my view, spirituality has nothing to do with religion. When I am at 150 feet below the surface of the tropical ocean, inundated and almost overwhelmed with visual information I often feel 'spiritual' and very much aware of my own infinitesimal and yet important place in the universe. My view of all religions is extremely negative and there is no room for such silliness in my life.

[Steel134]

11:54 PM on 04/17/2012

Why would anyone want to base their life on a book written 2000 years ago by a bunch of uneducated sheep herders?

[Toutlaguerre]

10:17 AM on 04/18/2012

The bible was written by men from different walks of life: some were shepherds, kings, doctors, lawyers, tax collectors, architects, engineers.

[dos hombres]

10:17 PM on 04/18/2012

Actually, much of the materials in the 2000 yr old bible were lifted from older myths which were part of the culture of the Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations, located in the area of modern day Iraq. These writings, in cuneiform script, date at roughly three to four millennia BC. The Moses story, (the baby in the basket in the river ) and the expulsion from paradise by an angry god, both originate, as written text, in these materials So we are talking about 5-6 thousand year old stories and myths as the basis for about 41,000 different Christian sects existing today. (Each sect of course considers itself to be the "true" version). The age of the oral versions of this same material will of course never be known but it is safe to assume that the stories were around a goodly amount of time before they were written down.
Also, depending on the internet source you believe there were between 20 - 30 gospels available to the early drafters of the bible as we know it. For reasons known only to the early church fathers, they chose only the four gospels for their version of the stories.
To look upon this present day version as "the word of god", to be used as a blueprint and a guide in real world life seems a bit silly and pretentious to me.

[evolvedtg]

12:12 AM on 04/20/2012

So THEY would not have to think, no., 1., and because some saw it as a way to control others for thousands of years, to take their money for 'god' and to rape their children. I don't see any other reason. Anyone?

[evolvedtg]

08:53 PM on 04/17/2012

Wonderful conglomeration of the views of genius. Take what you need, and disregard the rest.

[YeOldeSnark]

05:32 PM on 04/18/2012

You must be a cafeteria atheist.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

08:44 AM on 04/16/2012

Ah the usual boring back and forth ... does anyone out there have anything original to say?

How about saying the universe is a really complex video game and we are all playing it and when we "die" it is because our avatar dies and we go back to our real lives? That's not a very original thought, I came up with it years ago and was unsurprised to see that others thought of it too. (It was even made the basis for a bunch of fairly bad movies).

Pythagoras said the universe was made of numbers. The Hindu sages said the world was an illusion. Plato described human lives as being like people trapped in a cave who think that shadows cast on the walls are reality.

Maybe our world is only a dream and we will all vanish when the Sleeper wakes.

[YeOldeSnark]

05:35 PM on 04/18/2012

No, you return to the primordial goop kettle from which you were drawn. You return to what you were before birth.

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

06:33 PM on 04/18/2012

Boring. I was hoping for something more original.

Thousands of years ago our ancestors had the belief that when we died all our parts went back to where they came from, our bones to the stones of the earth, our flesh to the soil, our breath to the wind, our blood to the waters.

Personally I favor reincarnation. I'm hoping to come back as a green sea turtle or a monk seal in my next life.

[Mr Sick Of Greed]

05:56 PM on 04/24/2012

good stuff, seriously, I find it to be so hilarious how predictable the things people
say on here over and over and over....like you said the boring back and forth.....
neither side can disprove or prove the existence of God.....i wish we could leave it at that....but no we get to hear people recycle the same old garbage endlessly.....

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

04:55 AM on 04/25/2012

I like to through a curve ball in every now and then just to liven things up. For instance I like to say I know Thor is real because I read the comic books and saw the movie. Most people get it but some are just so lame...

[wutrup]

10:23 AM on 04/13/2012

God is the fabric of all reality. We are just the result of the fabric. We are consciousness manifested, in motion.

[PrincepsMeus]

07:53 PM on 04/11/2012

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2846284361709250986

Very interesting video from a Jewish cosmologist. I wonder if the Huffington Enquirer peanut gallery will have any patience for complexity.

[peter010908]

12:28 PM on 04/11/2012

Why is it the more religious someone is the less educated they are?

[YeOldeSnark]

05:37 PM on 04/18/2012

A simple view, but completely unsupportable by demographic data.

[peter010908]

07:06 PM on 04/18/2012

Well according to the bible a talking snake told Adam and Eve not to eat the possessed fruit.

Beleiving in talking snakes is a sign of a lack of education, so my view is correct.

[mrkurtzhedead]

12:28 PM on 05/11/2012

Nonsense. Every survey done in this area shows non-believers and skeptics are better educated.

[preferslogic]

12:10 AM on 04/24/2012

There are plenty of studies linking education level and religious beliefs, with the least religious people having the highest levels of education.....do a google scholar search for peer-reviewed journals on the subject. Last I read, 93% of scientists identify as agnostic or atheists (myself included)...another correlation between intelligence and lack of religious belief.

That said...peter010908...stop being so hostile. You're discrediting yourself and making us look bad. Something like...100% of the facts are on our side of the argument...there is plenty of material available to help you make your point without hurling insults.

[peter010908]

12:19 PM on 04/11/2012

There is no God... period... now get over it.

[AghilesNahi]

10:15 AM on 04/12/2012

Evidence please...

[peter010908]

11:22 AM on 04/12/2012

That's kind of a stupid question if you think about it... If you can prove to me bigfoot and lepricons don't exist I'll prove to you that God doesn't exist.

How about this if you think God does exist then you show some proof, if you have any.

[archspoiler]

02:30 PM on 04/14/2012

One cannot prove the null hypothesis.

No go find just a teensy bit of proof FOR god's existence.

[Mr Sick Of Greed]

05:59 PM on 04/24/2012

there is no proof of such a grand assertions....period....now get over it

[gutenmorgen]

08:15 AM on 04/10/2012

One fundamental fact sets science and religion fully apart. Science accepts that a scientific theory can be wrong. Religions cannot accept that their God does not exist. Science and religion have nothing in common hence cannot mix. All attempts to the contrary are a futile waste of time.

[Astra Beaujolais]

10:45 PM on 04/16/2012

There are religious atheists. Zen Buddhists and some Unitarians to name two.

[spiremeld]

07:43 PM on 05/24/2012

Both still hold supernatural beliefs, which makes them no different than theists.