SCIENTIFIC QUOTATIONS ABOUT GOD

Bonner, W.B.
It seems to me highly improper to introduce God to solve our scientific problems.
. Quoted by Charles-Albert Reichen in A History of Astronomy (p. 100)

Compton, Karl Taylor

As the complexity of the structure of matter became revealed through research, its basic simplicity, unity, and dependability became equally evident. So we now see ourselves in a world governed by natural laws instead of by capricious deities and devils. This does not necessarily mean that God has been ruled out of the picture, but it does mean that the architect and engineer of the universe is a far different type of being from the gods assumed by the ancients, and that man lives and dies in a world of logical system and orderly performance.
. A Scientist Speaks (p. 3)

Feynman, Richard P.
God was invented to explain mystery. God is always invented to explain those things that you do not understand. Now, when you finally discover how something works, you get some laws which you’re taking away from God; you don’t need him anymore. But you need him for the other mysteries. So therefore you leave him to create the universe because we haven’t figured that out yet; you need him for understanding those things which you don’t believe the laws will explain, such as consciousness, or why you only live to a certain length of time—life and death—stuff like that. God is always associated with those things that you do not understand. Therefore I don’t think that the laws can be considered to be like God because they have been figured out.
. In P.C.W. Davies and J. Brown Superstrings: A Theory of Everything (p.208) 

Goodspeed, Edgar J.
(...) science is seen to be just one more of those great flights of altar stairs that lead through darkness up to God.
. The Four Pillars of Democracy, Chapter II (p. 55)

Hamilton, Sir William Rowan

The genuine spirit of Mathesis is devout. No intellectual pursuit more truly leads to profound impressions of the existence and attributes of a Creator, and to a deep sense of our filial relations to him, than the study of these abstract sciences. Who can understand so well how feeble are our conceptions of Almighty Power, as he who has calculated the attraction of the sun and the planets, and weighed in his balance the irresistible force of the lightning? Who can so well understand how confused is our estimate of the Eternal Wisdom, as he who has traced out the secret laws which guide the hosts of heaven, and combine the atoms on earth? Who can so well understand that man is made in the image of his Creator, as he who has sought to frame new laws and conditions to govern imaginary worlds, and found his own thoughts similar to those on which his Creator has acted?
. North American Review, The Imagination in Mathematics (pp. 226–7), Volume 85, Number 176, July 1857

Hawking, Stephen
We still believe that the universe should be logical and beautiful; we just dropped the word “God.”
. In Renee Weber, Dialogues with Scientists and Sages (p. 21)

Up to now, most scientists have been too occupied with the development of new theories that describe what the universe is to ask the question why (...) If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God.
. A Brief History of Time, Conclusion (p. 174)

Infeld, Leopold
Einstein uses his concept of God more often than a Catholic priest.
. Quest—An Autobiography (p. 268)

James, William

The God whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.
. The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture XX (pp. 483–5)

Weil, Simone
A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.
. Gravity and Grace, Illusions (p. 105)

Lewis, Sinclair
God give me unclouded eyes and freedom from haste. God give me a quiet and relentless anger against all pretense and all pretentious work and all work left slack and unfinished. God give me a restlessness whereby I may neither sleep nor accept praise till my observed results equal my calculated results or in pious glee I discover and assault my error. God give me the strength not to trust to God!
. Arrowsmith, Chapter XXVI, Section II (p. 280)

Flaubert, Gustave
My kingdom is as wide as the world, and my desire has no limit. I go forward always, freeing spirits and weighing worlds, without fear, without compassion, without love, and without God. Men call me science.
. La Tentation de Saint-Antoine

Havel, Vaclav
Modern science (...) abolishes as mere fiction the innermost foundations of our natural world: it kills God and takes his place on the vacant throne so henceforth it would be science that would hold the order of being in its hand as its sole legitimate guardian and so be the legitimate arbiter of all relevant truth (...) People thought they could explain and conquer nature—yet the outcome is that they destroyed it and disinherited themselves from it.
. In Lewis Wolpert, The Unnatural Nature of Science, Introduction (p. ix)

Coulson, C.A.
(...) science is one aspect of God’s presence, and scientists therefore part of the company of His heralds.
. Science and Christian Belief Scientific Method (p. 30)

du Nouy, Pierre Lecomte

Any man who believes in God must realize that no scientific fact, as long as it is true, can contradict God. Otherwise, it would not be true. Therefore, any man who is afraid of science does not possess a strong faith.
. Human Destiny, Chapter 16 (p. 243)

Fosdick, Harry Emerson
What modern science is doing for multitudes of people, as anybody who watches American life can see, is not to disprove God’s theoretical existence, but to make him “progressively less essential.”
. Adventurous Religion, Will Science Displace God? (p. 136)

Stace, W.T.
(...) no scientific argument—by which I mean an argument drawn from the phenomena of nature—can ever have the slightest tendency either to prove or disprove the existence of God (...) science is irrelevant to religion.
. Religion and the Modern Mind, The Consequences for Religion (p. 76)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo
The Religion that is afraid of science dishonors God & commits suicide.
. The Journals and Miscellaneous, Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume III, 1826–1832, March 4, 1831 (p. 239)

Reichenbach, Hans

The belief in science has replaced in large measure, the belief in God. Even where religion was regarded as compatible with science, it was modified by the mentality of the believer in scientific truth.
. The Rise of Scientific Philosophy, Chapter 3 (p. 44)

Temple, Frederick
Science and Religion seem very often to be the most determined foes to each other that can be found. The scientific man often asserts that he cannot find God in Science; and the religious man often asserts that he cannot find Science in God.
. The Relations between Religion and Science (p. 4)

Compiled by Leopoldo Costa from the book "Scientifically Speaking" - A Dictionary of Quotations, selected and arranged by Carl C. Gaither and Alma E. Cavazos-Gaither, Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol and Philadelphia, 2000. Adapted and illustrated to be posted.