Quotes from some Scientists

From: Science & Faith (Notes by Norm Herr)

 

 

Nicolaus Copernicus

1473-1543 Polish Astronomer. Developed the heliocentric theory of the solar system.

"The Universe has been wrought for us by a supremely good and orderly Creator"

 

Galileo Galilei

1564-1642 Italian Physicist, kinematics, heliocentric system

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

"Both the Holy Scriptures and Nature proceed from the Divine Word, the former as the saying of the Holy Spirit and the latter as the most observant executrix or God's orders."

"The Bible tells us how to go to Heaven, not how the heavens go."

"It has always seemed to me extreme presumptuousness on the part of those who want to make human ability the measure of what nature can and knows how to do, since, when one comes down to it, there is not one effect in nature, no matter how small, that even the most speculative minds can fully understand." Galileo Galilei

Johannes Kepler:

1571-1630 German Astronomer

(planetary orbits, optics, mathematical language of science)
The 3 laws of planetary motion. Advanced Copernicus' heliocentric theory.
"Since we astronomers are priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature, it befits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."

“...the harmony in the universe is "a sacred sermon, a veritable hymn to God the Creator".... "Oh God, I am thinking thy thoughts after Thee" Johannes Kepler

"I believe only and alone in the service of Jesus Christ. In him is all refuge and solace."

 

Newton Isaac: 1642-1727

English mathematician & physicist, one of the greatest scientists of all time.
Laws of gravitation and motion, developed calculus. Major contributions to optics, physics, math and astronomy.

The solar system itself could not have been produced by blind chance or fortuitous causes but only by a cause "very well skilled in mechanics and geometry."

"There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history."

"No sciences are better attested to than the science of the Bible." "This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.... This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to be called Lord God." Isaac Newton; Principles.

"It must be expressed in the very form of sound words in which it was delivered by the apostles. For men are apt to run into partings about deductions. All the old heresies lie in deductions. The true faith was in the Biblical texts."

 

James Clerk Maxwell

Scottish Physicist

discovered the relationships between electricity, magnetism and light and introduced the concept of field of EM force, devout Christian

"Happy is the man who can recognize in the work of today a connected portion of the work of life, and an embodiment of the work of Eternity."

"Think what God has determined to do to all those who submit themselves to his righteousness and are willing to receive his gift [of eternal life in Jesus Christ]. They are to be conformed to the image of his Son and when that is fulfilled and God sees they are conformed to the image of Christ, there can be no more condemnation."

The rate of change of scientific hypotheses is naturally much more rapid than that of Biblical interpretation. So if an interpretation is founded on such a hypothesis it may help to keep the hypothesis above ground long after it ought to be buried and forgotten.

 

Robert Boyle

Developed the idea of atoms. Boyle's law.

Wrote: The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation. Governor of the Corporation for the Spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England.

 

Michael Faraday

Discovered benzene and electromagnetic radiation, invented the generator and was the main architect of classical field
theory. One of the preminent experimental scientists of all time.

"Speculations, man, I have none. I have certainties. I thank God that I don't rest my dying head upon speculations for "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day."

 

George Stokes

One of the great pioneers of spectroscopy, study of fluids and fluorescence.

Admit the existence of a personal God and the possibility of miracles follows at once. If the laws of nature are carried out in accordance with his will, he who willed them may will their suspension….

Arthur Compton

Nobel Prize-winning physicist for his discovery and explanation of the change in the wavelength of X rays when they collide with electrons. Compton effect confirmed the dual nature of electromagnetic radiation as both a wave and a particle.

"For myself, faith begins with a realization that a supreme intelligence brought the universe into being and created man. It is not difficult for me to have this faith, for it is incontrovertible that where there is a plan there is intelligence--an orderly, unfolding universe testifies to the truth of the most majestic statement ever uttered--'In the beginning God.'" Dr. Arthur Compton, Nobel Prize-winning physicist for his discovery and explanation of the change in the wavelength of X rays when they collide with electrons. Compton effect confirmed the dual nature of electromagnetic radiation as both a wave and a particle.

 

Michael Faraday:

1791-1869 English Chemist
Discovered Benzene, electromagnetic induction, lines of force, relationship between polarized light and magnetic fields. Strong believer in the literal interpretation of Scripture. Deacon and elder in his church.
"Since peace is alone in the gift of God; and since it is He who gives it, why should we be afraid? His unspeakable gift in His beloved Son is the ground of no doubtful hope."

 

Lord Kelvin

1824-1907 (William Thomson) British physicist; helped lay the foundations of thermodynamics.
First and second laws of thermodynamics. Absolute temp scale. Trans-Atlantic cable.
"I believe that the more thoroughly science is studied, the further does it take us from anything comparable to atheism."

Do not be afraid to be free thinkers. If you think strongly enough, you will be forced by science to the belief in God.

 

J.J. Thompson

Discovered the electron

"In the distance tower still higher [scientific] peaks which will yield to those who ascend them still wider prospects and deepen the feeling whose truth is emphasized by every advance in science, that great are the works of the Lord." (Statement in Nature)

 

Charles Coulson

Architect of moelcular orbital theory.

"There were some ten of us and together we sought for God and together we found Him. I learned for the first time in my life that God was my friend. God became real to me, utterly real. I knew Him and could talk with Him as I never imagined it before and these prayers were the most glorious moment of the day. Life had a purpose and that purpose coloured everything."

 

Charles H. Townes

Nobel Prize winner. Inventor of the maser and laser. First to observe an interstellar molecule

"You may well ask, "Where does God come into this," to me, that's almost a pointless question. If you believe in God at all, there is no particular "where"—He is always there, everywhere….To me, God is personal yet omnipresent. A great source of strength, He has made an enormous difference to me." From Making Waves.

 

Allan Sandage

One of the world's greatest observational cosmologists. Estimated the age of the universe.

"The nature of God is not to be found within any part of the findings of science. For that, one must turn to the Scriptures.

"The world is too complicated in all its parts and interconnections to be due to chance…I am convinced that the existence of life with all its order and each of its organisms is simply too well put together."

 

William Phillips

Nobel prize for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.

"God has given us an incredibly fascinating world to live in and explore."

 

Arthur Schawlow

Nobel Prize winner in Physics.Development of the laser and laser spectroscopy

"We are fortunate to have the Bible, and especially the New Testament, which tells so much about God in widely accessible, human terms."

 

Alexander Polyakov

Russian Physicist

"We know that nature is described by the best of all possible mathematics because God created it." The famous Russian physicist, Alexander Polyakov Fortune magazine (October, 1986),

 

Sir William Herschel

"All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more the Truths contained in the Sacred Scriptures."

Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), English astronomer, he made numerous discoveries about the laws of the heavens.

C.F.Gauss
One of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Contributed significantly to pure mathematic and made practical applications of importance for 20th-century astronomy, geodesy, and electromagnetism.
"There are problems to whose solution I would attach an infinitely greater importance than to those of mathematics, for example touching ethics, or our relation to God, or concerning our destiny and our future; but their solution lies wholly beyond us and completely outside the province of science."

Blaise Pascal:

1623-1662 French mathematician & physicist. Father of the mathematical theory of probability and combinatorial analysis and provided the essential link between the mechanics of fluids and the mechanics of rigid bodies.

"There is a God-shaped vacuum in every heart."

"Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false?... if you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wage, then, without hesitation, that He exists."

"But by Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ, we prove God and teach doctrine and morals. Jesus Christ, then, is the true God of men."

Submission and use of reason; that is what makes true Christianity. (Pensees, p 53)

Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science. (Pensees, p 6)

We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart. … For knowledge of first principles, like space, time, motion, number, is as solid as any derived through reason, and it is on such knowledge, coming from the heart and instinct, that reason has to depend and base all its argument. … It is just as pointless and absurd for reason to demand proof of first principles from the heart before agreeing to accept them as it would be absurd for the heart to demand an intuition of all the propositions demonstrated by reason before agreeing to accept them. Our inability must therefore serve only to humble reason, which would like to be the judge of everything, but not to confute our certainty. As if reason were the only way we could learn! (Pensees, p 28-29)

For a religion to be true it must have known our nature; it must have known its greatness and smallness, and the reason for both. What other religion but Christianity has known this? (Pensees, p 69)

John Wheeler:

Princeton University astronomer

"Slight variations in physical laws such as gravity or electromagnetism would make life impossible . . . the necessity to produce life lies at the center of the universe's whole machinery and design," stated John Wheeler, Princeton University professor of physics (Reader's Digest, Sept., 1986).

Sir Fred Hoyle

British astronomer and agnostic

"Such properties seem to run through the fabric of the natural world like a thread of happy coincidences. But there are so many odd coincidences essential to life that some explanation seems required to account for them." Sir Fred Hoyle, the famous British astronomer and agnostic, in The Intelligent Universe

 

Paul Davies

astrophysicist

"The equations of physics have in them incredible simplicity, elegance, and beauty. That in itself is sufficient to prove to me that there must be a God who is responsible for these laws and responsible for the universe" astrophysicist Paul Davies; Superforce (1984)

 

Stephen Hawking

astrophysicist

"In fact, if one considers the possible constants and laws that could have emerged, the odds against a universe that produced life like ours are immense."

See also article by Dr. Henry F. Schaefer, Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry and the director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at the University of Georgia.