Material from CreationWiki

Many famous scientists (including Nobel laureates), who were asked to express their opinions about the “contradictions” between science and religion, directly stated their belief in God.

• Alaya, Dr. Hubert N. is a professor of chemistry at Princeton University. One of the outstanding US scientists in the field of chemistry.

• Alberti, Dr. Robert A. - Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (one of the best institutions in the USA).
• Anderson, Dr. Arthur G. - Director of the Research Center of the International Computer Corporation. (World-famous, largest corporation for the manufacture of computers.)
• Anderson, Dr. W. Elving is a professor of genetics and deputy director of the Institute of Genetics at the University of Minnesota, USA.
• Ault, Dr. Wayne Yu is a senior scientist at the Isotope Research Laboratory. (The world's first commercial laboratory to perform carbon dating and radioactive hydrogen isotope dating.)
• Outrum, Dr. Hanjochem is the dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Munich, one of the outstanding German scientists.
• Byron, Dr. Ralph L. - Head of the Department of General Surgery and Oncological Surgery (Tumors). Director of the hospital for patients with cancer and cancer-related diseases. (World famous City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles, USA.)

• Beadle, Dr. Georg W. - Director of the Research Institute of Biological Medicine of the American Medical Association, Nobel Prize laureate in physiology.
• Behe, Michael- American scientist, professor of biological sciences at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, senior researcher at the Discovery Institute in Seattle; has a degree in biochemistry.
• Carl Boe (b.1936) - American paleontologist, television presenter
• Born, Dr. Max is Emeritus Professor of Physics (retired) at the University of Göttingen and also at the University of Edinburgh. Nobel Prize winner in physics.
• von Braun, Dr. Werner is often cited as the man above all others responsible for the successful launch of astronauts to the moon, USA.
• Brooks, Dr. Harvey is the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Physics at Harvard University (the most influential university in the United States).
• Burke, Walter F. - Manager of the rockets and spacecraft department of the McDonnell Aviation Corporation. Head of the design, construction and launch of the Mercury and Gemini space capsules. Outstanding expert on space flights.
• Bjerke, Alf H. is president of the Bjerke Paint Corporation in Oslo (Norway). One of the outstanding Norwegian experts in the field of chemistry.

• Byub, Dr. Richard H. is a professor of materials science and electrical engineering at Stanford University. Author of more than one hundred scientific books and articles.
• Wallenfels, Dr. Kurt is director of the Institute of Chemistry, University of Freiburg, Germany.
• Waldman, Dr. Bernard is Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA.
• Van Iersel, Dr. Yang. J. - Professor of Experimental Zoology, Leiden University, Holland.
• Westphal, Dr. Wilhelm H. - Professor Emeritus (retired), Technical University of Berlin, Germany.
• Vilfong, Dr. Robert E. is the technical director of the nylon factory of the Du Pont Corporation, the greatest chemical company in the world. The first chemist to work in the production of Orlon, Kentris and many other fabrics for space flights.

• Wynand, Dr. Leon J.F. is Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Liege in Belgium.
• Wolf-Heidegger, Dr. Gerhard is a professor of anatomy at the University of Basel, Switzerland.
• Worcester, Dr. Willis G. - Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, USA.
• Gjoterud, Dr. Ole Christopher is a professor of physics at the University of Oslo (Norway), one of the most prominent physicists in Norway.
• Golovin, Sergey Leonidovich - Master of Science (Earth Physics), President of the Christian Scientific Apologetic Center in Crimea
• Dana, Dr. James Dwight - Dean of the Department of Geology at Princeton University, one of the greatest geologists in the United States.
• Jouncey, Dr. James H. - Head of the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, King's College, Australia. He has received 10 degrees from world-renowned universities. Author of 2 books on guided missiles and 500 scientific articles. Technical Adviser to the Australian Government during the Second World War.
• Jaken, Dr. M. is a professor of theoretical biology at Leiden University in Holland.
• Jelinek, Ulrich is president of the Severn Industrial Company in New Jersey, USA. World-famous inventor and designer of instruments and systems for space exploration.
• Johnson, Phillip Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
• Dembski, William (William Dembski) is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, M.D., with degrees in mathematics and philosophy.
• Davis, Dr. Stefan S. is Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering at Howard University in Washington, DC.
• Duchesne, Dr. Jules S. - Chairman of the Department of Atomic Molecular Physics at the University of Liege in Belgium.
• Inglis, Dr. David R. - Senior Physicist, Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, USA.
• Mark Eastman - holds a doctorate, author of "The Creator Beyond Time and Space"
• Dean Kenyon is Professor Emeritus of Biology at California State University, San Francisco, USA. Co-author of the book “Biochemical Predestination” (about the reasons for the correct structure of proteins from amino acids).
• Mosquito, Dr. Arthur B. - Dean of the Belfer Faculty of Natural Sciences; Yeshiva University in New York City, USA.
• Coop, Dr. Evert is the chief surgeon at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, USA. One of the most famous surgeons in America.
• Kush, Dr. Polycarp is a Nobel Prize winner in physics.
• Pawnshop, Dr. Augustine is a professor of geology. Former Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
• Loncio, Dr. Ole M. is a professor of physics at the University of Oslo. Norway.
• Mandel, Dr. Michel is Professor of Physical Chemistry, Leiden University, Holland.
• Dr. Grady McMutry is a young earth creationist from the United States and founder of Creation Worldview Ministries.
• Jed Macosko is a fellow at the Discovery Institute with a degree in chemistry.
• Meyer, Stephen (Stephen Meyer) - director and senior fellow at the Center for the Renaissance of Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, Ph.D.
• Millican, Dr. Robert A. is a Nobel Prize winner in physics.
• Scott Minnich is an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Idaho and a fellow at the Discovery Institute with a degree in microbiology.
• Henry Morris (1918-2006) - American preacher and writer, president of two scientific creationist organizations
• Nelson, Paul (Paul Nelson) is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute in Seattle and holds a degree in philosophy.
• Vladislav Sergeevich Olkhovsky (b. 1938) - Ukrainian professor in the field of nuclear physics, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Oparin, Alexey Anatolyevich - general practitioner, candidate of medical sciences, associate professor of the department, author of books on creationist biblical archeology and the history of Christianity.
• Parker, Harry - biologist
• Pickard, Dr. Jacques E. - Oceanographic Engineer and Consultant, Grumman Aviation Corporation, Florida, USA.
• Drank, Dr. Magnus is a professor of physics. Former Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Rydberg, Dr. Yang X. - Dean of the Faculty of Nuclear Chemistry, Chalmers Institute of Technology; Gothenburg, Sweden.
• Smart, Doctor V.M. - Professor of Astronomy, a department established by the English king; University in Glasgow, Scotland. One of the greatest British astronomers.
• Tangen, Dr. Roald - Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science; University in Oslo, Norway.
• Arthur Walder-Smith (1915-1995) - English professor, natural scientist, who defended three doctoral dissertations.
• Jonathan Wells is a senior scientist at the Discovery Institute in Seattle with degrees in molecular and cell biology.
• Forsman, Dr. Werner is the head of the department of surgery at a large hospital in Dusseldorf (Germany), a Nobel Prize laureate in medicine.
• Friedrich, Dr. John P. is the chief chemist of the US Department of Agriculture (Northern Regional Research Laboratory).
• Hynek, Dr. J. Allen - Director of the Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center (Northwestern University, Illinois, USA).
• Hansen, Dr. Arthur G. is the President of Purdue University. Former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and President of the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
• Hearn, Dr. Walter is a professor of biochemistry at the University of Iowa. Member of the American Association for Progress in Science. His research works were discussed at international scientific congresses.
• Ziegler, Dr. Karl is director of the Max Planck Institute (for research work in the field of the coal industry). City of Mülheim, Germany (Ruhr region), Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.
• Show, Dr. James - Professor of Biochemistry at Harvard University (for 23 years); director of the research laboratory at Harvard University.

• Einstein, Dr. Albert is one of the greatest scientists of all time. World famous scientist, creator of the Theory of Relativity, father of the atomic age, Nobel Prize laureate in physics.
• Engstrom, Dr. Elmer W. - Chief Administrator of the US Radio Corporation; world-renowned leading scientist, pioneer in color television (1930). He was awarded an honorary doctorate of science by fourteen universities.
• Ehrenberger, Dr. Friedrich - specialist in the field of analytical chemistry, Chemical Dyes Company; Kelheim, Germany.
• Jung, Dr. Karl is one of greatest psychologists of all times, having worldwide called authority. Switzerland.

53 modern famous scientists say about faith in God

Preface

Behind every door of scientific discovery, there are ten other doors on the other side. Forgetting this, convinced atheists continue to claim that one scientific discovery should free humanity from unfounded faith in God.

Although our rocket experiments are limited only to our solar system, one of the smallest of billions of galaxies, there are those optimists who say that they have already explored space and have not found God. They call this the "scientific conclusion" that there is no supernatural power and that belief in God and a Creator is unscientific.

Many ordinary people were deceived by such propaganda and are now convinced that among modern scientists there are no believers in God. Nothing could be further from the truth than this statement.

In contrast to such statements in those countries where scientists are not afraid of losing their jobs and positions because of religious beliefs, we know many world-famous scientists who boldly declare that the universe is so complex and highly organized that its explanation is inconceivable without faith in God the Creator. Most of the great scientists today profess faith in God whenever possible.

In the pages of this booklet the reader will find clear and bold statements from many famous scientists who were asked to express their opinions on the “contradictions” between science and religion. Does modern science reject the God in whom scientists such as Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Bacon and many others believed?

Let's see what world-famous people, many of whom are Nobel laureates, have to say to us today on this serious topic.

First of all, we give a list of scientists with a description of their qualifications, and also on the following pages - their statements.

List of scientists mentioned in the book

Alaya, Dr. Hubert N. is a professor of chemistry at Princeton University. One of the outstanding US scientists in the field of chemistry.

Alberti, Dr. Robert A. - Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (one of the best institutions in the USA).

Anderson, Dr. Arthur G. - Director of the Research Center of the International Computer Corporation. (World-famous, largest corporation for the manufacture of computers.)

Anderson, Dr. W. Elving is a professor of genetics and deputy director of the Institute of Genetics at the University of Minnesota, USA.

Ault, Dr. Wayne Yu is a senior scientist at the Isotope Research Laboratory. (The world's first commercial laboratory to perform carbon dating and radioactive hydrogen isotope dating.)

Outrum, Dr. Hanjochem is the dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Munich, one of the outstanding German scientists.

Byron, Dr. Ralph L. - Head of the Department of General Surgery and Oncological Surgery (Tumors). Director of the hospital for patients with cancer and cancer-related diseases. (World famous City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles, USA.)

Beadle, Dr. Georg W. - Director of the Research Institute of Biological Medicine of the American Medical Association, Nobel Prize laureate in physiology.

Born, Dr. Max is Emeritus Professor of Physics (retired) at the University of Göttingen and also at the University of Edinburgh. Nobel Prize winner in physics.

von Braun, Dr. Werner is often cited as the man above all others responsible for the successful launch of astronauts to the moon, USA.

Brooks, Dr. Harvey is the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Physics at Harvard University (the most influential university in the United States).

Burke, Walter F. - Manager of the rockets and spacecraft department of the McDonnell Aviation Corporation. Head of the design, construction and launch of the Mercury and Gemini space capsules. Outstanding expert on space flights.

Bjerke, Alf H. is president of the Bjerke Paint Corporation in Oslo (Norway). One of the outstanding Norwegian experts in the field of chemistry.

Byub, Dr. Richard H. is a professor of materials science and electrical engineering at Stanford University. Author of more than one hundred scientific books and articles.

Wallenfels, Dr. Kurt is director of the Institute of Chemistry, University of Freiburg, Germany.

Waldman, Dr. Bernard is Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA.

Van Iersel, Dr. Yang. J. - Professor of Experimental Zoology, Leiden University, Holland.

Westphal, Dr. Wilhelm H. - Professor Emeritus (retired), Technical University of Berlin, Germany.

Vilfong, Dr. Robert E. is the technical director of the nylon factory of the Du Pont Corporation, the greatest chemical company in the world. The first chemist to work in the production of Orlon, Kentris and many other fabrics for space flights.

Wynand, Dr. Leon J.F. is Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Liege in Belgium.

Wolf-Heidegger, Dr. Gerhard is a professor of anatomy at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Worcester, Dr. Willis G. - Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, USA.

Gjoterud, Dr. Ole Christopher is a professor of physics at the University of Oslo (Norway), one of the most prominent physicists in Norway.

Dana, Dr. James Dwight - Dean of the Department of Geology at Princeton University, one of the greatest geologists in the United States.

Jouncey, Dr. James H. - Head of the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, King's College, Australia. He has received 10 degrees from world-renowned universities. Author of 2 books on guided missiles and 500 scientific articles. Technical Adviser to the Australian Government during the Second World War.

Jaken, Dr. M. is a professor of theoretical biology at Leiden University in Holland.

Jelinek, Ulrich is president of the Severn Industrial Company in New Jersey, USA. World-famous inventor and designer of instruments and systems for space exploration.

Davis, Dr. Stefan S. is Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering at Howard University in Washington, DC.

Duchesne, Dr. Jules S. - Chairman of the Department of Atomic Molecular Physics at the University of Liege in Belgium.

Inglis, Dr. David R. - Senior Physicist, Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, USA.

Mosquito, Dr. Arthur B. - Dean of the Belfer Faculty of Natural Sciences; Yeshiva University in New York City, USA.

Coop, Dr. Evert is the chief surgeon at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, USA. One of the most famous surgeons in America.

Kush, Dr. Polycarp is a Nobel Prize winner in physics.

Pawnshop, Dr. Augustine is a professor of geology. Former Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Loncio, Dr. Ole M. is a professor of physics at the University of Oslo. Norway.

Mandel, Dr. Michel is Professor of Physical Chemistry, Leiden University, Holland.

Millican, Dr. Robert A. is a Nobel Prize winner in physics.

Pickard, Dr. Jacques E. - Oceanographic Engineer and Consultant, Grumman Aviation Corporation, Florida, USA.

Drank, Dr. Magnus is a professor of physics. Former Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Rydberg, Dr. Yang X. - Dean of the Faculty of Nuclear Chemistry, Chalmers Institute of Technology; Gothenburg, Sweden.

Smart, Doctor V.M. - Professor of Astronomy, a department established by the English king; University in Glasgow, Scotland. One of the greatest British astronomers.

Tangen, Dr. Roald - Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science; University in Oslo, Norway.

Forsman, Dr. Werner is the head of the department of surgery at a large hospital in Dusseldorf (Germany), a Nobel Prize laureate in medicine.

Friedrich, Dr. John P. is the chief chemist of the US Department of Agriculture (Northern Regional Research Laboratory).

Hynek, Dr. J. Allen - Director of the Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center (Northwestern University, Illinois, USA).

Hansen, Dr. Arthur G. is the President of Purdue University. Former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and President of the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.

Hearn, Dr. Walter is a professor of biochemistry at the University of Iowa. Member of the American Association for Progress in Science. His research works were discussed at international scientific congresses.

Ziegler, Dr. Karl is director of the Max Planck Institute (for research work in the field of the coal industry). City of Mülheim, Germany (Ruhr region), Nobel Prize winner in chemistry.

Show, Dr. James - Professor of Biochemistry at Harvard University (for 23 years); director of the research laboratory at Harvard University.

Einstein, Dr. Albert is one of the greatest scientists of all time. World famous scientist, creator of the Theory of Relativity, father of the atomic age, Nobel Prize laureate in physics.

Engstrom, Dr. Elmer W. - Chief Administrator of the US Radio Corporation; world-renowned leading scientist, pioneer in color television (1930). He was awarded an honorary doctorate of science by fourteen universities.

Ehrenberger, Dr. Friedrich - specialist in the field of analytical chemistry, Chemical Dyes Company; Kelheim, Germany.

Jung, Dr. Karl is one of the greatest psychologists of all time, having a worldwide calling authority. Switzerland.

Chapter 1. Are modern scientists really atheists?

Yuri Gagarin said after returning from space flight: “I was in interplanetary space and did not see God. That means there is no God.” Some ordinary people accepted this statement as truth, that modern science supposedly disproves the existence of God. Others, seeing that Gagarin did not even reach the moon, concluded that he hardly had the right to declare that he had already explored all of space. After all, in order to fly past our galaxy at the speed of light (300,000 km per second), it would take 1 million years and one and a half million years to reach the next galaxy. And there are billions of such galaxies.

Concluding this very naive reasoning of the late Gagarin, it must be said that only people who deliberately reject God can accept it as truth.

In contrast, the first group of American astronauts to reach and land on the moon read the first verse of the first chapter of the Bible while in orbit around the moon and broadcast the reading on a television network to the world. This testified to their belief that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

The conclusion made by Gagarin was in no way accepted by other astronauts, and even less by other scientists.

Here are the words that many world-famous scientists expressed their opinion on this issue:

Alberti

“You cannot be a real scientist if you do not believe that the universe is real! If God wanted to “play a joke” on a scientist, then the latter could not study the laws of nature and rely on the constantly changing data of science. The whole life of a scientist is based on confidence, that things or phenomena, although they may be mysterious and incomprehensible, are still connected and coordinated with each other."

Alaya

"It is wonderful how active the members of our chemistry department are in church affairs. It is a great lie that the majority of scientists are atheists."

Outrum

"I I don’t believe that the percentage of believers in God among scientists is lower than among other professions.”

Bjerke

"Modern science has not killed the fundamental truths of the Bible. I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, and I believe in the Bible."

Burke

"A spiritual renaissance has recently penetrated among scientists involved in space exploration. There is rarely a day when I do not hear conversations on spiritual topics at my work. Some engineers and teachings profess their Christian faith, which I would never believe, "If I hadn't heard it myself. I stood near the rocket and prayed for Allen Shepperd before his flight, and I didn't see a single dry eye around me."

Born

"Many scientists believe in God. Those who say that studying science makes a person an atheist are probably some kind of funny people."

Davis

"Most scientists, if you look closely at them, are religious people. I believe in God in His three aspects. All the power that surrounds us was embodied in Jesus Christ. He has always acted and will continue to act, answering the needs and prayers of people ".

Duchesne

“The connection between science and religion has never been as close and intimate as in our time. Scientists studying outer space have discovered so many beautiful and unexpected things that it is now more difficult to tell a scientist that God does not exist. There cannot be two opinions on this issue ".

Ehrenberger

"I don't think a real scientist can be an atheist."

Einstein

“I will never believe that God plays dice with the world.”

Engstrom

"I don't think it was the Creator's intention to destroy us all. Christian ministry... to do what is good for your neighbor. My wife and I are members of one small independent church. The first responsibility of this church is to lead people to Christ and to educate them in faith."

Forsman

"God created the world and gave the world laws. These laws remain unchanged. The spiritual plans and powers of this world also remain unchanged."

Friedrich

"Sincere scientists are thoughtful people. They understand that the number of questions grows faster than the answers to them. This leads them to believe in God. I believe that God is the Creator of the whole world. He holds the entire universe and looks after everything that is in it. He is more than the first cause, and only He can answer prayers."

Hynek

"I know very few scientists who have told me that they are atheists. I know many astronomers who are definitely religious people. They have great respect for the universe and for the One who created it. Religion has no meaning if it does not manifest itself in a person's daily life."

Inglis

“We have seen the work of the Creator in this world, which is unknown to other people. Look into biology, look at any organ of the human body or even the smallest insect. You will find so many amazing things there that you will not have enough life to study. This gives me and "Many of my employees have the feeling that there is something great and beautiful. This Someone is the cause of the creation of the universe, and this Cause cannot be understood by us."

Jouncey

“There is no good reason why a scientist should not believe in God and the Bible, nor why a religious person should reject scientific discoveries.”

Jelinek

“Almost every American satellite that flies around the earth has our parts. I am interested in new discoveries. Who is not interested in that? But I also have the habit of reading the Bible once a year and I always find amazing new things in it.”

Jaken

"Most scientists are religious people."

Mosquito

"It's a dangerous thing... to give science complete control. If you give a computing machine (computer) the problem of how to achieve world peace, the computer will give the answer: "Destroy all people."

Pawnshop

"My religious philosophy shows me a joyful way of life. This system works well. It gives me real freedom of thought and freedom of looking at things and people. I think of this as a positive experiential proof."

Loncio

"We have as large a percentage of physicists taking part in church work as can be found among the rest of the population in the area where I live."

Mandel

“I have friends who are good scientists and at the same time religious people. And this is not by chance, but truly religious people.”

Millican

"I can't imagine how a real atheist can be a scientist."

Smart

“We have now learned a lot in space, but faith in the Creator is needed now, as it has always been needed.”

Van Iersel

“It is very important that ordinary people know that modern scientists are not the atheists they once were. It is possible that those scientists who were not atheists did not say anything about their faith. Among European scientists, talking about religion is considered quite appropriate .I believe in a God who has a direct relationship with this world. Creation is not bound by time. The process of creation is still in action today. God takes care of it.

I love talking about religion with my colleagues without feeling uncomfortable. The gospel has become Good News to me, and I believe it."

von Braun

"Man's flight into space is the greatest discovery, but at the same time it is only a small window into the untold richness of interplanetary space. Our glimpse through this small keyhole into the great secrets of the universe only confirms our belief in the existence of a Creator."

Waldman

"Most of our students are quite active in church affairs. Young scientists are much more interested in religious issues than in their personal affairs."

Worcester

"Among the lay members and ministers of the church I attend, there are quite a few people from the scientific and technical world. We have many engineers who are members of church committees in various churches. We even have several active evangelists among us. Some of them have had special training as ministers of the church. I had to work with many scientists, and only some did not believe in God."

Chapter 2. Freedom to Believe

Of course, not all scientists are Christians, but even those who do not give importance to religion should be free to believe or not believe as their conscience dictates. Otherwise, it was a hindrance to a person being effective for society.

One of the basic rules of scientific research is that every scientist should be free from the restrictions of government control, as well as from social pressure to accept for himself the conclusions that his research leads to. The scientist must be able to seek the truth without any fear of being dominated by an opposing ideology.

Regardless of faith, there must be freedom to look at things as they are, there must be absolute freedom to believe or not believe.

Anderson

“I don’t know a single colleague among the scientists of my direction who would have had more than 25 years and thought about nothing except science, who in their thoughts would not test the conclusions of science and religion. In everything they want to achieve, in a sense, their own explanations."

Friedrich

"I love talking with other scientists about God and religion in general."

Wolf-Heidegger

“I believe it is the absolute duty of every independent scientist, regardless of his field of study, to analyze questions of religion, God, peace, etc. If he does not do this, his conclusions will only confirm his preconceived opinions.”

Mosquito

“If the phenomena that you are studying lead you in a certain direction and at the same time - the opposite of your intuition and philosophy, you, as a scientist, are obliged to go in this direction. A good scientist must have an open mind about all the phenomena of the world. Morals and the judgments of individual scientists must be guided by ethical principles. The scientist must think about the problem that occupies him, and not be just a cog in the wheel. Where religion comes into contact, the scientist must take it into account."

Gjoterud

“It is very important to remember that God gave man freedom. If God intended science to force man to believe in Him, then man would no longer have freedom.”

Ehrenberger

"If people do not talk openly about religion, perhaps this is due to the legacy of a totalitarian regime, where a person must reckon with ideas with which he does not agree. The reason why we have misunderstandings in religious matters is that many discuss religious issues without proper knowledge of the subject. They have partial knowledge that they were taught in childhood and they have settled on this level of thinking. Religion should be part of the curriculum at the university level. It should be part of the basic education of students. Christianity should be reflected in everyday life."

Outrum

“Man needs incomparably more than what science gives him. Whether a person turns to religion or philosophy is his business. Science, in its attempts to find universal laws, meets its limits. This is the freedom of each individual, which does not contradict science. This is exactly where and religion begins."

Beadle

"Religion is an essential part of human culture. Religion is necessary. It has an enduring value. I believe that for this reason all cultures have had and have religion. Religion contains something that science cannot give to man."

Bjerke

"You need religion to face the problems of our times. If we look a little under our noses, we will see various kinds of conflicts. How can we resolve them without religion?"

"Among my patients in the second half of life - say, over 35 - there is not one whose problems can be solved by bypassing religion. One can definitely say that they all feel sick because they have lost Eternal values- what a living religion can give to its followers. None of these patients can be completely healed unless they return to religious belief."

Worcester

"I am very pleased to see a large number of students in church almost every Sunday. They have a real, healthy attitude towards religion. I believe that someday all students will be interested in religion."

Dzivis

“Our students bring up religious issues for discussion in class.”

Pawnshop

"Students are caught up in religious issues."

Alaya

"I have deep faith in young people. Our young people are in a much better position regarding the correct understanding of religion than we were in our time. They are active in church life and take more part in Christian service than we once did." .

"I have no interest in fighting the church. People should have the right to be missionaries of sorts among us, but no one has the right to force us or impose their faith on us. That would be a terrible act to the detriment of the church in general."

Waldman

"I have discovered that religion is becoming more and more involved in the personal lives of students... an idea that has eternal significance."

Hynek

“More and more students are turning to astronomers with questions of a religious nature, because they feel like astronomers explore the heavens a little more than other people.”

"I feel that God has brought me to Harvard University for significant service. There are many Christian professors here on campus, but not enough of them. Personally, I feel that I am a stronger Christian as a result of competing with philosophical teachings. It forced me to go deeper into the Scriptures and led me to a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ, made me more dependent on Him."

Vilfong

"Raising children is not easy. We try to have family prayers and live Christian lives in front of our children."

Byub

“Many psychoanalytic scholars believe that God is an unknown name, a crutch for the undiscovered, and that the more we understand the world, the less room there is for God. This is an outdated idea that man is the captain of his destiny... Atheists reject the spiritual healing... I believe that the devil is a person, that the heart of man is the battlefield between God and Satan. Spiritually sick people need the clear preaching of the intact gospel."

Pickard

“The purpose of religion is to show a person how to live, how to help him. The Bible is his constitution.”

Jelinek

"I have never had a conversation with people without telling them about my faith in Jesus Christ. (Jelinek often gave lectures at special seminars at universities and in meetings of professional scientists.) As a forgiven sinner, I have eternal fellowship with God, who created the universe. My desire is to tell others about the Good News at every opportunity."

Hansen

"The difference between humanism and Christianity (although both have to do with man) is quite definite: Christianity speaks of what fascinates me... The real joy of a Christian comes from happy duty. I know what I do... and why I do it. He, "Whoever acts by love acts in God and God in him. Humanism in this regard has no basis."

Jaken

"In our concept, we have several platforms for knowledge: science, philosophy, religion. Each branch has its own forms of thinking and a kind of achievement of certainty. In religion, you start by listening to revelations. After that you can say yes or no." This, of course, is more than knowledge. It is complete dedication."

Wallenfels

"Every person is religious in some sense. There is not a person on earth who does not have his own religion, unless he is absolutely stupid or mentally ill. If I do not see such a reaction in a person, I will be very careful with him, having such a person collaborator. He will not be firm in the truth. If he gives good results only in theory and not in experiments, if he changes the experimental data in order to get the best result ordered by the scientific society, then I would say that such a person is dangerous, and I wouldn't want to collaborate with him."

Chapter 3. Faith based on evidence

Scientists cannot scientifically confirm or scientifically prove the existence of God, but a huge number of scientists base their faith on the creation visible in the universe. We know that not all phenomena of the universe can be understood by us. For example, scientists still do not know what energy is, what an electron is, what attraction is. The essence of these phenomena has not been revealed... but we believe in all of this, based on the evidence we have discovered, although we do not fully understand these and many other phenomena.

In the same way, we cannot understand with our minds that there is a God, but many scientists believe in God because they have found more evidence of His existence than evidence of the existence of energy, gravity... love, memory, etc.

Faith must go beyond the capabilities of our mental analysis. At the same time, faith is logical; it does not blind us if we weigh all the ideas correctly. Faith goes in the direction where we have evidence, but it goes further - into the realm of the spirit.

The creation of the universe in itself speaks of the Creator. Just as a dictionary could not have been formed from an explosion in a printing house, so the universe could not have arisen on its own or from a random collision of molecules. Mathematically, according to the law of probability, this is absolutely impossible. This alone exceeds all evidence and leads us to faith in God, although we cannot fully understand His essence.

Many questions remain unanswered - and perhaps this will always be the case, because they are beyond our understanding. For example, where did God come from? God existed Always, but this "Always" exceeds our understanding. However, if we reject the eternally existing God, we must ask ourselves: where did the universe come from? We must, then, say: the universe existed Always(which science rejects) or should we say that there was a time when nothing existed, and suddenly, without any reason, out of nothing, the universe was formed. But science also rejects this version.

All these questions are above any science, but they give more reasons to believe in God than to believe in the formation of the universe from nothing.

When faith moves in the direction of causality and evidence, we enter the realm of personal experience where the presence of God, His peace, love and joy is manifested in personal life of people. You cannot find it illogical to feel joy at the beauty of a sunset, even though science cannot prove why the sunset is so beautiful.

Many scientists testify that they have opened their hearts to God's love and have personal communication with God through faith, and this satisfies them more than the experimental and statistical evidence of science.

von Braun

Alberti

“Many people, exploring the universe, find more and more beauty... and feel that there must be a God here. This point of view of science reveals to us the living God as well as the fact that He manifests Himself in the personal lives of those people who believe in Him. This, of course, is not a proof, it is an intuitive feeling that the universe and life in general must have a special meaning, otherwise there will be no beauty in it.

This physical manifestation of the universe is much more wonderful for scientists than for ordinary people, because a scientist sees details, he sees the interaction between molecules, he sees how a person created from molecules lives, thinks and feels and how this action is mutually determined. He sees how stars are born and die... The beauty and mystery of the universe makes the honest scientist think about God and believe in Him."

Alaya

"Science reinforces my religion. The more contact I have with the physical world, the more I believe in the existence of God."

A. Anderson

"As a scientist, I have come to the conclusion that this wonderful universe reveals to us a fantastic order and meaning. Here you have a choice: is this the work of God - or the work of the god of evolution? If the idea is effective, it will live, and the idea of ​​order and beauty that comes out from the hands of the Creator, is definitely vital."

B. Anderson

“If you know the property of the DNA molecule (Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid) - the basic mechanism of life - you will soon discover a strange phenomenon that surpasses all imagination. It has the ability to copy itself and act as a source of information for the formation of proteins.

I believe that man is more than this... Man is created in the image and likeness of God."

Byron

"Look at the structure of your body. You have 30 trillion cells. Each cell has 10,000 chemical reactions, valid at all times. It takes much more faith that this body happened by chance than that it was created by an intelligent God. Millions of monkeys can hit the keys of a million typewriters for a billion years, but they will never produce a single printed page of a book.

I am amazed at what God has done for me in Jesus Christ. He came to earth to be my Savior, to die for my sins. Then the day came when I hesitantly but definitely accepted Christ into my heart. The greatest thing in life is to know God through personal experience."

Davis

"Science has led us to the conclusion that we cannot find answers to all questions. Therefore, we must turn to the Unknown, have faith in Him and come to Him for the answer."

Ehrenberger

"If we could mathematically explain what God is, it would be very simple. But we cannot do this. Faith goes further than knowledge. Many people recognize only what can be touched and seen. On the other hand, they are not against that the universe has its continuation beyond the Milky Way, even if they do not see it, but they believe in it. Where is the logic?

You cannot see God, but you can feel Him. You feel that a person is very, very small, and at the same time there is Something big. It all depends on whether a person wants to find God or not."

Engstrom

“I see a well thought out and developed plan according to which creation was accomplished. And today I see God's hand over His creation, I see how the prophetic utterances of Scripture are fulfilled. The Bible is the final authority for our lives. We must accept all this by faith and ask God admonition. Then we need Christ in our personal lives. In our time, the return of Christ is being proclaimed to such an extent as never before."

Forsman

"The fact that scientific laws permeate the entire universe certainly shows that the material world has a common spiritual foundation. This foundation is the creation of the universe."

Hynek

"I have a deep respect for the universe. It is a most interesting and complex creation. I do not look at the universe as the result of chance."

Inglis

“There is something grandiose in the origin and nature of all things, in the elegance of the laws that we formulate but do not understand. This, of course, cannot be the basis for testing the existence of God. But you just feel that nothing could have happened on its own. yourself and be so beautiful."

"I know that God never makes mistakes. God gave natural laws for the development of a child before his birth. But there are other laws that disrupt the order in the development of a child. It will not shake my faith when I see a person walking down the street ", falls and breaks his arm. I see no reason to blame God if sometimes a child is born with a birth defect, just as I would not blame God if there was a hole in the sidewalk where a person fell."

Waldman

"The most interesting thing for a scientist is that he sees an amazing order in nature. This is more than a coincidence of circumstances and chance. With the development of science, we see more and more organization of order in nature. Therefore, the more you study nature, the more you you have reason to believe in the perfection of the Master’s plan, and not in a coincidence.”

Worcester

"A large number of thoughtful scientists and engineers believe that everything can be verified by the scientific method and that in reality you and I need God to explain everything that exists. But there is always something important that is overlooked. We say that everything in the world acts on the basis of certain physical laws and forget that no law is possible without the Legislator, that Someone established these laws."

Vilfong

"Amateur natural scientists can look up the Planner who founded the universe. But as soon as they begin to enter into deeper information, most of these scientists begin to believe in a Creator. Moreover, the conflicts between science and the Bible are smoothed out with a more careful study of Scripture. Scientific evidence for the existence of God, at least for me, are not fundamental. I can feel God through prayer. I know Him from personal experience."

Chapter 4. Is there a conflict?

Sometimes they say that science and religion are incompatible, that one contradicts the other, that there is a conflict between them. In the past, religious leaders had battles with scientists on this issue, but it was a conflict between people, not between science and religion. This conflict was driven by misunderstandings between science and religion.

Some scientific journals published in the USA write about the difficulties in recognizing God. There were such skeptics in the past, but with the development of scientific discoveries, their religious conviction deepened.

Here's what world-famous scientists say on this important topic:

Pickard

"In the 19th century, science and religion were in conflict for the reason that scientists argued that the future of science has its own predestination, that science will come to a final knowledge of the world. However, now scientists, studying the atom, have come to the conclusion that the future of science "is generally problematic. This recognition opens the door to faith in God. Today there cannot and should not be a conflict between science and religion."

Millican

"The majority of leading scientists are close to religious organizations, which in itself indicates the absence of a conflict between science and religion."

Alberti

"Faith comes into ordinary life every scientist. If he has no faith that his experiment will succeed, that human reason can teach us rationalization, such a scientist has no business in the laboratory."

Byub

"Science does not destroy the traditional value of the Christian religion. It rather destroys religious counterfeits, wooden and stone idols with which man has tried to replace the Truth."

Alaya

"Faith gives rise to so-called internal questions. The inner self-control that faith gives you can very well be transferred to science."

V. Anderson

“We genetic scientists are very interested in controlling life, but we are not trying to replace God. We have the right and responsibility to open up new possibilities, but at the same time we immediately think of Hitler and his “scientific” path massacre and reproduction of the "perfect race". Of course, we should not abuse the control that genetics gives us. There must be the right authority in this. We all want to look into the future... and use our God-given freedom to make fair choices."

Ault

"God has given us two revelations - spiritual, or supernatural, and revelation through knowledge of nature. I believe that the universe is the work of God and that everything that is supernatural, as Scripture reveals to us, is not contrary to nature, but above it."

Outrum

"Science does not abolish religion. On the contrary, an accurate understanding of science gives freedom to religion. A person can be a good Christian and at the same time be a good scientist. I have deep respect for the person of Jesus Christ. His simplicity and greatness are impeccable. The same can be speak about His teaching."

Burke

"I I did not find any instructions in the Bible that would prohibit the exploration of outer space. God gave man advantage and superiority over creation, and gave him creative abilities. If we use these abilities with recognition of God's greatness, then there is and cannot be anything wrong with flying to the Moon, Mars and other planets. Christians with the right motives can have a great influence in glorifying God through the discoveries of outer space, as well as discoveries in other fields of science."

Born

"Science makes many moral and ethical demands on a scientist. If a scientist believes in God, it will ease his problem. A scientist must have great patience and humility, and religion can give him these qualities."

Brooks

"Science does not have an all-encompassing view of the world. In other words, it cannot force individual scientists to have the same point of view. We have increasing contacts with the Christian faith. These connections between science and religion may not be direct, but they are important. The Advantage of Christianity is that an increasing number of believers are taking part in the scientific revolution."

Dana

"I know of no more accurate data about the origin of the world than those found in the Bible."

Duchesne

"Science, like religion, originates from inspiration."

Ehrenberger

"Today we meet many young people in Christian churches. It is a fairy tale that now people do not go to church. This is said by those who have only seen the church from the outside and sleep every Sunday morning."

Engstrom

“I don’t know why some people think that the Bible limits experiments in science and engineering. On the contrary, everything that a person does, that he discovers, he only copies the laws established by God. Man does not invent anything. He only discovers what has long been established God... In the world... it seems to me that everything moves according to God's plans, but not according to ours, not according to human ones. Yes, I believe that the power of God is perfect and Divine authority has the last word. God is not only our Creator, but also Redeemer...He rules His creation and the affairs of man through Jesus Christ.”

Friedrich

“Many scientists believe that you cannot think scientifically and at the same time believe, for example, in the resurrection and eternal life. But I think that the resurrection and eternal life have nothing to do with science. Science is only a part of my being, like and religion."

Inglis

"Christianity gives impetus to the scientific method in the sense of recognizing the value of the individual. It is not a mere coincidence that modern science has its origins in Western Europe, where Christianity has deep roots, and not in those countries where Confucianism and Buddhism are dominant. main feature Christianity in the recognition of human individuality, which is the opposite of Eastern fatalism.

A sense of personal freedom gives rise to respect for personal ideas. It is against any form of coercion, against dogma. This gave rise to the Reformation, which in turn laid the foundation for the more effective development of science, which later spread throughout the world."

Jelinek

"The Prophet Jeremiah says that it is impossible to count the stars of the universe. The scientist Ipparchus, who lived several centuries after Jeremiah, dogmatically reported that the universe has 1026 stars. Ptolemy, who lived several hundred years after the birth of Christ, made an amendment. He reported that the universe has 1056 stars. And only in 1610, Galileo, looking through a telescope, exclaimed: “There are many more stars!” Today, astronomers count approximately 100 billion stars in our galaxy, and there are millions of such galaxies! Thus, we must agree with the ancient prophet that the number of stars in the universe - innumerable."

Loncio

"My experience tells me that you can be a Christian and a scientist, as well as a scientist and an atheist. In the first pages of the Bible, God told man to 'possess it (the earth)' - Genesis 1:28. This is exactly what science does today."

Van Iersel

Wolf-Heidegger

"A scientist who has religious beliefs can be as good a scientist as others. This belongs to the freedom of the spirit. Both the believer and the non-believer can see the limitations of science. One will explain it in one way, the other in another. The limitations in these explanations are the same." .

Ziegler

“My scientific experience does not make me any more or less religious. If I had another profession, my service in the church would not change at all.”

Wallenfels

"Some say that when a swallow builds a certain type of nest for its chicks, it does so according to the instinct given to it by the Creator. I do not think that this truth is less than scientific assumptions about the past of our world. Other people say that the protein is according to the recipe of a certain the number of genes in a bird's chromosomes produces certain signals to certain parts of the bird's brain and that, depending on this, the bird chooses a direction in flight, builds nests, etc. I don't think this is an explanation better than the first(that instinct was given to the bird by the Creator), because it also cannot be verified by experience, but must be taken on faith."

Worcester

"I believe that, as a percentage, we have as many believers in science as in other professions. Many ministers of the gospel have worked in various fields of science in the past. I know many of them."

Vilfong

“The purpose of science is to discover what God has given us, to understand God’s creation and thereby serve for the benefit of man. Personally, I do not see a conflict in my branch of science with what God has revealed to us through His Scripture. In the fact that I became a scientist, I see God's will."

Chapter 5. Results of scientific discoveries

At the beginning of this century there were many atheists who were captivated by the idea that the increasing discoveries of science would put an end to belief in God, that science would reveal all the secrets of the universe and nothing would be left to be explained through religion.

Of course, we now know more than we knew, but the unknown and undiscovered continue to multiply faster than our knowledge. Each new discovery, instead of answering the last question, gives rise to many other questions to which science has no answer. This inability of science to provide complete answers to man's questions, instead of a departure from faith, gave rise to a departure from materialism among many scientists and aroused an interest in the spiritual.

Recently, membership in US churches has increased, although at the same time the level of education has increased and the number of scientific discoveries has increased. One of the reasons for this interesting phenomenon was noted in America by one of the popular magazines in an article by the authoritative scientist Lincoln Barnett. He said this: “The discovery of this or that secret by science gives rise to more big secret. All the evidence that science can gather shows that the creation of the universe took place at a specific time."

Below we present the opinions of scientists who precisely confirm this point of view.

Einstein

“The more discoveries science makes in the physical world, the more we come to conclusions that can only be resolved by faith.”

Alberti

"The more we learn about the universe, the more the unknown is revealed. We are faced with an increase in mystery regarding the nature of things. Every time a scientist makes this or that discovery, he is convinced that there are 10 things that he does not know. Science has the property of endlessly deepening knowledge.You cannot make a final decision, since several other possibilities will always be open.

Space exploration programs have created a whole new set of questions about the Moon and other planets, and even about the Earth itself, questions that people had never thought about before."

Duchesne

“The state of science today is the same as Newton once said: “We are like little children playing on the beach before the endless ocean of Truth.” Science has become more humble in the face of modern discoveries.”

Outrum

"In the last century, science has become more modest. It was once believed that science would discover everything that is infinite, that is unknown. Modern science began to think about this more modestly when it learned that man cannot give final and perfect conclusions. In knowledge, man himself "is limited in itself. A scientist has much more reason to believe in God today than he did 50 years ago, because now science has seen its limits."

Waldman

"The truly great people are those who have made great contributions to physics. Great devotees of science are unusually modest."

Davis

"Great men are very humble. This is the result of the fact that they know that they know little. The more the level of science increases, the more we learn how little we know and how much there is still to learn. Every scientist trying to discover the truth , will definitely reach a point where he will see how insignificant man is in the universe."

Hansen

"If anything great is attributed to Einstein, it is his constant repetition of the statement that he knows very little, although he is considered a great scientist."

Brooks

"My belief in Christian ethics was prompted by my reflections as a scientist."

Burks

"Partial discoveries in outer space have not made us arrogant. The power of Divine creation and His wisdom is incomparably higher than human.

I no longer care about the philosophical question: is there a God? Now I read the Bible more and think more about God's will in my life and how to be a better witness for Christ."

Anderson

Jaken

"The progress of science can provide direction... inspiration... to think about the revelations of the Bible."

Ault

“Our scientific expedition studied the composition of stone and gas formations in the famous Hawaiian volcano Kilauea. greatest depth land (20 miles) we completed our research and did not find the answer to many geological questions. As a Christian, I am humbled by how much there is still undiscovered in God's creation and how little we still know about it. Man is very small and short-lived in comparison with the complex structure of nature, which exists for millions of years. I am grateful to science for bringing me closer to the creation of God's hands - to nature. I am very grateful to God for the physical world He created for man."

von Braun

"One of the most fundamental laws of nature, confirmed by science, is that nothing in the physical world is without a cause. It is simply impossible to imagine creation without a Creator."

Jelinek

“From a logical point of view, there are only two possibilities: either the universe arose from chance or was created according to a specific plan.

Let's look at a sample of creation. We know that the atoms of cosmic bodies are the same as the atoms of earthly bodies. Every atom has a nucleus with electrons orbiting around it. The solar system is structured in exactly the same way. In the center is the sun with the planets revolving around it. Then we have millions of other suns in our galaxy. The galaxy also rotates, making a full revolution every 200 million years.

Thus, starting from a microscopic atom and up to our galaxy, we have the same structure. This leads me to believe in a Creator. The earth does not rotate in a perfect circle. The Earth in its rotation has 3 orbits at the same time. However, the earth does not lose more than one thousandth of a second for a hundred years. As a designer of precision instruments, I am amazed at such accuracy.

Look at the amazing balance of our planets. If we were 10% closer to the sun, we would burn and turn to powder. If we were 10% further from the sun, we would freeze to death. The Earth rotates on its axis at a specific speed to give us the exact length of day and night. Any slight change would instantly put an end to life on earth."

Wynand

"When you learn how amazing and complex the phenomena in physics are, you will see the impossibility of explaining them theoretically. There must be something in the nature of these things greater and more powerful than the human mind."

Ehrenberger

“The search for new discoveries in nature will certainly lead to God. What mainly prevents a person from recognizing God? Overestimation of one’s own self.”

Friedrich

“When we discover how much we still don’t know, we come to realize how limited and imperfect we humans are.”

Inglis

“There is something inseparable from religion in the human spirit. The Church convinces us of the religious acceptance of the wonders of the world that science reveals to us.”

Hearn

"Science is a way to ask questions about God's creation. Science brings us closer to clearer understanding of how God created the universe and continues to create today.

The boundaries between cultures are always marked by the state of technology. Today's technology does not rely on knowledge passed on to sons by fathers, but relies on data from scientific laboratories. My Christian faith makes me much richer as a scientist. My research and scientific practice deepen my faith and knowledge of the greatness of God. To be a Christian means to live a new life. When a person is quickened by Christ, he becomes part of a wonderful energy working within and without. Without this constant action, a person is dead in sin. Therefore a Christian does not a common person: He lives in God's plan."

Chapter 6. The limitations of science

Most scientists recognize that the answer to the question of God's existence lies outside the realm of science. Since God is infinite and unlimited, there was not, is not and cannot be such a scientist or philosopher, there is no such science and nothing else that could prove or deny the existence of God. Those scientists who believe in God do not try to prove the existence of God scientifically, because science deals only with physical phenomena and cannot penetrate into the essence of the spirit. Of course, this does not mean that the spiritual world does not exist, or that it is not real, but it does mean that the world of the spirit cannot be measured by the instruments of science or known through logic, just as no one can measure love or determine by counting how beautiful the field is. flower. The opinion that nothing exists other than what is measured and discovered by science is very naive or even stupid,

Alberti

“The question of the existence of God is not a question of science. I not one of those who thinks to explain the truth in scientific terms. There is nothing absolutely certain in scientific theories and facts. Most scientists... in their personal lives... have some concept of truth, but to express this in scientific terms would be an exaggeration."

Hynek

"Science cannot be knowledgeable in everything. It is unable to explain revelations from above, or questions of ultimate truth, or absolute values. It is impossible to explain all this scientifically."

Outrum

“The doctrine of God cannot be explained scientifically.”

Worcester

"I I have deep respect for the One who established the laws of nature. I I feel sorry for the skeptics. Prayer (for me) is very useful... it has a great advantage, but to give it scientific explanation- unthinkable. There are voids that need to be filled by faith, and this cannot be proven scientifically, at least based on what we know."

Born

"Science has left the question of God completely open. Science has no right to judge this."

Beadle

"The question of the existence of God is outside the realm of science."

Van Iersel

“I do not think that man can achieve perfection through science, and I also see no reason to reject some spiritual experience and assert that there is no truth in it.”

Westphal

"There are countless questions to which science has nothing to do. In such cases, faith comes to meet us. The writer of Hebrews says: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” Physics has nothing to do with such faith. Scientific "The existence of God cannot be proven by method, nor can it be denied. The scientific method is not intended for this purpose."

Wolf-Heidegger

"I believe that you will never reach a solution to basic religious questions through scientific knowledge. I cannot accept the view that religious questions will die out on their own. Our technical capabilities are growing very quickly... but we are very far from knowing - why, where and where we are going? A person lives only 70 years or a little more. What does this mean for eternity? Nothing! This conclusion is not the result of depression. It is based on facts."

Wynand

"I don't think science can prove or disprove the existence of God. It's not a matter of science. It's a matter of faith."

Jouncey

"Atheists or hostile agnostics... are like undercooked birds in the field of science. Several years ago I had the opportunity to travel with some space exploration engineers and scientists. A question arose between us regarding the Bible... There was no negative criticism on their part. They "seemed to take skepticism of the Bible with real stupidity."

Friedrich

“A conscientious, objective scientist, without prejudice towards religion, will never say that there is no God.”

Forsman

"The existence of God is beyond the attack of scientists. God, as He is, cannot fit into our thoughts and ideas."

Jaken

Hansen

"No one can ignore what is truly a religious experience. God seeks man. When man answers the call of God, man's life is changed. The basic message of Christianity... concerns the lives of people of all classes and conditions. In God's plan all this is known only by experience "The love of God cannot be expressed in concrete rationalistic terms and cannot be verified by a qualified method. Love, like God, is known only by experience. I return to the concept that God is known more by experience than by research."

Wallenfels

"The Christian must be a better investigator than the unbeliever. He feels called to serve man, and in this he serves God, and thus he must do his work as well as he can."

Alaya

"Thoughts, like radio waves, pass through our bodies at a certain moment. We cannot detect a radio wave unless we have a small instrument with which we could catch this wave and translate it into music or words. If you see people passing with such devices, producing music, you begin to believe that radio waves are passing through this device, which these people are using. If we have a sufficient number of people who have an experiential knowledge of God and manifest this knowledge in their personal lives, then this indicates that they have something that is, the fact that you personally do not have such experience suggests that you are not yet tuned into the “given wave”.

Chapter 7: Matters of Primary Importance

In the last years of rapid scientific discovery, when new discoveries occur faster than our thoughts can comprehend them, some representatives of the scientific world were captured by a rosy optimism that science would soon answer all questions, that all human desires would be satisfied, all problems would be solved, including misfortunes and wars.

However, this view soon changed radically and now only a few scientists, if any, believe that science has the answers to all the deep questions of our lives.

Unfortunately, most people still cling to this false hope, which honest science has long rejected. The statements of scientists given in this chapter show that they clearly understand the impossibility of science to answer questions thinking people: "Who am I? - What is the meaning of my life?" and many others. Man is not just a collection of atoms connected by nerves. What defines life and makes it valuable - love, joy, peace, happiness, beauty - cannot be explained in the terminology of molecules and chemical reactions. Scientific knowledge can never make a person more loving and more attentive to others; it cannot fill the inner emptiness. Man is as much a spiritual being as a physical one.

The ultimate truth is in the realm of the spirit. It can and is revealed to a person when he enters into right fellowship with God through Jesus Christ.

Beadle

Wolf-Heidegger

Davis

“In his life, a person comes to a situation when he feels that science cannot satisfy some of his needs. Therefore, one thing remains: he must turn to religion. Religion precisely answers that need that is difficult to explain, but nevertheless it exists".

Inglis

"Science cannot provide answers to all life's questions. Based on this, scientists direct their thoughts towards religion."

Alaya

"Contact with the physical world increases my knowledge of science. But science also has its limitations. There are things that science cannot measure. So I intuitively turned to religion. I believe, as a Christian, that God sent His Son to save us "It is very important for a person who wants to live the life of a Christian to read the Bible as much as possible."

Byob

"Many people reject the Christian religion without even asking what it is. In Jesus Christ, a Christian has answers to all the deep questions of life. Turning to God, a living Christian faith should govern a person’s life, regardless of the discoveries of science. Scientific research has led to a number of conclusions that support the Christian belief that the world was created by Divine wisdom and power."

Pickard

"The unknown principles of life suggest that God must exist. The idea of ​​probability leads us to freedom. But here it must be said that the more we study, the less we know about what we know. We can never find a final explanation. We We always ask, like children: “Why?” The answer to the last “why” is contained in one word - God.”

Loncio

"It is quite normal and correct that young people do not have the same enthusiasm for science that they had a few years ago. They have discovered that science cannot answer the fundamental questions of life."

Hynek

Jouncey

"Since the idea of ​​the so-called ape began to prevail, modern man has been left without the knowledge of his actual ancestor. The bankruptcy of humanism awakened religious thought and led to the knowledge of God as the supreme power of the universe. The manifestation of this power found its expression in the person of Jesus Christ and focused our attention on Him as the highest Authority. This is God's answer to the dangers of the scientific revolution."

Forsman

“We know nothing about what is beyond the spirit, beyond the boundaries of our limited knowledge and science. Man will never be able to know everything.”

Gjoterud

“Today we are as far from resolving philosophical questions as we always were.”

Tangen

"Ordinary people think that we scientists know the truth. We will never utter this word with our lips. When we realize the limitations of our work in the inner spheres, as well as the limitations of knowing the truth in the outer world, then we approach questions of religion."

Brooks

"Science cannot deal with such concepts as good and evil. The scientific method does not provide solutions to such questions. Some young scientists are disappointed with science. This disappointment is caused by the fact that science cannot solve the problems of our time."

Worcester

“There are still many people who think that everything can be explained by the scientific method, but when they come to questions of a personal nature, they do not find an answer. Questions such as the origin of the earth, about personal destiny, cannot be explained by the scientific method.” .

Waldman

“We usually start the first physics course with discussion questions: “Why?” and “How?” And we immediately let students know that science does not have answers to all questions. Science cannot answer the question “why?” Science can only answer to the question "how?" Why do we have gravity? No scientist can answer that question. I don't think we know one iota more in this regard than we knew 50 years ago. We just accept fact of the existence of attraction. We understand phenomena, use them, but we do not know why they occur. We, for example, do not know the nature of electricity, although we know its laws and use them.

There are scientists who think that all these questions will be resolved in the future, but none of them have made any progress in this direction."

Mosquito

"Science has nothing to do with emotional matters... but they play a huge role in human desires and needs. There is an element of conscience, feelings, free will, and here science can never help. The role of religion is to give these feelings ethical justification and the right place in social life. This is a very important and necessary role that cannot be replaced by science, because the value of science is the value of a computer, but a person cannot allow a computer to solve problems of good and evil. A computer has nothing in common with our feelings and our conscience."

Jelinek

"As a Christian and a scientist, I must appreciate the scientific discoveries of our time. When I worked as director of the rocket research department, we had 300 people responsible for the rocket engine, fuel mixture and control systems. Today there are 10 thousand people working there in one phase alone problems of rocketry. This characterizes the growth of technology in the space age. What a great responsibility lies on Christians to, in accordance with the growth of technology, broaden and deepen the preaching of the Gospel."

"Most American and foreign students are disposed to believe in God, but they feel that God is somewhere far away and therefore cannot take part in their personal destinies. I once made a big mistake in this. I doubted that Jesus Christ may bring about some change in my relationship with God. As a young professor, it was difficult for me to base my faith on something that did not correspond to my concepts. However, I began to be more and more amazed at the peculiarities of the structure of the universe and the human body. All "This, of course, could not have formed by itself. The time has come when Jesus Christ became a reality for me, became my personal Savior and Lord. Now I know that He is the source of true knowledge, the source of Truth. Only this truth has made me free."

Chapter 8. The Dangers of Worshiping Science

Scientists have not only concluded that science does not have the answer to the most important questions of human life, but they warn about the dangers of our day in looking at science as a technological god that can supposedly meet all human needs.

Darwin suffered a lot from the doubts that filled him in the last years of his life. He said: “Can the mind of man, descended, as I believed, from a lower animal, inspire confidence if this mind involves us in such great experiences?” One of Darwin's loyal followers, David Luck, explains this doubt of his teacher in these words: “Science faces the danger of destroying its own foundation. The scientist must trust the conclusions of his own logic.

Therefore, he cannot accept the theory that human intelligence arose through natural selection. If this were so, then the conclusions of our reason must rely not on Truth as it is, but on the product of natural selection. This conclusion makes all scientific theories, including the theory of natural selection, unreliable."

If man is only a product of evolution and the random combination of molecules, and the universe is governed by chance, then there is no purpose in the entire universe and human life has no value. But if man is created by God in His image and likeness for a specific purpose, then each person is of the greatest value.

Scientific materialism cannot tell us anything about spiritual values. He has the same relation to a person as a scientist has to a computer. Fans of science, rejecting all other values, destroy a person by denying his spiritual qualities, which actually makes him a man.

This is a deadly danger about which many scientists have issued serious warnings.

"There is a lot that science cannot do. Concluding that science can find a technical solution to all our problems is a recipe for disaster."

Mosquito

"The belief that humanity can be organized in a methodological and scientific way is precisely where the error begins. What worries and frightens me is that modern science has a tendency to turn into a new religion.

At one time, science was very progressive. Now science has become a very dangerous and dominant force. There is no compassion, where there is only cold force, and it is precisely this force that science conceals within itself."

Friedrich

“Science is a kind of “holy cow”. It is served by the masses of the people. People don’t know where they are going and why? Science has no answer to these questions. Science can give people refrigerators or land a man on the moon, give him beautiful cars, but Science cannot tell man why he lives on earth, and man himself does not know this, just as he does not know what the purpose of his life is, other than to live out his life to old age and die.”

Jouncey

"Science today warns the whole world about the danger that our civilization faces today. This is exactly what main reason why many great scientists turned to God as the last hope to find answers to the problems of this world. It must be sad for God to see that He reveals the secrets of the universe for the benefit of man, and mankind uses these discoveries to their own detriment. However, with the growth of great scientific discoveries, there is also an unprecedented interest in religion. God gives us great opportunities so that we can do something about the sin living in man. But here only Christ can be our answer. All other attempts are in vain."

Outrum

"Science can't be good or bad, but scientists can. I always warned students that using a knife can cut bread and cut someone's throat."

Pawnshop

"The conclusions of science are not always definite. The disadvantage of modern science is that it is satisfied with what it has already captured, and does not worry about what it has not yet covered or explored. This was the subject of criticism 100 years ago, and this is the same today.

It would be a great mistake to think that we can get away from religious thought or that we can replace it with scientific arguments. It would be something to laugh at or kind of medieval. How can one be satisfied only with scientific and technological discoveries and not worry about what has not yet been discovered?

Gjoterud

"A scientist must always ask himself about his own methods and his own conclusions. I think there is a tendency in scientific research to be terribly dogmatic."

Worcester

"IN There are many things in man about which science cannot say anything. Science also cannot say anything about the purpose of man, why he lives on earth, what his relationships with other people should be, or about his moral and ethical habits. All this is not within the realm of science.

On the other hand, I have a deep conviction that the teachings of Christ and the Old Testament have a great influence on people's lives and can improve relationships between people and change the life of society for the better. I I believe that the church has this role and will preserve it, will help improve human character, remind him of his responsibility not only to his brothers, but also to God.”

Hansen

“Advanced people are often carried away by the successes of science and therefore believe that science knows the answers to the questions: “Why?” and “What?” This puts the scientist on a pedestal - often without sufficient reason. The scientist ... tries to reveal the secrets of nature and in this work, forms hypotheses and assumptions in which he himself does not have absolute confidence. These hypotheses and assumptions must be tested by knowledge and time."

"The assumption that physicists at the turn of this century have found the key to questions of eternal order is not true. We have learned to doubt whether this or that truth is absolute. It is urgently necessary to reconsider the previous knowledge that we previously had about nature. I say not only about the results of the revision of ordinary discoveries. We see in the discoveries of atomic theory and quantitative mechanics an amazing order established by the Master. This necessitates the abandonment of certain basic assumptions. And this is extremely important, bearing in mind the enormous influence of science on society.

To resolve very important problems and conflicts between individual human groups, societies and nations, it is necessary to reconsider most of the fundamental ideas in our concepts of humanity."

Alaya

Hynek

"We teach our students that humility and caution are very necessary for a scientist. Overconfidence is harmful. Unfortunately, we have some scientists who, being the best people and even Nobel Prize laureates occupying high positions, but at the same time they forgot about the simple recipe- about modesty. They have become egocentric. It seems to them that their word is the latest conclusion of science. History has time to test and show them wrong."

Hearn

"German scientists, Hitler's followers, were quite competent. Some of them did research on how to kill people in a more effective way. This is one of the reasons why, in addition to teaching biochemistry, I do research in my own laboratory. I myself bandage the wounds of crying technicians, when anyone needs it. I suggest praying with a beloved student who has fallen into doubt. A Christian is a person with a special mandate."

Anderson

"Now we can make changes in the results of genetics through medical intervention. We can change the ratio of genes. In the future, it may be possible to do gene replacement in general. But we must remember that genetic control can be used for evil purposes. That is why it is important for religious scientists to use the teachings of the Bible in developing a genetic control program.

As a geneticist and even more so as a biologist, I am interested in the physical and chemical side of human nature. As a Christian, I believe that man is more than a combination of the elements of physics and chemistry. Man is a spiritual creation, created in the image and likeness of God, and therefore he must reckon with God and bear responsibility before Him. I want to believe that my work is included in God's plan for the rebirth of humanity."

Engstrom

"Science stands entirely apart from morality. And the results of science can be used for good or for evil, depending on what one intends to do with its results."

Vilfong

"Arrogance is very dangerous. The scientist seeks ways to control nature. But the scientist also needs control... by God."

Byub

“One of the biggest misconceptions is that most people believe that the scientific method is a reliable path to Truth.”

Chapter 9. About miracles

If a miracle is something that science cannot give full explanation, then the whole universe is full of miracles. As we have already noted, science cannot provide a definitive analysis. Scientists once thought that the laws they discovered (or could be discovered) provided a complete explanation of physical phenomena. Now we know that this is not so, that laws that are still considered firmly established today can be refuted or abolished tomorrow.

In the very formation of matter there is an undoubted miracle that cannot be scientifically explained. We now see as a fact that in the very nature of matter there is a discrepancy with many of the physical laws formulated by science.

There are many “miracles” in the physical world that are just as incredible to us as those that we have described in the Bible and yet happen every day.

Several years ago, scientists discovered strange behavior of electrons and some particles. They do not always act in accordance with the laws known to us. Science now speaks of things as "probable" and "improbable" but not as "certain" and "possible." This fact changed the point of view of many scientists who previously considered the resurrection impossible. They now believe that the scientific method cannot reject the eyewitness testimony of a living Jesus within 40 days of His resurrection.

Although some scientists still do not accept miracles based on the fact that they cannot verify them scientifically through experience, most scientists accept the possibility that miracles took place, even including the resurrection of Christ and the possible resurrection of those in He believes him.

Atheists reject the possibility of miracles described in the Bible because they do not believe in God working miraculously... At the same time, they accept by faith even greater miracles. Refusal to believe in God's miracles puts them in a position where they must believe in the inexplicable. For example, a Christian believes in the resurrection of a dead body, while an atheist believes that all life originated from dead matter. A Christian believes that the universe was created by God's power and His wisdom, while an atheist believes that the universe came into being by chance and, moreover, that everything came “out of nothing.” Thus, in order to be an atheist, you need to have much more faith than a Christian. For this reason, many scientists have rejected atheism as a worldview.

It turns out that there is no question of non-recognition of a miracle, but what kind of miracle does both sides believe in? The Christian explains the miracle through the meaning and power of God. The atheist explains his miracle by “chance” plus a billion years.

Most scholars have concluded that the Christian belief makes more sense and is more satisfactory than the atheist view. One way or another, neither one nor the other belief can be verified scientifically. The nature of the miracle does not rest in the realm of the physical world, which science could analyze or measure, but lies in the realm of the spiritual, which is scientifically inexplicable. It can only be learned through personal experience if one is ready for it.

Here we have the statements of some scientists, verified by their personal experience. Having come to God as sinners, accepting the death of Jesus Christ as their substitutionary death, surrendering to Him, they experience a miraculous spiritual resurrection. They found peace with God through forgiveness, found joy and meaning in life and new life in Christ.

Jouncey

"Obviously, contradictions are more common in physics than in religion. Obvious miracles have occurred in the physical world at all times and are happening today. In the face of the mysteries of the universe, the modern physicist has little difficulty in recognizing spiritual world".

Hynek

“Perhaps it is good that we encounter many secrets known only to God, and that man will never know.”

Gjoterud

"I have to be very careful in not accepting evidence of miracles, because then I have to admit that these people are lying. So I prefer to stand aside from all explanations and just accept them as evidence. I think that this point of view of science is - having an open mind, not closing the world is correct. We cannot say that miracles are impossible. And in general, I think it is not scientific to draw conclusions about what we do not know.

Miracles refer to special phenomena that can sometimes occur. They do not fit into the framework of science because we cannot reproduce them. And in general, this is not a field of science to reject them.”

Inglis

"Miracles are outside the realm of science. You cannot reproduce such an experiment to prove whether it is true or not."

Jaken

"The question of miracles can only be considered at the level of religion."

Brooks

"Science can say that miracles as described in the Bible are quite possible. There is no way to say that they never happened."

Byub

“Miracles are not a problem... For God they are not a difficulty or an adventure, but this is a special way in which God does not limit Himself in His manifestation. The Christian religion sees in this a special revelation of the Bible and the legal right of God to intervene in the nature of reality ...to give men a revelation of His love and His redemption of fallen man."

Waldman

"The most interesting thing about science is that nothing is impossible. You can say that it is more or less possible. You can say that (miracles) are quite probable. But theologians can say: “Of course, we agree: miracles are unusual, So So there is no disagreement here."

Wallenfels

A. Anderson

"I I make no allowances for miracles. There are many things we don't know. We do not understand all the ways in which a person can relate to others. For me, not everything is clear in that it seems strange if it cannot be explained by the scientific data in our hands."

Pawnshop

“It is quite normal that we cannot give an explanation for all the phenomena occurring in the world. A scientist encounters such phenomena every day. The extraordinary and lasting existence of the Bible, which has passed through all centuries, languages ​​and nations, is already a miracle.”

Van Iersel

"This direction is not correct - to remove God from the world and leave behind Him only the first cause. To explain the nature of miracles, we need God. The possibility of unusual phenomena has always been open. The Resurrection is the main element of faith. It has a deep meaning. Christ was the first to show "that there is something inexplicable. This inexplicable can only be seen with the eyes of faith. No one knows what may be discovered in the future. No one knows how much our concepts can be changed as a result of new research."

Worcester

"I fully accept that God can do what He wants. We are not obliged to look for explanations of God's actions in purely mental and physical terms. I accept that God has the right to change His plans."

Friedrich

"With God nothing is impossible. He performs miracles contrary to the laws of nature. He has the right and power to do this, for He is the Maker of laws. A miracle is not unnatural, but supernatural. I am convinced that man cannot achieve an improvement in morality by his own strength. This "only Christ can do. Without Christ you cannot love God and your neighbor."

Duchesne

"A man can believe in miracles and at the same time be a good scientist."

Davis

“I believe that Jesus Christ performed miracles, made the sick healthy, raised the dead. I have no doubt about it, although I cannot give an explanation for it. And because we do not have answers to all our questions, I accept the miracle as a reality, including our personal resurrection and eternal life. We did not come to this earth just to live a few years and disappear. I believe in afterlife, although I can’t give an explanation for this. This (resurrection) cannot be verified by experimental science."

Forsman

"Science cannot say anything about the resurrection."

Alaya

"I once saw a man killed by a train. I cannot believe that his physical death marked the end of spiritual life. From that moment on, I have never doubted the eternal life of the spirit. I simply cannot believe in such a sudden demise of a human being. This is not a thing for argument There may be no logic here, but an intuitive feeling suggests that this is the truth.

As a Christian, I believe that God sent His Son into the world, that He came to give us salvation."

Byron

“I have known cases of miraculous healing where patients made dramatic changes to better health through prayer. But God never performs a miracle where there are natural ways out.

It often happens that God does not meet us halfway, having significant reasons for this. We do not live forever (in this body). Since we all must die, it is very important to know that God gives us a certain time to receive salvation. This is the blessed hope of which I speak to my patients at every opportunity."

Publishing house "Light in the East", Korntal, Germany, 1989

This needs to be dealt with, because it becomes an epidemic when references are made to this or that scientist in favor of God or in favor of some religious idea.

I can tell you more than the priests say. I can tell you that Isaac Newton and Pasteur were religious fanatics, and Theodor Schwann, and Edison, and Flammarion were deeply convinced mystics. People like George Carew Eccles, who were seriously convinced of the existence of the soul, were not uncommon among physiologists. We cannot put Ukhtomsky, who was a bishop, anywhere, and we cannot forget that Mendel was an abbot. In fact, there are a huge number of scientists who had a positive attitude towards religion. But let's see if this means anything at all.

What is a scientist? This is a person who made a certain discovery, that is, showed a certain infallibility in a strictly defined matter. Let's see if this infallibility generally extends to everything that scientists deal with. Let's look at a set of ridiculous, incredible misconceptions and mistakes that were inherent in amazing, magnificent, significant scientists. For example, the same Isaac Newton was convinced that meteorites are nonsense, because they have nowhere to fall from at all. And the same Isaac was convinced and fervently preached that, in the ratio of historical and archaeological data, the Earth is 6 thousand years old.

Francis Bacon was convinced of the evil influence of witches on the quality of crops, Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev spoke seriously about color therapy, Liebig did not believe that yeast was a living organism. Robert Boyle, who is Boyle - Marriott, obliged miners to report at what depth demon nests begin and describe what demon nests look like. Buffon was convinced that in America, compared to all other continents, evolution proceeds much more slowly, Kepler believed that the craters on the moon are structures that were erected by lunar inhabitants, Flammarion was convinced that there is vegetation on the Moon. And Galileo Galilei seriously believed that Kepler’s talk about the ebb and flow of tides being a consequence of the influence of the Moon was stupidity and childishness.

We can count dozens, hundreds and thousands of such examples of errors and absolute absurdities. For example, there was Jean-Joseph Virey, who, in the most complete academic publication of anthropological information of the 19th century, showed absolute confidence that blacks have black sweat. And Hans Christian Huygens was absolutely sure that Jupiter has such stormy seas that Jupiter's biggest problem is quality rigging for the Jovian fleet. The great anthropologist and, of course, the greatest scientist of his time, Virchow, once brought him a Neanderthal skull with contempt, rejected it, saying that what kind of Neanderthal is this, what an ancient man is this, this is an alcoholic Russian Cossack who accidentally died next to the Neanderthal river during the war 1812-1813. That is, we see mistakes at every step, we understand that success in one small area of ​​science does not at all guarantee errorlessness even in science itself, not to mention some more extensive, broader areas.

For example, the discoverer of the great circulation, William Harvey, was hired by the Holy Inquisition to examine the prisoners of the Inquisition and determine whether these prisoners had certain devilish spots on their skin. Harvey is responsible for at least two girls on whom he found two Lucifer spots. Naturally, the girls were burned.

Religious faith is a certain conviction. Confidence in something. And very often priests, or priests, or churchgoers offer us the views of scientists, completely taken out of the context of their lives. The same Max Planck could have been a completely religious person at some point, and at some point he declared that there is nothing stupider than the idea of ​​a Christian God and he sees all its absurdity. Let's see this conviction among great scientists. How pure and reasonable was this conviction?

Let's remember that the great Geiger, and Stark, and Lang, and even Philip Lenard actively participated in Hitler's project to equip the Third Reich with atomic weapons. And even the undisputed authority, one of the creators of quantum theory, Heisenberg, did more than others and with great passion for the Third Reich in terms of equipping nuclear weapons, because it was Heisenberg who was the author and developer of the atomic reactor, which for Nazi Germany was supposed to supply raw materials for 10 or 12 atomic bombs at once.

As we see, no matter from what height stupidity is uttered, it remains stupidity. And whoever testifies about anything, he testifies, among other things, about his mistake and about his right to make a mistake. Therefore, any evidence from any scientists on the issue of God and on the issue of religion is actually not worth a damn. And we have just as many reasons to take the idea of ​​God seriously because Huygens, or Newton, or Virchow took it seriously as there are reasons to take seriously the theory that there are strong storms on Jupiter, and the skull of a Neanderthal is the skull of a Russian alcoholic, degenerate Cossack.

Alexander Nevzorov

Well, this is such a boring activity. Despite the fact that I absolutely don’t want to get emotional, I don’t want to say anything on my own. The matter again concerns the relationship between the church and science, with all the ambiguity of science. What can we talk about? Even in 1611, in connection with the Galileo trial that was then beginning, a three-day cardinal conclave was convened in the Vatican, which seriously decided whether it was sinful and whether it was generally acceptable to look at the sky through a telescope. But this is piquant. In addition to the piquancy, I have prepared for you such a boring list of real victims of the church. Those real evidence of the real, genuine attitude of the church towards science.

Alexander Nevzorov

Lesson topic: the great scientist-surgeon Voino-Yasenetsky, church charity, science and mathematics in Rus'.

Alexander Nevzorov

Lesson topic: The “Silver Galosh” Award, awarded to Patriarch Kirill, Andrei Rublev and canonical stencil icon painting, the history of Saints Peter and Fevronia, the surgeon Voino-Yasenetsky and the theory of cardiocentrism, the feat of martyrdom.

Alexander Nevzorov

Alexander Nevzorov about irrefutable evidence of the veracity of the theory of evolution using the example of the bodily image of Patriarch Gundyaev.

They are very different and are not always ready to call themselves atheists. Many call themselves agnostics, meaning that they simply do not undertake to judge such lofty matters with the limited human mind. In general, it is not easy for a scientist to remain a convinced atheist all the time, because by the nature of his work he is obliged to question everything. But there are also those who desperately enter into controversy and try to prove to the masses that religion is harmful - like the “new atheists” Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, who defend a scientific materialist worldview

Did Albert Einstein believe in God? Many believers cite Einstein as an example of an outstanding scientist who was a believer like them. And this supposedly refutes the idea that science is contrary to religion or that science is atheistic. However, Albert Einstein consistently and unequivocally denied belief in personal gods who answer prayers or take part in human affairs—the very kind of god worshiped by believers who claim that Einstein was one of them.

Believers often claim that Einstein was also a believer. In particular, they cite his saying “God does not play dice [with the Universe]” and the quote “in our materialistic age, only deeply religious people can be serious scientists.” As you can see, the context here is completely unclear, and therefore such quoting borders on cheating. In fact, does the saying “damn it” really mean belief in evil spirits? And to understand the meaning of the second quote, you need to at least know what the concept of religiosity meant for Einstein himself. That is why the text below does not include quotes taken out of context, but large chunks from books, letters and articles

P We present to your attention a list of scientists (scientists mean people involved in natural sciences and mathematics; we have deliberately narrowed this concept) whose worldview was religious. This list will not add anything new to the debate about science and faith, but it may prevent many people from accepting the false premises that so often interfere with unbiased discussion. If you believe that modern science was founded by humans atheistic, positivist, scientistic or materialistic looks, you will understand that this is not the case. Or if you are convinced that in the modern era a scientist cannot adhere to a religious worldview, you will also understand that this is far from true. Moreover, you will see that science as a method is very closely combined with faith in the Creator in the vast majority of the most significant scientists who carefully mine what we later call scientific knowledge.

Looking at historical works, we will see that much has been said about the harmony between science and faith that existed in the Middle Ages. During this era, a real synthesis took place between science and faith: the first universities were founded, Christian philosophy took shape, which developed into a coherent system, and the scientific method was formulated. The inseparability of these two areas, religious and scientific, faith and reason in the Middle Ages was obvious to almost all thinkers. We will not try here to formulate the approach of medieval thinkers to these problems; we only need to state a fact.

One of the reasons for the end of the worldview of the Middle Ages was the gap between science and faith; they were no longer understood as something interdependent, and apparent contradictions began to arise. Thus, already in the 17th century, people appeared in the scientific community who openly declared their atheistic worldview. We began our review precisely from this time, when a thinking person, one way or another, had to make a choice between a positivist, secular or religious worldview. That is, the religious worldview has ceased to be something taken for granted. It may be objected that at that time the influence of the Church was strong and scientists were forced to at least formally declare themselves believers in order not to be subject to sanctions and not to lose their positions. But already the British scientist Robert Boyle (1627–1691) established lectures designed to protect the Christian faith from "notorious infidels, viz. atheists, deists, pagans, Jews and Muslims". From this we conclude that at that time there were people known for their non-religious worldview, which means that any scientist had a choice. Or if we consider the society of Cardinal Richelieu, Blaise Pascal and Rene Descartes - France of the same 17th century, it is also known about this country that atheistic views were widespread among the nobility. It is known that Pascal tried to challenge these views by writing his famous “Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects.”

We cannot help but note that almost all of the scientists we named actively defended a religious view of life, and if they were hidden atheists, then, while formally recognizing faith, they would not have taken any active actions. Moreover, atheistic views not only existed, they were recorded even in medieval manuscripts, including ancient Russian ones. And if these views existed and could be expressed under conditions of almost absolute authority of the Church, then it was all the easier to express and defend them when this authority weakened, in the era of secularization, which began approximately in the 16th–17th centuries.

We in no way claim that this list undeniable, and we are not ready to guarantee that each of the listed scientists had a religious worldview; on the contrary, due to a lack of sources, our list is vulnerable to criticism. But nevertheless, in almost every case we try to present arguments in favor of the fact that a particular person adhered (for us it is less important what religion he belonged to and whether he was a believer) of a religious worldview. Moreover, we deliberately did not include in the list people who converted to Christianity at the end of their lives; it was important for us that the person consistently adheres to a certain religious worldview. For example, we did not include John von Neumann, who converted to a Catholic priest before his death, which shocked his friends and which could be interpreted as his conversion, or Anthony Flew, who became a committed deist late in life under the influence of the fine-tuning argument. . To make the list more “reliable,” we tried our best to avoid including in it people whose worldview there is conflicting information: the names of Mendeleev, Pavlov, Einstein, Bohr and many other famous scientists who can be called both religious and non-religious, in our list was not included.

The only thing we would like to show with this list is that, despite modern assurances that positivism(or atheism) And the science go hand in hand, the vast majority of scientists rejected positivism as a worldview adequate to reality. Moreover, many of the scientists we presented were the founders of new fields of science; our list represents almost all time periods, including the modern era and almost all possible scientific disciplines. This begs the question: if people endowed with outstanding abilities to understand reality did not lose their faith, but, on the contrary, were affirmed in it and saw it inseparably from their studies in science, that is, understanding the structure of the universe did not deprive them of faith, then how can one even say that Does science somehow contradict faith?

Thus, although the medieval view of the world left the minds of leading philosophers and thinkers, it found true allies both in the founders of modern science and in the outstanding scientists of a science already established in its foundations. Many modern thinkers tell us that this is impossible. But what will the scientists themselves say, what is their position, and in general, how many are there among all scientists, what is their contribution to science? We tried to answer these questions with this list.

Let us explain its device. The more influential the scientist’s contribution to the development of science, the larger the size of the letters in which his name is written, ranging from 16 to 22 inclusive. This characteristic is quite subjective, but in any case it somehow helps to navigate the list. Next, in the right corner, the foreign language (if we are not talking about Russian or Soviet scientists) name of the scientist is written, after which his years of life are indicated in brackets, and for each discipline the list is sorted by year of birth. After italics the scientist’s faith and the rationale for both his belonging to this faith and his religious worldview as a whole are written. For isolated cases this justification is absent, but in these cases we are almost sure that it is undeniable. Following the justification there is a description of the scientist’s scientific achievements, a justification of his significance for science (no italics). The number of the book (in the list of used literature) to which the reference is being given is indicated in square brackets, and separated by a comma - the page of the publication indicated at the bottom of the page.

List of scientists with a religious worldview
scientists are people who study natural sciences and mathematics

Medicine

Worldview. Anglican. A deeply religious man, on the day of the discovery of the fact that malaria is transmitted to people through mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, Ross wrote the following verses in his diary:

Worldview. A Catholic, the scientist describes his worldview in his book Reflections on Life: “Jesus knows our world. Unlike the god Aristotle wrote about, He does not despise us. We can turn to Jesus and He answers us. He was a man like us, but at the same time He is God, surpassing all things.” Carrel was involved in research into the miracles and visions at Lourdes, going from disbelieving them to accepting the spiritual reasons for Mary Baillie's healing in 1902 because they could not be rationally explained (from an article in Scientific American) ).
Contribution to science. Biologist and surgeon, pioneer in transplantology, in 1912 received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "work on vascular suture and transplantation of blood vessels and organs."

Worldview. Orthodox, archbishop (since 1946), canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in the host of Russian martyrs and confessors. Voino-Yasenetsky’s worldview is known, among other things, from his letters to his son Mikhail: “in serving God all my joy, my whole life, for my faith is deep. However, I do not intend to leave both medical and scientific work.” or “if you only knew how stupid and limited atheism is, how alive and real communication is with God and those who love him.”
Contribution to science. A physician, he wrote the monograph “Essays on Purulent Surgery,” which became a reference book for doctors. The scientist also made a contribution to anesthesiology, with his monograph “Regional Anesthesia”; he was the first to describe anesthesia of the trigeminal nerve by introducing ethyl alcohol directly into the trunks of its branches, as well as into the gasserian node.

Worldview. A Catholic, in a 1996 interview with the National Catholic Register, Murray said this: “Is the Church hostile to science? As someone who is Catholic and a scientist, I don't notice this. One truth is the truth of revelation, the other is scientific. If one truly believes that creation is very good, there is no harm in studying science. The more we learn about creation and how it came into being, it only adds to the glory of the Lord. Personally, I have never seen any conflict here.”
Contribution to science. Plastic surgeon, co-founder of transplantology. In 1954, Murray became the first surgeon to perform a successful kidney transplant. Scientist awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1990 for his work on organ and cell transplantation. Murray's team is also known for discovering immune suppression drugs.

Worldview. Protestant. Since 2011, he has headed the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (the first Protestant to hold this position). Arber wrote that “faith in God helped me solve many questions that arose before me in the course of my life; she helps me find a way out of critical situations.” Arber did not separate his faith from scientific work and drew religious conclusions from his knowledge, for example, he wrote: “The simplest cells need at least several hundred different biological macromolecules for their work. It remains a big mystery to me how such very complex objects, already at that time, were brought together. The possibility of the existence of a Creator, God, seems to me a satisfactory solution to this problem.”
Contribution to science. Microbiologist and geneticist. Received Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1978 for "the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application in molecular genetics."

Geology

Worldview. Anglican. In the dispute between the conservative wing of the High Church and the more liberal part of the Anglicans, Sedgwick was clearly on the side of the former, and he defended his position quite vociferously. He believed that diverse living organisms emerged through numerous acts of Divine creation over time. In one of his letters he called Darwin’s theory “simply false” and throughout his life he opposed it. Sedgwick believed that physical and moral, metaphysical truths are separate, and that forgetting this truth will lead to monstrous consequences.
Contribution to science. Geologist, one of the founders of this science in its modern understanding. Introduced the concepts of the Devonian and Cambrian periods. He was the first to distinguish between the processes of stratification, fusion and cleavage.

Worldview. Rational theism. Denomination (presumably) - Anglican Church. He was one of the first people to support Darwin's theory of evolution of species. However, it was difficult for him to reconcile her with his faith. In particular, he found it difficult to believe that natural selection was the main force promoting evolution.
Contribution to science. The founder of modern geology, the author of the ideas of actualism and uniformitarianism. "One of the most outstanding scientists XIX century"(Brockhaus and Efron). Developed the doctrine of slow and continuous change earth's surface under the influence of constant geological factors.

Worldview. Christian (denomination unknown). Agassiz believed that the Divine Design could be found everywhere in nature, and could not convince himself of the validity of a theory that did not mention this Design. He defined species as "the thought of God" and wrote in his Essay on Classification: "Collected in space and time, all these ideas show not only thought, but also intentionality, power, wisdom, greatness, foresight, omniscience and providence. In a word, all these facts in their natural interconnection loudly proclaim the One God whom man can know, adore and love; and natural history must ultimately become a study of the thoughts of the Creator of the Universe.” Agassiz was a creationist and rejected Darwin's theory from the moment it appeared, drawing on Plato's idealistic philosophy and taking Platonic forms as the basis of biological concepts. Thus, Agassiz was also an idealist.
Contribution to science. One of the founders of glaciology. He was the first to propose a scientific hypothesis that the Earth went through an ice age in the past.

Worldview. Protestant. From the source: “Dan's religious beliefs are described as strong and orthodox. He believed that if God wanted to reveal to him the truth of sensory things, then he would reveal it through nature. Dana did not consider the Bible a technical reference book. The scientist’s views on the theory of evolution are interesting, he wrote: “The evolution of life occurred through the formation of some species through others, in accordance with natural ways that we cannot yet clearly understand, and with a small number of cases of supernatural intervention.” Dana defended the view that there were few Divine interventions in the visible world, but he accepted the theory of evolution. In his free time, Dana wrote hymns." In order to harmonize scientific research and the Bible, between 1856 and 1857 he wrote the book “Science and the Bible”.
Contribution to science. Geologist, mineralogist and zoologist. He was a foreign corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1858). He published a chemical classification of minerals and proposed the terms “geosyncline” and “geoanticline”. His textbooks on geology and mineralogy were used throughout the 19th century and even into the next. Charles Darwin praised Dan's work, calling it "wonderfully agreeable" and praising it for its accuracy.

Astronomy

Worldview. Christian. Many of his letters were devoted to discussions of theological issues; Herschel believed that God's Universe was subject to order, a belief that led him to conclude that "an ungodly astronomer must be crazy."
Contribution to science. Astronomer, discovered the planet Uranus and its two main satellites, as well as two satellites of Saturn. He was the first to discover infrared radiation and coin the term “asteroid”. During his life he invented about four hundred telescopes.

Worldview. Catholic. The monk, a Jesuit, was the head of the Pontifical Gregorian University (Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, Universitas Gregoriana Societatis Jesu) for 28 years.
Contribution to science. Among astronomers, Secchi received the unofficial title of “father of astrophysics.” He was a pioneer in the field of astronomical spectroscopy. Thus, Secchi invented the first heliospectograph, stellar spectrograph and telespectroscope. He was the first to experimentally prove that the Sun is a star. He proposed the first classification of stars. He discovered three comets, one of which is named after him. He also proved himself in other areas. In order to measure the transparency of water, he invented the so-called. Secchi disk. While studying the climate of Rome, he invented a “meteograph” to record some type of weather data.

Worldview. Anglican (presumably). in an interview published in The Observer, Jeans was asked: “Do you think life on Earth arose by chance, or do you think it is part of a much larger system?”, to which the scientist replied: “I am inclined to an idealistic theory, according to which the basis is consciousness, and the material Universe is a derivative of consciousness, and not vice versa.”
Contribution to science. Mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He refuted Laplace's theory about the birth of the solar system from a gas cloud. Together with Arthur Eddington, he founded British cosmology. Discovered the Rayleigh-Jeans radiation law for the equilibrium radiation density of an absolutely black body and for the emissivity of an absolutely black body.

Worldview. Quaker. Eddington adhered to the philosophy of idealism in his views on the world; in his book “The Nature of the Physical World,” the scientist claims that the world “the matter of the world is the matter-mind,” that is, “The matter-mind of the world, of course, is nothing more, than the individual conscious mind - the mind-stuff is not scattered in space and time; they are part of the cyclical plan extracted from it” (pp. 276-281). The scientist argued with Albert Einstein and other scientists who support determinism, trying to defend indeterminism: he said that “indeterminism asserts that physical objects have an ontologically indefinite component, and its reason does not lie in the epistemological limitation of the physicist’s understanding. Thus, the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics will be determined not by hidden parameters, but by the very indeterminism in nature.”
Contribution to science. An astrophysicist, during the observation of a solar eclipse in 1919, the scientist was one of the first to receive confirmation of the theory of relativity. Author of the Eddington limit in astronomy (the amount of power of electromagnetic radiation emanating from the interior of a star, at which it is in a state of equilibrium). He calculated the number of protons in the observable Universe, it is named after him, although recently it has been slightly adjusted.

Inventors

Worldview. Calvinist, priest.
Contribution to science. In 1816, the scientist invented the Stirling engine, trying to protect workers from burns, and at that time the theoretical basis for such an engine did not yet exist (it appeared only in 1825, in the works of S. Carnot). He also invented a number of optical instruments.

Worldview. A Christian, interested in the relationship between science and faith, donated funds to provide lectures on the “connection between the Bible and Science.” The first dispatch was sent by telegraph by the scientist himself, her words were: “Wonderful are Your works, Lord.”
Contribution to science. Invented the electromagnetic writing telegraph (the so-called “Morse apparatus”) and Morse code. In addition to these inventions, Morse also had other lesser known ones, such as a marble cutting machine that could carve three-dimensional sculptures from marble and stone.

Worldview. Deist; Although the scientist was often called an atheist, in one personal letter the scientist refuted these speculations. It was about an article in the New York Times magazine in which Edison stated that “nature, not the gods of religions, created us.” Edison wrote: “You have misunderstood this article because you have come to the conclusion that it denies the existence of God. This denial does not exist; what you call God, I call Nature, the Supreme Mind that controls matter.”
Contribution to science. Inventor, author of 1093 patents, including: battery for an electric car, electric motor, ticker machine, cinema, mechanical voice recorder. His discoveries subsequently paved the way for mass and television communications.

Worldview. Orthodox. He was interested in the topic of the relationship between science and religion, and outlined his thoughts in the preface to the famous collection “Science & Religion: A Symposium,” which was rejected by both secularists and conservative Christians. He also wrote a book, New Reformation: From Physical to Spiritual Realities, 1928, from which it is quite clear that he is a Christian, and he himself writes about it (p. 267).
Contribution to science. Physicist, inventor. One of the founders of the National Aeronautics Advisory Committee, the predecessor of NASA (NASA). He came up with a way to increase the transmission range of telegraph and telephone messages via communication cables by artificially increasing their inductance, called “pupinization.”

Worldview. Catholic. Simeon Popov in his book “Why I Believe in God” quotes the scientist: “Every step taken by science brings us new surprises and achievements. And yet, science is like the dim light of a flickering lantern in a deep and dense forest through which humanity strives to find its way to God. Only faith can lead us to the light and serve as a bridge between man and the Absolute. I'm proud to be a Christian. I believe not only as a Christian, but also as a scientist. A wireless device can transmit a message across the wilderness. In prayer, the human spirit can send invisible waves into infinity, which will reach their goal before God.” The fact that Marconi is a practicing Catholic can also be concluded from his letters to his wife.
Contribution to science. Discovered Marconi's law and invented a long-distance radio transmitter. He is considered, along with Popov, to be the inventor of radio. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics 1909"for distinguished contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy."

Worldview. Orthodox, he was a deeply religious person. Sikorsky wrote: “With regard to the Lord's Prayer, I am a fundamentalist, ready to take every word and sentence in its direct and full meaning. Historical evidence does not cast doubt on the identity of the Author of the Prayer (...).” Thanks to the works of Sikorsky, the St. Nicholas Church was founded in Stratford, whose parishioner Igor Ivanovich was until the end of his days.
Contribution to science. Inventor and aircraft designer. He invented the first in the world: a four-engine airplane, a passenger airplane, a transatlantic seaplane, and his most famous invention - a serial single-rotor helicopter. In the USA he was awarded the medal “For scientific and technical achievements in the field of fundamental sciences”.

Worldview. Lutheran. The scientist denied the evolutionary theory, you can find the following quote from von Braun: “To force yourself to believe only one conclusion, which states that everything in the Universe arose by chance, means thereby going against the objectivity of science itself.” Von Braun did not view his work as a glorification of human achievement, and he is credited with saying: “Human spaceflight is a great achievement, but it has opened only a small door for humanity through which we can look at the extraordinary richness of the cosmos. And the secrets of the Universe that we can observe through this viewing slit should only confirm faith in the Creator.”
Contribution to science. Led the team that developed the V-2 rocket. His discoveries led to the creation of the Saturn V rocket, which carried Americans to the Moon.

Worldview. Orthodox. He studied theology, reverse perspective, and wrote many works on science and faith. In one of the interviews, the scientist said: “But there is no such thing as a scientific worldview, this is nonsense and bullshit! Science and religion do not contradict each other; on the contrary, they complement each other. Science is the kingdom of logic, the religion of extra-logical understanding. A person receives information through two channels. Therefore, the scientific worldview is a bitten worldview, and we need not a scientific, but a holistic worldview. Chesterton said that religious feeling is akin to falling in love. And love cannot be defeated by any logic. There is another aspect. Let's take a decent, educated atheist. Without realizing it, he follows the institutions that arose in Europe in the last two thousand years, that is, the Christian rules.” Boris Viktorovich was not a materialist and criticized reductionism, the reduction of all objective reality to matter: “Trying to understand the Universe using analytical methods, some physicists felt the impossibility of explaining it only from the point of view of materialism. I also believe that materialism, which teaches that matter is primary and everything else is secondary, is nonsense. Academician Sakharov, whom I consider a man of exceptional honesty and courage, wrote that there is something outside of matter and its laws that warms the world; this feeling can be called religious. The gene, the carrier of hereditary information, is material. But it itself is inexplicable from a materialistic point of view. What is more important - information or its carrier? Consequently, what is immaterial objectively exists in the world.”
Contribution to science. Mechanical physicist, one of the founders of Russian cosmonautics. Spent unique work on photography reverse side moon. Under his leadership, systems for orientation and flight correction of interplanetary automatic stations “Mars”, “Venera”, “Zond”, communication satellites “Molniya”, automatic and manual control were created spaceships, piloted by humans.

Worldview. Christian. He was a convinced creationist. According to many scientists, it was because of this that Damadian did not receive the Nobel Prize at one time, although his contribution to the invention of MRI is generally recognized by the scientific community. Many world-famous scientists came out in support of it.
Contribution to science. He is one of the inventors of magnetic resonance imaging. On July 3, 1977, he performed the first human scan using MRI. B Received the first patent in the field of magnetic resonance imaging for the diagnosis of malignant neoplasms. In 2001, he received the Lemelson-MIT Prize as the person “who invented MRI.”

Worldview. Lutheran. In his talk on the intersection of science and religion at Authors@Google, Knuth mentions the harsh reaction that followed after he wrote the book 3:16 Illuminated Biblical Texts (in this book one in sixteen The verse of the third chapter of each biblical book is accompanied by a calligraphic design), dedicated to the Bible, which he first presented to the public at a meeting of the Association of Christians in Mathematical Sciences, he also explained that throughout his life he was a religious person. When writing one of his books, he was advised to cut out the part where he argued that “computer science” is not everything, although the audience at MIT reacted adequately to this.
Contribution to science. The programmer, who wrote the famous multi-volume “The Art of Programming,” is considered the “father” of algorithm analysis. He is also known as the creator of the TeX and METAFONT publishing systems, used by scientists around the world.

Worldview. Protestant, New Life Church. He was engaged in Bible translation. Wall's Christianity also influenced the language he invented, Perl. So the name itself is taken from Matt. 13:46, the names of some functions are also taken from the Holy Scriptures. Wall has spoken openly about his faith at various conferences. So, he spoke directly about it at the Perl Conference in August 1997.
Contribution to science. Programmer, famous as the creator of the Perl programming language and the Usenet client for the patch program.

Chemistry

Worldview. An Anglican (presumably), an active missionary, he established the Boyle Lectures, the purpose of which was to defend the Christian faith against “notorious infidels, namely, atheists, deists, pagans, Jews and Muslims.” In 1680 - 1685 he personally financed the publication of the Bible, both the New and Old Testaments in Irish.
Contribution to science. One of the founders of modern chemistry, author of the Boyle-Mariotte law.

Worldview. Orthodox, in his "Appearance of Venus" the scientist shows the differences between the tasks of religion and the tasks of science; he also has the following thought: “The Creator gave the human race two books. The first is the visible world... The second book is Holy Scripture... Both generally confirm us not only in the existence of God, but also in His unspeakable benefits. It is a sin to sow tares and discord among them.” Lomonosov also wrote two poems: “Morning reflection on God’s majesty” and “Evening reflection on God’s majesty in the event of the great northern lights.”
Contribution to science. He came up with his own molecular-kinetic theory of heat, laid the foundations of physical chemistry, discovered the presence of an atmosphere on Venus, together with Brown was the first to obtain mercury in the solid state, and invented the first prototype of a helicopter (independently of L. Davinci).

Worldview. Catholic, defended the Christian faith from people who appealed to science in their attacks; biographer Edouard Grimaud reports of him: “He held firmly to his faith.” To Edward King, who sent him his discursive work, Lavoisier replied: “In defending revelation and Holy Scripture, you act nobly, and it is very surprising that you use the same weapons for defense that you once used for attack.”
Contribution to science. Biologist and chemist, considered the founder of modern chemistry. Antoine came up with names for oxygen, hydrogen and silicon. Helped create the metric system and helped reform chemical nomenclature by writing down the first list of chemical elements. One of his discoveries is that despite the fact that matter can change its shape, its mass remains constant (the law of conservation of mass). He studied the composition of water and air, which in his time were considered single elements, Lavoisier showed that water consists of hydrogen and oxygen, and air of nitrogen and oxygen. In biology, a scientist first used a calorimeter to measure the heating produced by a guinea pig's respiration.

Worldview. Quaker. He led a decent and modest life.
Contribution to science. Developed modern atomic theory, studied color blindness, a phenomenon named after the scientist. Formulated Dalton's law about the sum of partial pressures.

Worldview. Catholic. He was a believer throughout his life. He defended the Christian faith against the attacks of materialism, examples of this can be found in his numerous speeches: in an address to Berard, a memorable speech dedicated to Faraday, and in many other speeches.
Contribution to science. Chemist, founder of organic chemistry. Got a method for determining atomic and molecular mass. He developed a volumetric method (“Dumas method”) for determining the amount of nitrogen in organic compounds. He established that fats are esters, established the composition of acetone, laid down ideas about the class of alcohols, and put forward the first theory of types. He established the existence of the formic acid series (the first homologous series in organic chemistry) and determined the empirical formula of indigo.

Worldview. Christian. The German-language magazine “Cicero” contains an interview with the scientist on November 21, 2007, which contains the following words (literally): “Oh, yes, I believe in God (...) I am a Christian and I try to live like a Christian (...) I read the Bible very often and I try to understand it.”
Contribution to science. Works in the field of surface chemistry, in 2007 received Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research into chemical processes on solid surfaces. Gerhard was elected a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2011.

Worldview. Christian. Smalley converted to Christianity shortly before his death (several years), but unlike others, he began to adhere to the Christian worldview consistently. The scientist was an old-earth creationist, in one of his letters he writes: “I recently returned to the Church, focusing on understanding what makes Christianity so vital and influential in the lives of billions of people today, 2000 years have passed since the death and resurrection Christ's. Although I suspect I will never fully understand it, I am now inclined to believe that the answer is quite simple: it is true. God created the Universe 13.7 billion years ago and since then necessity has involved Him in the affairs of His creations. Only God knows for sure the purpose of the Universe, but unusually quickly, modern science is beginning to understand that the Universe was incredibly finely tuned for the emergence of life. Somehow, we are urgently involved in His plan. Our job, to the best of our ability, is to comprehend this plan, love each other, and help Him finish everything”; the scientist wrote: “Evolution has just received a fatal blow. After reading The Origin of Life with my background in chemistry and physics, the impossibility of evolution is completely clear. The new book “Who is Adam?” is the silver bullet that will kill the evolutionary model.” In a speech at Tuskegee University, he referred to the struggle between creationism and evolutionism and stated: "The burden of proof lies with those who do not believe that 'Genesis' is right, and there was a creation, and the Creator is still involved."
Contribution to science. Chemist and physicist, received Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1996 for "the discovery of a new form of carbon, fullerenes." He is sometimes called the “father of modern nanotechnology” (as he is called in one of the resolutions of the US Senate).

Worldview. Catholic. The magazine “The Catholic Spirit” (October 24, 2012) contains an interview with the scientist. He says, “The entire time I lived in Little Falls, I attended Mass at St. Mary's. Mary and Monsignor Keaveney was our priest.” It also says that Kobilka now goes to church with his wife in Stanford, Calif.
Contribution to science. Received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012"for his studies of G protein-coupled receptors."

Biology

Worldview. Anglican, priest. Ray was a devout Christian and expressed his faith in “natural theology.” Its main position was that the wisdom and power of God can be understood through the study of his creation, the sensory world. In 1660, the scientist wrote: “There is no more valuable and delightful occupation for a free person than to contemplate the beauty of nature and honor the infinite wisdom and goodness of God.” Ray's ideas had a great influence on the Christian philosopher and theologian William Paley, whose works were fascinated by Charles Darwin.
Contribution to science. Naturalist, botanist, zoologist. Ray is sometimes called the "father of English natural history". The classification of plants proposed by him in his work “Historia Plantarum” was a serious step towards modern taxonomy. The first one gave the definition biological concept"view".

Worldview. Lutheran. was the first to classify man as a biological species, while the scientist wrote that he believed in the existence of a soul in animals and argued that the difference between man and animal is nobility.
Contribution to science. He defined the concept of a biological species, founded modern taxonomy, and helped biology become a full-fledged science. He raised the question of the origin of man into the natural sciences.

Worldview. Anglican (presumably). The scientist’s main work is “Monographia Apum Angliae”, the purpose of writing this book was both scientific and religious; in one of his letters in 1800, Kirby writes: “The Author of Scripture is also the author of Nature: and the visible world, with its types and symbols, proclaims the same the truth that the Bible says. This makes the natural scientist a religious man, directing his attention to the glory of the Lord, to which he can testify in his works, and in his studies of living beings see the mercy of the Lord; let this be to some extent the fruit of my labors"
Contribution to science. Founder of entomology.

Worldview. Lutheran. He was a believer throughout his life and attended church services. He played an important role in the opening of the Paris Bible Society in 1818, he was vice-president. From 1822 until his death in 1832, Cuvier was Grand Master of the Protestant Faculty of Theology at the French University.
Contribution to science. A naturalist and zoologist, he was a major figure among natural scientists of the early 19th century, sometimes called the founder of paleontology and comparative anatomy. Compare modern animals with fossils. He is known as the man who established the fact of extinction, as the most influential proponent of the theory of catastrophism in the 19th century.

Worldview. An Orthodox Presbyterian, he professed the Nicene Creed. He corresponded with Darwin and was his friend, popularized his ideas in the United States, but considered his works as confirmation of his commitment to natural theology (“Natural theology”). When Charles Darwin wrote: “It seems to me absurd to doubt that a man can be both a zealous theist and an evolutionist,” he had Gray in mind first of all.
Contribution to science. Florist, botanist. He was a foreign corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Developed statistical methods for comparing floras. Unified the taxonomy of North American plants.

Worldview. Catholic, Augustinian monk.
Contribution to science. Founded genetics by showing that the heredity of certain characteristics of peas (Georg grew about 29,000 pea plants for this purpose in the monastery of St. Thomas in Brno) forms a certain structure, which is now known as Mendel's laws. Additionally, as a scientist, Mendel explored astronomy and meteorology, founding the Austrian Meteorological Society in 1865. After working with peas, Mendel began to study animals, bees, but was unable to describe their heredity. He also described a new plant species, which was later named after him.

Worldview. A deist, spiritualist, was a member of the Theosophical Society. He argued with Darwin and interpreted evolution as a directed process. Wallace believed that natural selection could not be the source of musical, artistic or musical talent, nor of metafictional ideas and wit. He claimed that something in the "invisible Universe of Spirit" had manifested itself at least three times in history. The first time - during the creation of life from inorganic matter, the second time - during the creation of consciousness in higher animals, and the third time during the creation of higher rational abilities in man. He also believed that the raison d'être of the universe was "the perfection of the human spirit." The following passage also testifies to Wallace's views: “Feelings of abstract justice or love of one's neighbor,” he wrote, “could never be acquired in this way (that is, by selection), for these feelings are incompatible with the law of survival of the fittest,” according to Wallace “ The Supreme Intelligent Being gave a certain direction to the development of man, directed him towards a special goal, just as man guides the development of many animal and plant forms.”
Contribution to science. An evolutionary biologist, he developed his theory in parallel with Charles Darwin, who admired his ideas. Founder of zoogeography. The first criticized the ideas of Lamarckism and coined the term “Darwinism”. According to anthropologist Gregory Bateson, Wallace "proclaimed the most powerful idea that can be found in the 19th century."

Worldview. Jew, Zionist. He wrote a “Call to Orthodoxy,” in which he convinced Jews of the need to keep the commandments, criticized “enlightened” Jews for their disregard for Jewish religious law; bequeathed his fortune to help yeshivas.
Contribution to science. Immunologist and bacteriologist. Creator of the first vaccines against plague and cholera.

Worldview. Anglican. Although his views were not dogmatic, he was a deeply religious man. H. Allen Orr writes that Fisher was: "a very devout Anglican who, in addition to founding modern statistics and population genetics, wrote for church publications."
Contribution to science. Evolutionary biologist, geneticist and statistician. Almost single-handedly he laid the foundations of modern statistics, where the so-called “ accurate test Fischer". In mathematics he derived the Kolmogorov-Fisher equation. In biology, he formulated “Fisher’s fundamental theorem of natural selection.”

Worldview. Orthodox. But his personal beliefs remain a mystery; he was undoubtedly a believer, but, for example, his student Francisco Ayala claims that the scientist “did not believe in a personal God and life after death.” However, the famous biologist Ernst Mayer said exactly the opposite, in the magazine “Sceptic” he is quoted as saying: “On the other hand, many evolutionists, such as Dobrozhansky, believed in a personal God.” The scientist himself believed that God created through evolution, a position that can be characterized as theistic evolutionism. In 1972, Dobrozhansky received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from St. Vladimir's Seminary in Crestwood.
Contribution to science. Ethnologist, one of the founders of the synthetic theory of evolution. His work “Genetics and the Origin of Species” is rightfully considered one of the most significant works on the synthetic theory of evolution.

Worldview. Catholic. In written by A.G. Karzmar’s biography of the scientist contains the following lines: “Although Eccles was not always a church-going Catholic, he was a theist and a spiritual person, the scientist believed that “there is a Divine Providence above us, and it is higher than the materialistic events of biological evolution.” In his book “Understanding the Brain,” the scientist proposed the following solution to the brain-mind problem; he, like Karl Popper, left monism and divided the world into three: in the first world there are physical objects and states (biology), in the second there are states of consciousness ( experience: perception, thinking, emotions, intentions, memory, dreams, creative imagination), in the third world of knowledge in the objective sense (philosophy, theology, science, history, literature, technology); Eccles is also credited with saying: “I am forced to think that there is something like a supernatural principle of my unique, self-conscious spirit and my unique soul. The idea of ​​supernatural creation helps me avoid the obviously ridiculous conclusion about the genetic origin of my unique self.
Contribution to science. Neurophysiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for 1963. For discoveries concerning ionic mechanisms of excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central regions of nerve cells.

Worldview. Orthodox Jew. I doubted Darwin's theory of evolution. Thus, Clarke in his work “The Life of Ernst Chain: Penicillin and Beyond” quotes the scientist: “Over the years I have often said that speculation about the origin of life serves no useful purpose, because even the most primitive living system is too complex to be understood in the monstrously primitive terms that scientists use in their attempts to explain inexplicable events that happened billions of years ago,” the same book quotes a scientist as saying about one of the works of the positivist Jacques Monod: “[Monod] wrote a semi-philosophical a book dealing with a subject that has been frequently addressed; he and Crick are the main representatives of the positivist-materialist philosophy, according to which all aspects of life can be described in relatively simple psycho-chemical categories. It has always seemed to me that this approach shows a huge ignorance of the biology of people who put forward such primitive ideas." He raised his children in the Jewish faith. In 1965 he gave a speech “Why I am a Jew.”
Contribution to science. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945 for “the discovery of penicillin and its healing effects in various infectious diseases”, he is considered one of the founders of the antibiotic revolution.

Worldview. Orthodox Christian (debatable). In June 1970, he converted to Christianity due to his religious experience and began to study New Testament, published an essay entitled "The Twelve Days of Easter." Price believed that there were too many coincidences in his life. At the very end of his life, he moved away from the scientific gaze of the Bible and began to help vagabonds in North London.
Contribution to science. Population geneticist, made significant contributions to the mathematical theory of population genetics. Together with J.M. Smith introduced the concept of “stable evolutionary strategy” into biology, the most important concept in game theory; formalized Fisher's theorem of natural selection; supplemented the work of U.D. Hamilton on kin selection by the new Peirce equation.

Worldview. Jew. He studied in a yeshiva and attended Talmudic school until the end of his life.
Contribution to science. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine 1976 for the discovery of the Hepatitis B Vaccine, which reduced the incidence of the disease in children in China from fifteen to one percent within ten years. Jonathan Chernow said of him that "Blumberg has prevented more cancer deaths than any living person on the planet."

Worldview. Catholic. He actively opposed abortion and was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. The Catholic Church awarded him the title "Servant of God". One atheist scientist (name unknown) wrote about Lejeune in the article “Materialism about the Beginning of Life”: “Professor Lejeune was a Catholic and he drew idealistic conclusions from scientific facts. For example, he argued that the moment of conception is not only the connection of information with the aim of creating a new life, but also the emergence of a new, immortal soul, given by God himself.”
Contribution to science. The doctor, a geneticist, gave an explanation for Down syndrome, linking it with a chromosomal abnormality, and also described the cat cry syndrome, which is sometimes called “Lejeune syndrome.” The scientist also expanded the concept of karyotype and explained the underdevelopment of the fetal neural tube. For the first time he described clonal evolution in a child with Down syndrome and leukemia.

Worldview. Christian of the Evangelical faith. He calls himself a “serious Christian” and adheres to theistic evolution on the question of the origin of life.
Contribution to science. Head of the project to decipher the human genome.

Physics

Worldview. Catholic. He asserted that “Holy Scripture cannot in any case affirm a lie or be mistaken; his sayings are absolute and undeniably true.”
Contribution to science. Refuted Aristotelian physics. First to use a telescope for observation celestial bodies. He laid the foundations of classical mechanics, basing it on the experimental method, for which he is often called the “father of modern physics.”

Worldview. Catholic Jansenist. A religious philosopher, Pascal defended the Christian faith, argued with Descartes, argued with the atheists of his time, and condemned the casuistry of the Jesuits who justified vices high society(in “Letters to a Provincial”), author of numerous reflections on philosophical and religious topics. He wrote the work “Thoughts on Religion and Other Subjects,” a collection of ideas in defense of Christianity against criticism from atheists, which includes the famous “Pascal’s Wager.”
Contribution to science. He created a calculating machine-arphmometer. He experimentally refuted the prevailing axiom at that time, taken from Aristotle, that nature is “afraid of the void,” and at the same time formulated the basic law of hydrostatics. In correspondence with Fermat, he laid the foundations of probability theory. He is also at the origins of projective geometry and mathematical analysis.

Worldview. Catholic, philosopher. Voltaire wrote many satires against him, for example, “Doctor Acacius, Papal Physician.” Before his death, the scientist admitted that Christianity “leads man to the greatest good through the greatest possible means.”
Contribution to science. He introduced the concept of the principle of least action into mechanics, and immediately pointed out its universal nature. He was a pioneer in genetics, in particular, some find that his views contributed to the development of the theory of evolution and natural selection.

Worldview. Catholic. He studied theology, wanted to connect his life with the Church, but chose the path of science. His biographer, Professor Venturoli, speaks about Galvani’s deep religiosity. In 1801, another of his biographers, Alibert, writes about the scientist: “it can be added that in his public demonstrations, he never completed his lectures without calling on his listeners to renew their faith, always drawing their attention to the idea of ​​​​an eternal Providence that develops, preserves and makes life flow among many other kinds of things.”
Contribution to science. He was one of the first to study electrophysiology and “animal electricity”. The phenomenon “galvanism” was named after him.

Worldview. Catholic. The dogmas, social life and rituals of the Roman Church formed a large part of Volta's life (culture). His best friends were the clergy. Volta remained close to his brothers, the canon and archdeacon, and was a churched man (practicing, in Catholic terminology). Examples of his religiosity include a flirtation with Jansenism in the 1790s and an 1815 confession of faith written to defend religion against scientism.
Contribution to science. Physicist, invented the chemical battery in 1800. Discovered methane. Found ways to measure charge (Q) and potential (V). Created the world's first chemical current source.

Worldview. Catholic. The scientist is credited with the following statement: “Study, explore earthly things - this is the duty of a man of science. Explore nature with one hand, and with the other, like a father’s robe, hold on to the hem of God’s robe.” At the age of 18, the scientist believed that there were three culminating moments in his life: “First Communion, reading Antoine Thomas’s eulogy to Descartes, and the storming of the Bastille.” When his wife died, Ampere wrote out two verses from the Psalms and the prayer “O Lord, Merciful God, unite me in Heaven with those whom you allowed me to love on Earth,” at that time he was overwhelmed by strong doubts, and in his free time the scientist read The Bible and the Fathers of the Church.
Contribution to science. Physicist and mathematician. In electrodynamics: he established a rule for determining the direction of action of a magnetic field on a magnetic needle (“Ampere’s rule”), discovered the influence of the Earth’s magnetic field on moving conductors with current, discovered the interaction between electric currents, and formulated the law of this phenomenon (“Ampere’s law”). Contributed to the development of the theory of magnetism: he discovered the magnetic effect of the solenoid. Ampere was also an inventor - it was he who invented the commutator and the electromagnetic telegraph. Ampere also contributed to chemistry through his joint work with Avogadro

Worldview. Lutheran (presumably). In his 1814 speech entitled “The Development of Science, Understood as the Task of Religion” (the scientist included this speech in his book The Soul in Nature), in it he writes that this speech includes many ideas that are more developed in other parts of the book, but here they are presented as a whole), Oersted states the following: “we will try to establish our conviction of the existing harmony between science and religion, by showing how a man of science should look at his studies, if he understands them correctly, viz. as the task of religion." What follows is a long discussion that can be found in the book.
Contribution to science. Physicist and chemist. Discovered that electric current creates a magnetic field. The first modern thinker to describe and name a thought experiment in detail. Oersted's work was an important step towards a unified concept of energy.

Worldview. Protestant, Church of Scotland. After his marriage, he served as a deacon and churchwarden in one of the meetinghouses of his youth, and researchers note that “a strong sense of harmony between God and nature permeated his entire life and work.”
Contribution to science. Contributed to electromagnetism and electrochemistry. Considered the best experimenter and one of the most influential scientists in the history of science. Discovered benzene. He noticed a phenomenon he called diamagnetism. Discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction. His invention of electromagnetic rotators served as the basis for the electric motor. Thanks also to his efforts, electricity began to be used in technology.

Worldview. Anglican (presumably). Joule wrote: “A phenomenon of nature, be it mechanical, chemical, life, almost completely transforms into itself over a long period of time. Thus, order is maintained and nothing is out of order, nothing is lost forever, but the whole mechanism, such as it is, works smoothly and harmoniously, all controlled by God's will. He was one of the scientists who signed the "Declaration of Students of Natural and Physical Sciences", written in response to the wave of Darwinism that came to England.
Contribution to science. Formulated the first law of thermodynamics, discovered Joule's Law of heat power when an electric current flows. He was the first to calculate the speed of gas molecules. Calculated the mechanical equivalent of heat.

Worldview. Anglican (presumably). In 1886, he became president of the Victoria Institute, whose goal was to respond to the evolutionary movement of the 60s; in 1891, Stokes gave a lecture at this institute; he was also president of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and was actively involved in missionary issues. Stokes said: “I know of no sound conclusions of science that would contradict the Christian religion.”
Contribution to science. Physicist and mathematician, author of the Stokes theorem, made significant contributions to the development of hydrodynamics, optics and mathematical physics.

Worldview. Presbyterian. Throughout his life he was a devout person, attending church every day. As can be seen from the scientist's speech at the Christian Evidence Society (an organization created to combat atheism in Victorian society), Thompson believed that his faith helped him understand reality, informed him. In the broad sense of the word, the scientist was a creationist, but he was by no means a “flood geologist”; he could be said to support the view known as theistic evolution. He often openly disagreed with Charles Darwin's followers and entered into disputes with them.
Contribution to science. Mathematical physicist and engineer. Formulated the first and second laws of thermodynamics and helped unify the emerging disciplines in physics. He guessed that there was a lower temperature limit, absolute zero. He is also known as an inventor, author of about 70 patents.

Worldview. Christian of evangelical faith. At the end of his life he became a churchwarden in the Church of Scotland. As a child, he attended services in both the Church of Scotland (his father's denomination) and the Episcopal Church (his mother's denomination); in April 1853, the scientist converted to the evangelical faith, which is why he began to adhere to anti-positivist views.
Contribution to science. Physicist whose main achievement was the formulation of the classical theory of electromagnetism. Thus, he united previously disparate observations, experiments and equations in electricity, magnetism and optics into a single theory. Maxwell's equations show that electricity, magnetism and light are one and the same phenomenon. These achievements of his were called “the second greatest unification in physics” (after the work of Isaac Newton). The scientist also helped develop the Boltzmann-Maxwell distribution, which is a statistical means of describing certain aspects in the kinetic theory of gases. Maxwell is also known as the man who created the first durable color photograph in 1861.

Worldview. Congregationalist. Fleming was a creationist and rejected Darwin's ideas as atheistic (from Fleming's book Evolution or Creation?). In 1932, he helped found the Evolution Protest Movement. Fleming once preached "what is in the fields" at St. Martin's Church in London, and his sermon was dedicated to the evidence of the Resurrection. The scientist bequeathed most of his inheritance to Christian charitable organizations who helped the poor.
Contribution to science. Physicist and engineer. Considered the father of modern electrical engineering. Formulated two rules known to physics: left and right hand. Invented the so-called Fleming valve

Worldview. Anglican. Raymond Seager in his book J. J. Thomson, Anglican states the following: “As a professor, Thompson attended the Sunday evening service of the university chapel, and as head of the university, the morning service. Moreover, he took an interest in the Trinity Mission in Camberwell. Respectful of his personal religious life, Thompson consistently prayed every day and read the Bible before bed. He really was a believing Christian!”
Contribution to science. Physicist, discovered the electron and isotope. Winner of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for "the discovery of the electron and services in the field of theoretical and experimental studies of the conductivity of electricity in gases." The scientist also invented the mass spectrometer, discovered the natural radioactivity of potassium, and showed that hydrogen has only one electron per atom, while previous theories allowed hydrogen to have many electrons.

Worldview. Catholic (converted six months before his death), previously a deeply religious deist. In his work “Religion and Natural Science,” the scientist wrote (the quote is given with context, from the beginning of the paragraph: “With such a coincidence, one should, however, pay attention to one fundamental difference. God is given to a religious person directly and primarily. From Him, His omnipotent will comes all life and all phenomena of both the corporeal and spiritual world. Although He is unknowable by reason, He nevertheless directly manifests Himself through the medium of religious symbols, putting His holy message into the souls of those who, by faith, trust in Him. In contrast to this for the natural scientist, only the content of his perceptions and the measurements derived from them is primary. Hence, through inductive ascent, he tries to get as close as possible to God and His world order as the highest, eternally unattainable goal. Consequently, both religion and natural science need faith in God, with In this regard, for religion God stands at the beginning of all thinking, and for natural science - at the end.”
Contribution to science. The founder of quantum physics, which is why he became winner of the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics. Formulated Planck's postulate (dark body radiation), an expression for the spectral power density of black body radiation.

Worldview. Anglican (possibly Anglo-Catholic). Bragg’s daughter wrote about the scientist’s faith: “For W. Bragg, religious faith was the willingness to bet everything on the hypothesis that Jesus Christ was right, and to test this by the experiment of performing a lifelong work of mercy. Reading the Bible was mandatory. Bragg often said that "if I have any style of writing at all, it is due to the fact that I was brought up on the Authorized Version [of the Bible]." He knew the Bible and could usually rattle off “chapter or verse.” Young Professor W. Bragg became churchwarden at St. John's in Adelaide. He also received permission to preach."
Contribution to science. Physicist, Nobel Prize laureate 1915 for "services to the study of crystals by X-rays." Bragg also created the first instrument for recording diffraction patterns. Together with his son, he developed the basics of a method for determining the structure of crystals from the diffraction pattern of X-rays.

Worldview. Presbyterian. Raymond Seeger, in his article “Compton, Christian Humanist,” published in The Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, writes the following: “As Arthur Compton grew older, so did his horizons, but it was always a clear Christian view of the world. (...) Throughout his life, the scientist was active in church affairs, from teaching Sunday school and serving as a church warden to positions on the Presbyterian Board of Education (...) Compton believed that the fundamental problem of humanity, inspiring the meaning of life, lies outside of science. According to a 1936 Times magazine report, the scientist was briefly a deacon in the Baptist Church.
Contribution to science. The physicist was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1927 for his discovery of the Compton effect. Invented a method for demonstrating the rotation of the Earth.

Worldview. Catholic priest (since 1923). He graduated from the Jesuit College and the Catholic University of Louvain, where he was educated in classical Thomist philosophy. Since 1936, he has been a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, of which he became president in 1960. Lemaitre believed that faith can be an advantage for a scientist: “As science passes through the simple stage of description, it becomes true science. She also becomes more religious. Mathematicians, astronomers and physicists, for example, are very religious people, with few exceptions. The deeper they penetrate into the mystery of the Universe, the deeper becomes their conviction that the force behind the stars, electrons and atoms is law and goodness.”
Contribution to science. A cosmologist, the author of the theory of the expanding Universe, Lemaitre was the first to formulate the relationship between the distance and speed of galaxies and proposed in 1927 the first estimate of the coefficient of this relationship, now known as the Hubble constant. Lemaître's theory of the evolution of the world from the "primordial atom" was ironically called the "Big Bang" by Fred Hoyle in 1949. This name, "Big Bang", has historically been fixed in cosmology.

Worldview. A Lutheran, although towards the end of his life he was considered a mystic, since his views on religion were not orthodox. The author of the saying: “The first sip from the glass of natural science is taken by an atheist, but God awaits at the bottom of the glass.”
Contribution to science. Nobel Prize Laureate 1932 for the creation of quantum mechanics. In 1927, the scientist published his uncertainty principle, which brought him worldwide fame.

Worldview. Christian. Here is the scientist’s statement: “I believe in a God who can answer prayers, in whom we can trust, and without whom life on Earth would be meaningless (a fairy tale told by a madman). I believe that God has revealed Himself to us in many ways, through many men and women, and for us in the West the clearest revelation is through Jesus Christ and those who followed him.”
Contribution to science. In 1977 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for "fundamental theoretical studies of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems."

Worldview. Orthodox. A.N. Bogolyubov writes about him: “The entire body of his knowledge was a single whole, and the basis of his philosophy was his deep religiosity (he said that non-religious physicists can be counted on one hand). He was the son Orthodox Church and whenever time and health allowed him, he went to vespers and mass in the nearest church.”
Contribution to science. He proved the theorem “about the sharpness of the wedge”, created it together with N.M. Krylov theory of nonlinear oscillations. Created a consistent theory of superconductivity. In the theory of superfluidity he derived kinetic equations. He proposed a new synthesis of Bohr's theory of quasiperiodic functions.

Worldview. Methodist. Henry Margeno cites the following statement of the scientist: “And I see the need for God both in the Universe and in my life.” When the scientist was asked if he was a religious person, he replied: “Yes, I was raised Protestant and I was in several denominations (...) I go to church, a very good Methodist church.” The scientist also stated that he is an orthodox Protestant.
Contribution to science. Physicist, received Nobel Prize in Physics 1981 for "contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy." In addition to optics, Shavlov also explored such areas of physics as superconductivity and nuclear magnetic resonance.

Worldview. A Muslim from the Ahmadi community. In his Nobel speech, the scientist quotes the Koran. When the Pakistani government passed a constitutional amendment declaring members of the Ahmadiyya community non-Muslims, the scientist left the country in protest.
Contribution to science. In 1979 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his theory of unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions. Some of his main achievements were also: the Pati-Salam model, magnetic photon, vector mesons, work on supersymmetry.

Worldview. Protestant (United Church of Christ). In a 2005 interview with The Guardian, the scientist said he was "raised Christian, and while my ideas have changed, I've always felt like a religious person." In the same interview, Townes stated: "What is the science? Science is an attempt to understand how the Universe works, including the human race. What is religion? It is an attempt to understand the purpose and meaning of the Universe, including the human race. If there is this purpose and meaning, then it must be interconnected with the structure of the Universe and how it works (...) Therefore, faith must teach us something about science and vice versa.”
Contribution to science. One of the creators of quantum electronics, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 for "fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which led to the creation of emitters and amplifiers based on the laser-maser principle." In 1969, together with other scientists, he discovered the so-called. “maser effect” (radiation of cosmic water molecules at a wavelength of 1.35 cm), together with a colleague, he was the first to calculate the mass of the black hole in the center of our galaxy. The scientist also made contributions to nonlinear optics: he discovered Mandelstam-Brillouin stimulated scattering, introduced the concept of the critical power of a light beam and the phenomenon of self-focusing, and experimentally observed the effect of autocollimation of light.

Worldview. A non-denominational Christian, although Dyson's views can be described as agnostic (in one of his books he wrote that he does not consider himself a practicing Christian, but only a practicing one, and stated that he does not see the point in a theology that claims to know the answers to fundamental questions) . The scientist vigorously disagrees with reductionism, so, in his Tempelton lecture, Dyson said: “Science and religion are two windows through which people look, trying to understand the Universe, to understand why they are here. These two windows open different kind, but they are aimed at the same Universe. Neither of them is complete, they are both one-sided. Both exclude significant parts of the real world."
Contribution to science. Theoretical physicist and mathematician, known for his work in quantum electrodynamics, astronomy and nuclear engineering.

Worldview. Jew, in the book of Jerry Bergman the following quote is given from the scientist: “The best data we have is what I would be able to predict if I had only the Pentateuch of Moses, the book of Psalms and the entire Bible in front of me.” In his speeches, the scientist often said that he saw meaning in the Universe, and pointed out the reluctance of the scientific community to accept the Big Bang Theory, since it points to the creation of the world.
Contribution to science. Physicist, for the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976. Using a maser, I solved the problem of increasing the accuracy of antenna tuning.

Worldview. Quaker. The scientist’s worldview is known from the book by István Hargitay, when asked “Could you tell us about your attitude towards religion?” The scientist responded as follows: “My family and I are active members of the religious community of Friends, that is, the Quaker community. Religion is an important part of our lives (especially for my wife and I; for our children to a lesser extent). My wife and I often spend time with other believers in our community; it helps us become more aware of our attitude towards life, reminds us of why we are on Earth and what we can do for others. Quakers are a group of Christians who believe in the possibility of direct communication between man and the Spirit, whom we call God. Reflection and self-contemplation helps to communicate with this Spirit and learn a lot about yourself and how to live on Earth. Quakers believe that wars cannot resolve differences and that lasting results are achieved through peaceful resolution of problems. We have always refused and refuse to participate in war, but we are ready to serve our country in other ways. We believe that there is something Divine in every person, therefore human life is sacred. You need to look for the depth of spiritual presence in people, even in those with whom you disagree.”
Contribution to science. Physicist, awarded Nobel Prize in Physics 1993 for “the discovery of a new type of pulsar, which has provided new opportunities in the study of gravity.”

Worldview. Methodist. One of the founders of the International Society for Science and Religion. Known for his frequent participation in the dialogue between "faith and science". In his autobiography on the Nobel Prize website, Phillips writes: “In 1979, after Jane (the scientist’s wife) and I moved to Gasersburg, we joined the United Methodist Church (...) Our children were our inexhaustible a source of blessing, adventure and challenge. At the time, Jane and I were trying to find new jobs, and having children required a delicate balance between work, home, and church life. But somehow, our faith and our youthful energy carried us through these times.”
Contribution to science. Physicist, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for "the development of methods for cooling and trapping atoms with a laser beam."

Mathematics

Worldview. Catholic.
Contribution to science. Mathematician, creator of number theory, author of Fermat's Last Theorem. The scientist formulated the general law of differentiation of fractional powers. He founded analytical geometry (along with Descartes) and applied it to space. He stood at the origins of probability theory.

Worldview. Protestant of the Reformed Church. When the French monarchy stopped tolerating Protestantism in 1881 (revocation of the Edict of Nantes), Huygens left the country, although they wanted to make an exception for him, which testifies to his religious beliefs.
Contribution to science. The first president of the Farntsuz Academy of Sciences, he served for 15 years. Discovered the theory of evolutes and involutes. He invented a pendulum clock and published a classic work on mechanics, “Pendulum Clock.” He derived the laws of uniformly accelerated freely falling bodies and formulated thirteen theorems on centrifugal force. Together with Fermat and Pascal, he laid the foundations of probability theory. He discovered Saturn's moon Titan, described the rings of Saturn, and discovered an ice cap at the South Pole of Mars. He invented a special eyepiece, consisting of two flat-convex lenses, named after him. The first called for choosing a universal natural measure of length. Simultaneously with Wallis and Rehn, he solved the problem of the collision of elastic bodies.

Worldview. The Christian is presumably a Protestant. He spoke out against theological orthodoxy, and against materialism and atheism. He created his own philosophical doctrine, the so-called. Leibniz's monadology, which was close to deism and pantheism.
Contribution to science. Predetermined mathematical analysis and combinatorics. Laid the foundations of mathematical logic and combinatorics. He took a very important step towards the creation of a computer; he was the first to describe the binary number system. He was the only person who worked freely with both continuous and discrete ones. For the first time he formulated the law of conservation of energy. Created a mechanical calculator (together with H. Huygens).

Worldview. Christian. He believed in the inspiration of Scripture, argued with Denny Diderot about the existence of God, and wrote an apologetic treatise “Defense of Divine Revelation from the Objections of Freethinkers.”
Contribution to science. It is often said that from the point of view of mathematics, the 18th century is the century of Euler. Many call him the greatest mathematician of all time. Euler was the first to link analysis, algebra, trigonometry, number theory and other branches of mathematics into a single system; listing all his discoveries by name is impossible due to the format of this section.

Worldview. Lutheran. Although Gauss did not believe in a personal God and was considered a deist, it can be argued that he had a religious worldview, for example, he believed in the immortality of the soul and life after death. According to Dunnington, Gauss believed in an immortal, righteous, omniscient and omnipotent God. With all his love for mathematics, Karl Friedrich never absolutized it, he said: “There are problems to the solution of which I would attribute infinitely greater importance compared to mathematical problems, for example, problems related to ethics, or our relationship to God, or concerning our destiny and our future; but their solution lies entirely beyond our limits and absolutely beyond the scope of science.”
Contribution to science. The scientist is often called the King of Mathematics (lat. Princeps mathematicalorum), this reflects his invaluable and vast contribution to the “queen of sciences”. Thus, in algebra, Gauss came up with a rigorous proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra, discovered the ring of complex integers, and created the classical theory of comparisons. In geometry, the scientist contributed to differential geometry, for the first time dealt with the internal geometry of surfaces: he discovered the characteristic of a surface (named in his honor), proved the fundamental theorem of surfaces, Gauss also created a separate science - higher geodesy. Dunnington claimed that Gauss was the first to study non-Euclidean geometry, but was afraid to publish his results, considering them meaningless. In mathematical analysis, Gauss created the theory of potential and studied elliptic functions. The scientist was also interested in astronomy, where he studied the orbits of small planets and found a way to determine orbital elements from three complete observations. Many of his students later became great mathematicians. The scientist also studied physics, where he developed the theory of capillarity and the theory of lens systems, and also laid the foundations for the theory of electromagnetism, and designed (together with Weber) the first primitive electric telegraph.

Worldview. Catholic priest. In addition to his scientific research, Bolzano also dealt with theological and philosophical issues.
Contribution to science. Bolzano's work contributed to the formation of strict definitions of analysis using "epsilon" and "delta". In many areas of mathematics, the scientist was a pioneer, ahead of his time: even before Cantor, Bolzano studied infinite sets; using geometric considerations, the scientist obtained examples of continuous, but nowhere differentiable functions. The scientist put forward the idea of ​​the arithmetic theory of the real number, in 1817 he proved the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem (independent of the latter, who discovered it half a century later), the Bolzano-Cauchy theorem.

Worldview. Anglican (presumably). Convincedly defended the authenticity of biblical miracles in an era when people were increasingly moving away from the Christian worldview.
Contribution to science. He is the first author of the idea of ​​​​creating a computing machine, which today is called a computer, and developed its project.

Worldview. Calvinist. Gene Chase writes about Hamilton's theology: “In Hamilton's Calvinist theology, which was also professed by his friend J. Maxwell, God is the creator of both the Universe and the laws that govern it. This means that the various relationships between material objects, called laws, are as real as the objects themselves. As a Christian, Hamilton was confident that God's mark was present in every part of nature." This “metaphysical fervor,” in the words of his best 20th-century biographer, Thomas Hopkins, “propelled him to the task of generalizing complex numbers to quaternions.” De Morgan writes in his obituary for the scientist that “he was offered to become a priest, but decided to devote all his time to science: two bishops offered him ordination.”
Contribution to science. The mathematician is primarily known for discovering quaternions, creating the foundations of vector analysis and indicating the possibility of obtaining differential equations of motion based on a new principle called “Hamilton’s principle.” Theoretically substantiated some properties of birefringent crystals with two optical axes, which was confirmed experimentally.

Worldview. Catholic. He returned to faith in 1856 under the influence of O. Cauchy.
Contribution to science. He studied the class of orthogonal polynomials, discovered special bilinear forms, which were named after him, and proved the transcendence of the number e.

Worldview. Christian (denomination unknown). Together with the physicist Balfour Stewart, he wrote the book “The Unseen Universe” (1875) in order to “refute materialism on purely scientific grounds.” Due to the fact that the book was of interest to the public, Tait wrote a sequel - the book “Paradoxical Philosophy” (“Paradoxical Philosophy”, 1878).
Contribution to science. A mathematical physicist and topologist, he laid the foundation for topology with his early work on knot theory. In graph theory, his name is known from a proposal by Tait. He is also the author of works on the theory of quaternions: he translated the results of G. Helmholtz into quaternion language, applied quaternion analysis to the problem of the motion of an ideal fluid; published (1867) “Elementary treatise on quaternions.” In mathematical physics he is known for his (1867) “treatise on natural philosophy.”

Worldview. Church of England priest (ordained 1859). In 1883, due to disagreements with orthodox Protestantism, he left the priesthood, finding that he could not follow the thirty-nine laws of the Church of England. However, Venn's son, John Archibald Venn, wrote that his father later changed his mind and, if faced with the same choice a second time, would have remained a priest. Which is not surprising, because according to the mathematician’s son, his father was a man with sincere religious beliefs throughout his entire life.
Contribution to science. Logician, expanded Boole's logic, introduced a schematic way of representing sets (the so-called Venn diagram). In his work "The Logic of Chance" (1866), which Charles Peirce called "a book that every thinking man should read", he first used such mathematical terms as "rule of inheritance" and "significance", and also introduced frequency theory of probability.

Worldview. He belonged to the Episcopal Church. Peirce, in addition to being a scientist, was a philosopher, and his views are known from his philosophical works. He recognized the reality of God, but not the existence, and he interpreted the words “reality” and “existence” in a special way. By “existence” he meant (J. Buncher, Philosophical Writings of Peirce) “the ability to react with others, like things in environment", given this interpretation, it can be argued that Peirce believed in God, his views more fully stated in his work "The Forgotten Argument for the Reality of God." As a philosopher, Peirce also made the case for free will and immortality. Peirce has sometimes been called the "Kant of American philosophy."
Contribution to science. Mathematician (logician and statistician). In 1886, the scientist was one of the first to realize that electrical switch circuits could perform logical operations. In his works, Peirce anticipated many of the discoveries of Georg Cantor. In 1880-81 he showed how Boolean algebra could be worked using only one logical binary operator (Peirce's arrow), beating Schaeffer by 33 years. In 1881, a little before Dedekind, the scientist constructed the axiomatics of natural numbers.

Worldview. A Lutheran scientist believed that his transfinite numbers could be an argument against both materialism and determinism, and was surprised to learn that he was the only person in Halle who did not adhere to a deterministic philosophy. Cantor identified Absolute Infinity with God, and believed that his work on transfinite numbers was directly revealed to him by God himself, who chose him to tell the world about it. Cantor corresponded with many Christian theologians and philosophers about his mathematical work, which was widely discussed, it went beyond the scope of pure mathematics and became the object of philosophical consideration.
Contribution to science. Mathematician, primarily known as the inventor of set theory. He proved that real numbers cannot be counted and established the importance of one-to-one mapping from one set to another.

Worldview. Platonist (religious affiliation unknown). Before World War I, the scientist was an agnostic, then he returned to faith without joining any Christian denomination. In his book Process and Reality he defends a theistic worldview. Whitehead rejected the dualism between body and mind, which brings him closer to Eastern teachings such as Buddhism and Taoism.
Contribution to science. Together with Bertrand Russell, he was the author of a fundamental work "Principia Mathematica".

Worldview. Jew. The only professor of mathematics in Göttingen who attended the city synagogue.
Contribution to science. Came up with a simple proof for the prime number distribution theorem. Introduced the first systematic approach to analytical number theory. Also made important contributions to complex analysis. G. Hardy wrote that no one was as passionately devoted to mathematics as Landau.

Worldview. Orthodox. He was persecuted for his religious beliefs in the USSR, and evaded the leadership of the Moscow Mathematical Society.
Contribution to science. Creator of the descriptive theory of sets and functions. Founded the Moscow mathematical school.

Worldview. Orthodox Jew. He was a convinced Zionist. Despite this, Frenkel did not immediately accept the invitation to teach at the newly created Hebrew University of Jerusalem, since it was too secular. In his biography, the mathematician wrote that he sought advice from his deeply respected Rabbi Abraham Kook; he was worried that the University could become a platform for the development of heretical “scientific” interpretations of the TaNaKh (Old Testament) and Jewish sacred texts. Rabbi Kook answered Frenkel that he should participate in the work of the University, and thereby raise its spiritual level.
Contribution to science. Mathematician, logician. He laid the foundations of modern set theory by developing the Zernelo axiomatics and thereby formulated the ZFC axiomatics, which later became classical. He also wrote several works on general algebra and foundations of mathematics.

Worldview. Lutheran. Discussed with Albert Einstein, who adhered to pantheism, trying to convince the scientist of the existence of a personal God, Gödel argued the following: “Spinoza’s God is less than a person; my God is more than a person; since God can play the role of a person. There may be spirits that do not have a body, but can communicate with us and influence the world." Gödel's faith was testified by his wife, Adele, who said two days after his death that Gödel, although "he did not attend church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning." According to a biography of the scientist written by Hoa Vang, who knew Gödel directly, it is impossible to separate Gödel's scientific impulse from his scientific questions, and Gödel himself described his philosophy as "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic and theological." Gödel tried to take a new approach to the ontological argument for the proof of the existence of God, formulated by Anselm of Canterbury. To reconstruct this argument, the scientist used modal logic.
Contribution to science. Logician, formulated and proved the theorem on incompleteness and completeness, which had broad consequences for both mathematics and philosophy, thereby revolutionizing logic. In the field of cosmological theory, Gödel proposed a model of a rotating universe.

Worldview. Orthodox. In one of the interviews, to the question: “(...) Are you an Orthodox person, but is this just from family tradition, or did you have some kind of conscious choice?” Igor Rostislavovich replied: “No, there was no tradition in our family, there was a tradition, but it was very strange, interrupted. He was baptized in the Orthodox Church - that’s all about tradition. This gap has affected an entire generation." And also answering the next question, Shafarevich says: “It seems to me that we need to try to take a position that would be consistent. It’s not that with one side of my being I do something, follow certain views, and the other side does something that is completely inconsistent with it. I have a feeling that, being Russian, believing in God, I cannot realize this state of mine otherwise than by being Orthodox. (...)".
Contribution to science. The greatest Soviet and Russian scientist, published more than 138 scientific articles, wrote several textbooks. Shafarevich defended his doctoral dissertation at the age of 23, at the age of 35 he was elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and on December 7, 1991 he was elected academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. At one time he was president of the Moscow Mathematical Society. He found the most general law of reciprocity of power residues in algebraic number fields, which was to a certain extent the final stage of the 150-year history of arithmetic reciprocity laws, dating back to Euler and Gauss. In 1954 he gave a solution to the inverse problem of Galois theory for solvable groups. Together with his student Golod in 1964, he proved the existence of infinite periodic groups with a finite number of generators.

Worldview. Orthodox Jew (religious Zionist). In his opinion, the first generation of Zionists failed to pass on their ideas to their predecessors because they were built on secular principles. In his view, in order for Zionism to survive, it must be built on a religious basis.
Contribution to science. Laureate Nobel Prize in Economics 2005 for his work on game theory.
Write to the author

Recognizing the imperfections of our list, we would be extremely grateful for any of your notes, corrections, or any criticism. This list is open to us, and we will still make many changes and amendments to it before it takes its final form, which may be published as a brochure. Sources that we will eventually add to the list are also welcome.

Scientists who probably had a religious worldview, but we did not find sources that would report this:

Sh. Pendant(1736-1806, Catholic), G. Ohm (1789-1854, Catholic), Osborne Reynolds (1842-1912), A. Becquerel, NOT. Zhukovsky, R. Milliken, E. Schrödinger, V. Pauli (1900-1958, deist; often criticized modern evolutionary biology.), A. Kastler, P. Jordan, E. Conklin, I.G. Petrovsky, M. Shal, G. Hertz, W. Ramsay, A. Kastler, A. Fleming, V. Zvorykin, W. Harvey, J. Parkinson, B. Smith, J. von Mahler, A. Popov, J-L. Leclerc, A. Cayley, A. Sandage; Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Albrecht von Haller (1708-77), Robert Brown (1773-1858), Jens Jacob Berzelius (1779-1848), Charles Lyell (1797-1875), Justus Liebig (1803-1873), Matthias Jacob Schleiden (1804-1881), James Young Simpson (1811-1870), Camille Flammarion (1842-1925), Paul Sabatier (1854-1941), Pierre Marie Termier (1859-1939), Edwin Grant Conklin (1863-1952) ).

Application

The list lists Nobel laureates by year: 1902, 1906, 1909, 1912, 1915, 1918, 1927, 1932, 1945, 1963, 1964, 1974, 1976 (2: medicine and physics), 1977, 1978, 1979, 198 1, 1990 , 1993, 1996, 1997, 2005, 2007, 2012.

References

“Research conducted in the 1990s showed that only 7% of members of the American National Academy of Sciences and 3.3% of members of the British Academy of Sciences were believers. At the same time, according to a national survey, 68.5% of the country’s population consider themselves believers” – We find such a statement in the popular information resource– Wikipedia article “Science”. “Some scientists explain this by the fact that the latest scientific discoveries, known facts, the scientific way of obtaining knowledge and, in general, the scientific vision of the world in our time, with an unbiased approach, do not leave room for belief in the supernatural, or at least make us doubt the plausibility of religious ideas” - We find an explanation on the same website in the article “Religion and Society.” Conducting these studies not only demonstrates the interest of the public and the scientific community in the issue of the legitimacy and rationality of faith in the life of modern man and him, but also reveals the ongoing confrontation between supporters of atheism and people who consider themselves to be believers. In the scientific community, these groups are most clearly represented by atheist evolutionists and creationists.

Can a serious scientist be a believer without betraying his “scientific calling”? Does a believer really simply ignore scientific facts, choosing as his worldview and beliefs what is “to his heart,” what is “closer and dearer,” and not what is objective and provable from the point of view of science? In other words, sometimes a believer looks like someone who has deliberately chosen to live in illusion “because it’s easier,” while an atheist is someone who has the courage to face the harsh truth. In another case, it is proven that with the help of faith its subject unintentionally (or even quite consciously) “compensates for a lack of knowledge or intellectual abilities.”

In this article, we want to review sociological studies of the phenomenon of a decrease in the level of religiosity of scientists in proportion to the increase in their status in the scientific community and, in a fairly concise form, present the facts that, in our opinion, provide an explanation for this phenomenon.

Research in this area has been carried out since the beginning of the twentieth century. One of the first studies concerning the issue of religious faith among scientists was conducted in 1914 by the prominent American psychologist James Luba from Bryn Mawr College. He found that of 1,000 randomly selected scientists in the United States, 58% were non-believers or doubters, while for the 400 “great scientists” on the AMS (American Men and Women of Science) list, which included only specialists in the field of biology, physics, astronomy and mathematics, this figure increased to 70%. Twenty years later, Luba repeated his study in a slightly different form and found that these numbers had risen to 67 and 85 percent, respectively.

In 1996, law and history professor Edward Larson of the University of Georgia repeated Luba's 1914 study and found that the overall situation in the scientific community had remained almost unchanged - 60.7% of scientists expressed disbelief or doubt. At the same time, among the “great scientists” the percentage of believers has decreased significantly.

The criterion for selecting respondents this time was membership in NAS (US National Academy of Sciences). Its total membership is relatively small, so Larson surveyed all 517 researchers in the disciplines listed above. As a result, it turned out that the percentage of non-believers in God and life after death among biologists is 65.2% and 69%, respectively, while among physicists the level of atheism is even higher: 79% and 76.3%. Of the rest, most were agnostic on both issues, and few were believers. The largest number of such were among mathematicians (14.3% in God, 15.0% in immortality). Belief was lowest among biologists (5.5% and 7.1%) and slightly higher among astronomers (7.5% and 7.5%). You can see a comparison of research data in Table 1, which shows the general indicators for the 1998 study.

You can display current data on the number of religious scientists in the United States in the table:

Summarizing the above, it can be argued that over the course of a century, the percentage of believers in the highest scientific circles of the United States has fallen fourfold, while on average among scientists it has remained at the same level. The figure is about 40 percent of believers among scientific community USA appears thanks to lower level scientific workers.

Let us note some features of this study:

1) Proportional relationship between hierarchical position in scientific circles and the degree of disbelief.

2) Dependence on the theoretical or practical orientation of scientific staff - the strongest theoreticians of science are the farthest from faith.

It is necessary to pay attention to another important factor: it is representatives of the natural sciences who are the “stronghold” of unbelief. In 2005-2009, respected sociologist Elaine Ekland conducted research, the main subject of which was the question of how scientists relate to religion. Together with her colleagues, she surveyed 1,646 reputable scientists from 21 universities, of whom she interviewed 271.

The scientists who called themselves atheists were distributed as follows:

• Physics - 40.8%
• Chemistry - 26.6%
• Biology - 41%

The overall percentage among scientists in the natural sciences is 37.6%

• Sociology - 34%
• Economy - 31.7%
• Political science - 27%
• Psychology - 33%
  The overall percentage among scientists in the humanities is 31.2%.

It is noteworthy that the data provided by Ekland's study differs significantly from those reported previously. This is explained by a more liberal approach to assessing the “religiosity” of scientists: faith was not interpreted in the light of monotheistic religions. Scientists could call themselves believers on the basis that they themselves considered acceptable for this.

Based on this study, I would like to highlight another important factor in the issue of the distribution of believers among American scientists:

3) Differences in the field of humanities and natural sciences researchers: humanists in general are more prone to faith than “natural scientists”.

During this study, respondents helped identify another, perhaps the most significant factor. Most of the scientists interviewed did not report that their faith choices were influenced by science. “Most likely, the reasons for their lack of faith reflect the circumstances in which other Americans find themselves: they were not raised in a religious home; they have had bad experiences with religion; they disapprove of God's actions or see God as too changeable. For others, religion simply has no bearing on their scientific work,” Eklund writes. We decided to formulate this factor as follows:

4) The predominant importance of personal life experience in all its manifestations in the matter of choosing a faith or abandoning any beliefs.

Let us make an attempt to comment on the four features of these studies that we have identified. We can identify the following reasons for the phenomenon of a decrease in the level of religiosity of scientists in proportion to the increase in their status in the scientific community:

1) Methodology

The way of thinking in science and faith has significant differences. Scientific activity requires “objectivity” of knowledge, which shapes the philosophy of science and is expressed in its methodology and interests. Therefore on modern stage It is quite fair to note that “when engaged in specific scientific activities, a believer, in fact, forgets about God and acts in the same way as an atheist. Thus, the compatibility of doing science with faith in God is by no means identical with the compatibility of faith in God with scientific thinking.” We are dealing with two types of thinking and approaches to life: one based on trust and obedience, the second requires independence and rationality. This is how one atheist decided to describe the state of believing scientists: “They simultaneously live, as it were, in two worlds - one material, and the other some kind of transcendental, divine. It’s as if their psyche is splitting.” He quite correctly noted the key difference between approaches to activity in science and faith. The more deeply a person believes, the more he will seek guidance. At the same time, the more serious a scientist is, the stronger his foundation of objective facts should be, allowing him to conduct research and draw conclusions without taking into account the supernatural. Therefore, sometimes a scientist, spending the vast majority of his time in science, gets used to simply “ignoring” the “otherworldly.” This, however, does not mean that a scientist purely involuntarily becomes less of a believer. Here I would like to emphasize that studying science predisposes one to make a choice in favor of disbelief.

2) Area of ​​study

The definition “corridor of science”, invented by the author, relates to this issue. Its essence is that in order to achieve success in his field, a scientist limits his activities and field of study, and, accordingly, his life experience. In other words, he deliberately excludes certain aspects of life, narrows his life experience in a number of areas in order to achieve more in a few specific ones. In this way, a person can regularly “pass by” those places where he could meet the “otherworldly.” The supernatural, if it is encountered along this path, is explained by those who have not directly come into contact with it, from the position of the same “corridor”. At the same time, scientific methodology both directs movement along the “corridor” and determines its boundaries.

3) High level of abstraction

Through science, a person primarily comes into contact with this world indirectly - through facts collected by someone, ordered by someone and somehow evaluated. In other words, science is primarily a theory created by man himself. It is difficult to meet God in a theory where the creators themselves do not place Him due to the methodology for creating this theory.

The scientist does not come into contact in everyday life in the same way and in the same close way with the problems that represent the subject of his research. And the interaction caused by life is different from the interaction created by science. In the above studies, one can notice a correlation between the level of abstraction in the scientific activities of the subjects and the level of disbelief in their environment. Practical life confronts a person with such questions, challenges and tasks, and also provides such “material” for a person’s experience, which contributes to a much greater extent to the formation of his religious worldview.

4) Empirical basis

For natural sciences, it creates a lesser tendency to accept the supernatural factor. At the same time, humanities deal with man and society, where religion is present as a given, which no longer contributes to the tendency to completely reject it. They can assess the significance of religion from the perspective of its influence on society and the individual throughout history, while for natural science religion, although it can offer some valuable information, does not provide suitable argumentation to justify it.

5) Lifestyle

Science demands from its “servants” a very specific way of life. At the same time, various faiths also imply that their followers allocate a significant amount of time for spiritual practices, “service” and sometimes a number of other activities, which significantly reduces the amount of time available for scientific activity. They also often influence the pace of life, its content, and prescribe a certain approach and way of thinking aimed at developing a certain behavior or comprehending their philosophy and teachings. All this also resembles a “corridor”, in which there is no longer the same space for science as in the case described in the previous paragraph. A believer must often have a fairly active social position; “character work” or other religious tasks take a lot of energy... Probably this factor had a great influence on the achievement of academic titles by those 73 percent of American teachers who declared their faith.

6) Motivation

According to A. Einstein, “one of the most powerful motivations leading to... science is the desire to get away from everyday life with its painful cruelty and inconsolable emptiness... This reason pushes people with subtle spiritual strings from personal experiences into the world of objective vision and understanding " In this case, religion in a certain sense represents an alternative to science and vice versa. And, as you know, a person searches when he is dissatisfied. When he is sufficiently satisfied, he tends to move in the same direction. This applies to both scientific activity and religious life. In addition, if a person is busy enough, he does not feel a special need for any innovations. Thus, when a person enters the rut of life without an inclination towards faith (or science), then one should expect that only quite radical changes (or a long gradual involuntary path towards them) can force a person to look for what he needs in an area that was not too close to him before .

7) Inertia of the human personality

The foundations of a religious, anti-religious, or indifferent to matters of faith worldview are laid in early childhood, largely due to the environment in which a person grows up. Crises of age-related development can lead to a radical revision of it under accompanying circumstances. In general, the author of this article has repeatedly observed the following pattern: than longer person lives, the more confirmed in the correctness of his views and attitude towards issues of faith. Having chosen a certain worldview for himself, a person further expands the “database” to confirm it, consisting of experience, facts and approaches. He replenishes the “piggy bank” of “arguments” for his position (not in a strictly rational sense, but in the meaning of everything that determines his choice, of which the most weighty (although not always conscious) for him is the following: I already __(so many ) years I’ve been living...) and criticism alien to him - often in the form of not only arguments, facts, emotions, memories, experiences (often hidden, not fully realized for this area) but also irony, satire or even sarcasm. This same “piggy bank” is replenished by relationships with like-minded people and representatives of other views.

Often a person deprives himself of the ability to understand the other side, and, as a result, narrows the range of opportunities to change his views. However, “understanding” does not automatically mean agreement; rather, understanding the position of the other side, its influence on life, its approaches and arguments, and, finally, the reasons that led to the choice of such a philosophy. An unbiased, honest person is willing to acknowledge and consider the strengths and weaknesses of both someone else's position and his own.

So, it is not common for a person to change his worldview, and the older he gets, the more difficult it is to do this.

8) Competition of goals and values

Science and religion are two worlds, each of which strives to involve a person entirely, to “absorb” him. Each world has its own rules and way of life, its own hierarchy and stages of growth. This is not to say that these worlds do not intersect at all, but at the same time it is difficult to find something absolutely identical in them. This, of course, does not mean that the choice always has to be made according to the “either-or” principle. We can meet both people who have “given themselves entirely” to faith or science, and those who combine them, giving something greater preference. But still, in conditions of limited life resources, this choice sometimes becomes more and more categorical.

We tried to explain the decrease in the level of faith among scientists in proportion to the increase in their scientific merits. We did not smooth out the sharp edges of contradictions between representatives of different worldviews, nor did we try to “reconcile” the thinking and approach of science and religion. We could see that the natural science paradigm is not conducive to the development of faith. At the same time, proof or refutation of the “Highest Being” goes beyond the competence of the natural sciences.

I would like to believe that awareness of the basic premises of the rejection by some representatives of science of a religious worldview will help believers in understanding and recognizing the “unscientific” (which is not the same as irrationality) of the foundations of their beliefs and life position; will help atheists to better understand the reasons for their ideological premises and will contribute to greater mutual understanding in communication between representatives of different parties.

We limited ourselves to considering the views of scientists and possible reasons for them. But in a similar way, the highlighted principles also apply to people with other forms of activity.

Vladimir Pikuza

Illustration: Godfrey Kneller's painting "Isaac Newton" (1689).

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science; ; http://www.atheism.ru/library/Other_105.phtml; http://goo.gl/6PNs6y

A high level of intelligence turns academics into atheists; http://www.atheism.ru/library/Other_105.phtml