SCIENCE VS. RELIGION
Liberal friendly quotes:
"The religions disperse, kingdoms fall apart, but works
of science remain for all ages."
-- Ulugh-Beg (Words carved on stone astronomical observatory erected
by Ulugh-Beg, Tamerlane's grandson, in Samarkand in the 15th century.)
"His Holiness decreed that the said Galileo is to be interrogated
with regard to his intention, even with the threat of torture,
and, if he sustains [i.e., answers satisfactorily], he is to abjure
de vehementi [i.e., renounce a vehement suspicion of heresy]
in a plenary assembly of the Congregation of the Holy Office,
then is to be condemned to imprisonment as the Holy Congregation
thinks best, and ordered not to treat further, in any way at all,
either verbally or in writing, of the mobility of the earth and
the stability of the sun; otherwise he will incur the penalties
for relapse. The book entitled Dialogo de Galileo Galilei
is to be prohibited. Furthermore, that these things may be known
by all, he ordered that copies of the sentence be sent to all
Apostolic Nuncios, to all Inquisitors against heretical pravity,
and especially the Inquisitor in Florence, who shall read publicly
the sentence in the presence of as many as possible of those who
profess the mathematical art."
-- Papal decision entered into the record of the Holy Office,
1633
"I, Galileo, son of the late Vincenzo Galilei of Florence, being
70 years old... swear that I have always believed, believe now and,
with God's help, will in the future believe all that the Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church doth hold, preach and teach.
But since, after having been admonished by this Holy Office entirely
to abandon the false opinion that the sun is the center of the
Universe and immovable, and that the Earth is not the center of the
same and that it moves, and that I was neither to hold, defend,
nor teach in any manner whatsoever, either orally or in writing,
the said false doctrine; and after having received a notification that
the said doctrine is contrary to Holy Writ, I wrote and published a
book in which I treat this condemned doctrine and bring forward
very persuasive arguments in its favor without answering them: I
have been judged vehemently suspected of heresy, that is of
having held and believed that the Sun is at the center of the
Universe and immovable, and that the Earth is not at the center and
that it moves. Therefore, wishing to remove from the minds of your
Eminences and all faithful Christians this vehement suspicion reasonably
conceived against me, I abjure with a sincere heart and unfeigned
faith these errors and heresies, and I curse and detest them as
well as any other error, heresy or sect contrary to the Holy Catholic
Church. And I swear that for the future I shall neither say nor
assert orally or in writing such things as may bring upon me similar
suspicions; and if I know any heretic, or one suspected of
heresy, I will denounce him to this Holy Office, or to the
Inquisitor or Ordinary of the place in which I may be."
-- Galileo, recanting his scientific beliefs before the Inquistion,
1633.
"One Galileo in two thousand years is enough."
-- Pope Pius XII
"The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from
the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetics
in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical
curse pronounced against Eve. And every step in astronomy and
geology ever taken has been opposed by bigotry and superstition.
The Greeks surpassed us in artistic culture and in architecture
five hundred years before Christian religion was born."
-- Mark Twain, a Biography
"Humanity's first sin was faith; the first virtue was doubt."
-- Mike Huben
"Faith is often the boast of the man who is too lazy to
investigate."
-- F. M. Knowles
"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious
convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do
not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but
have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be
called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure
of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
-- Albert Einstein, Albert Einstein: The Human Side.
"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The
religion which is based on experience, which refuses dogmatism.
If there's any religion that would cope the scientific needs it
will be Buddhism…"
-- Albert Einstein
"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same
tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's
life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and
leading the individual towards freedom."
-- Albert Einstein
"Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear.
It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said,
the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will
stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis
of the whole thing -- fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat,
fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it
is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. It
is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world
we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to
master them by help of science, which has forced its way step
by step against the Christian religion, against the churches,
and against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can
help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived
for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our
own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary
supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to
look to our own efforts here below to make this world a better
place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches
in all these centuries have made it."
-- Bertrand Russell, Why I am Not a Christian
"The creationists have this creator who is evil, who
is small-minded, who is malevolent, and who is not very bright
and can't even get his science right. Creationists have made their
creator in their own image, in my view."
-- Ian Plimer, The Skeptic, Vol. 13, No 2
"…it dawned on me that a universe without deities was
simpler and more internally consistent. The beauty and simplicity
with which atheism, materialism (on the mind/body question), moral
relativism, and other philosophical ideas all just fell into place
has eliminated any doubt that I could be mistaken. I didn't realize
until then how much cognitive dissonance the little logical inconsistencies
in my previous beliefs had created. It is really wonderful for
that to be gone. Atheism has given me more inner peace than religion
ever could have."
-- David Nye
And from the other side...
"We can learn by the example of the Catholic Church. Though
its doctrinal edifice… comes into collision with exact science
and research, it is none the less unwilling to sacrifice so much
as one little syllable of its dogmas. It has recognized quite
correctly that its power of resistance does not lie in its lesser
or greater adaptation to the scientific findings of the moment,
which in reality are always fluctuating, but rather in rigidly
holding to dogmas once established, for it is only such dogmas
which lend to the whole body the character of faith. And so it
stands today more firmly than ever."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 459
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