Quotes from Scientist and Astronomers Regarding Design of theUniverse

Quotes from Scientists Regarding Design of the Universe
by Rich Deem

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/quotes.html

Introduction
Does science lead us down a road that ends in the naturalistic
explanation of everything we see? In the nineteenth century, it
certainly looked as though science was going in that direction. The
"God of the gaps" was finding himself in a narrower and narrower
niche. However, 20th century and now 21st century science is leading
us back down the road of design - not from a lack of scientific
explanation, but from scientific explanation that requires an appeal
to the extremely unlikely - something that science does not deal well
with. As a result of the recent evidence in support of design, many
scientists now believe in God. According to a recent article:

"I was reminded of this a few months ago when I saw a survey in the
journal Nature. It revealed that 40% of American physicists,
biologists and mathematicians believe in God--and not just some
metaphysical abstraction, but a deity who takes an active interest in
our affairs and hears our prayers: the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob."(1)

The degree to which the constants of physics must match a precise
criteria is such that a number of agnostic scientists have concluded
that there is some sort of "supernatural plan" or "Agency" behind it.
Here is what they say:

The quotes

Fred Hoyle (British astrophysicist): "A common sense interpretation of
the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as
well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces
worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the
facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost
beyond question." (2)

George Ellis (British astrophysicist): "Amazing fine tuning occurs in
the laws that make this [complexity] possible. Realization of the
complexity of what is accomplished makes it very difficult not to use
the word 'miraculous' without taking a stand as to the ontological
status of the word." (3)

Paul Davies (British astrophysicist): "There is for me powerful
evidence that there is something going on behind it all....It seems as
though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the
Universe....The impression of design is overwhelming". (4)

Paul Davies: "The laws [of physics] ... seem to be the product of
exceedingly ingenious design... The universe must have a purpose". (5)

Alan Sandage (winner of the Crawford prize in astronomy): "I find it
quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be
some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the
explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something
instead of nothing." (6)

John O'Keefe (astronomer at NASA): "We are, by astronomical standards,
a pampered, cosseted, cherished group of creatures.. .. If the
Universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could
never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances
indicate the universe was created for man to live in." (7)

George Greenstein (astronomer): "As we survey all the evidence, the
thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency - or, rather,
Agency - must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without
intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence
of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially
crafted the cosmos for our benefit?" (8)

Arthur Eddington (astrophysicist): "The idea of a universal mind or
Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present
state of scientific theory." (9)

Arno Penzias (Nobel prize in physics): "Astronomy leads us to a unique
event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very
delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to
permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say
'supernatural') plan." (10)

Roger Penrose (mathematician and author): "I would say the universe
has a purpose. It's not there just somehow by chance." (11)

Tony Rothman (physicist): "When confronted with the order and beauty
of the universe and the strange coincidences of nature, it's very
tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am
sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it." (12)

Vera Kistiakowsky (MIT physicist): "The exquisite order displayed by
our scientific understanding of the physical world calls for the
divine." (13)

Robert Jastrow (self-proclaimed agnostic): "For the scientist who has
lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad
dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to
conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he
is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for
centuries." (14)

Stephen Hawking (British astrophysicist): "Then we shall… be able to
take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and
the universe exist. 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." (15)

Frank Tipler (Professor of Mathematical Physics): "When I began my
career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced
atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be
writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-
Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are
straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand
them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable
logic of my own special branch of physics." (16) Note: Tipler since
has actually converted to Christianity, hence his latest book, The
Physics Of Christianity.

Alexander Polyakov (Soviet mathematician): "We know that nature is
described by the best of all possible mathematics because God created
it."(17)

Ed Harrison (cosmologist): "Here is the cosmological proof of the
existence of God – the design argument of Paley – updated and
refurbished. The fine tuning of the universe provides prima facie
evidence of deistic design. Take your choice: blind chance that
requires multitudes of universes or design that requires only one....
Many scientists, when they admit their views, incline toward the
teleological or design argument." (18)

Edward Milne (British cosmologist): "As to the cause of the Universe,
in context of expansion, that is left for the reader to insert, but
our picture is incomplete without Him [God]." (19)

Barry Parker (cosmologist): "Who created these laws? There is no
question but that a God will always be needed." (20)

Drs. Zehavi, and Dekel (cosmologists): "This type of universe,
however, seems to require a degree of fine tuning of the initial
conditions that is in apparent conflict with 'common wisdom'." (21)

Arthur L. Schawlow (Professor of Physics at Stanford University, 1981
Nobel Prize in physics): "It seems to me that when confronted with the
marvels of life and the universe, one must ask why and not just how.
The only possible answers are religious. . . . I find a need for God
in the universe and in my own life." (22)

Henry "Fritz" Schaefer (Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry and
director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at the
University of Georgia): "The significance and joy in my science comes
in those occasional moments of discovering something new and saying to
myself, 'So that's how God did it.' My goal is to understand a little
corner of God's plan." (23)

Wernher von Braun (Pioneer rocket engineer) "I find it as difficult to
understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a
superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to
comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science." (24)

Carl Woese (microbiologist from the University of Illinois) "Life in
Universe - rare or unique? I walk both sides of that street. One day I
can say that given the 100 billion stars in our galaxy and the 100
billion or more galaxies, there have to be some planets that formed
and evolved in ways very, very like the Earth has, and so would
contain microbial life at least. There are other days when I say that
the anthropic principal, which makes this universe a special one out
of an uncountably large number of universes, may not apply only to
that aspect of nature we define in the realm of physics, but may
extend to chemistry and biology. In that case life on Earth could be
entirely unique." (25)




Antony Flew (Professor of Philosophy, former atheist, author, and
debater) "It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty
years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously
powerful argument to design." (26)

Frank Tipler (Professor of Mathematical Physics): "From the
perspective of the latest physical theories, Christianity is not a
mere religion, but an experimentally testable science." (27)




Albert Einstein Quotes

http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/einstein.htm

I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this
or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to
know His thoughts; the rest are details.
Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.
My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable
superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able
to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more
certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not
lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith,
but through striving after rational knowledge.
Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes
convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe-a
spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we
with our modest powers must feel humble.
The scientists' religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous
amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence
of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic
thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant
reflection.
There is no logical way to the discovery of elemental laws. There is
only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order
lying behind the appearance.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a
faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant
and has forgotten the gift.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious; It is
the source of all true art and science.
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of
course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge
is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.
When the solution is simple, God is answering.
God does not play dice with the universe.
God is subtle but he is not malicious.
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us Universe, a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and
feelings as something separated from the rest-a kind of optical
delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison,
restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few
persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free from this prison by
widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and
the whole nature in its beauty.
Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for
survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian
diet.
The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as
meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for
life.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by
understanding.
Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.
The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a
little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the
ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that
someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It
does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the
child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books---a
mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly
suspects.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he
contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous
structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a
little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend
only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a
feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has
nothing to do with mysticism.
The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion.
Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom
this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and
lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is
impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest
wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are
intelligible to our poor faculties - this knowledge, this feeling ...
that is the core of the true religious sentiment. In this sense, and
in this sense alone, I rank myself among profoundly religious men.
The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is easier to
denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.
True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all
one's goodness and righteousness.
Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and
ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and
fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations
and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to
me precisely the most important function which religion has to form in
the social life of man.

http://www.gmau.org/ThinkingCaps/tcap29.htm

Stephen Hawking

(A Brief History of Time, from the Big Bang to Black Holes), perhaps
the world's most brilliant astrophysist in discussing the Big Bang
theory stated, "It would be very difficult to explain why the universe
should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who
intended to create beings like us."


Johannes Kepler - Discoverer of the 3 Laws of Planetary Motion




Johannes Kepler lived from 1571-1630. He was a brilliant German
astronomer who made many incredible discoveries. He discovered the 3
laws of Planetary Motion which are still named after him. He also
determined that the tides were caused by the moon and that parallax
can determine star distances.

He literally believed that his scientific pursuits were a mission from
God. In his book, the Harmonies of the World, he wrote the following
conclusion in prayer to God:

“…I give thanks to thee, O Lord Creator, who has delighted me with Thy
makings and in the works of thy hands have I found joy. I have used
the mental talents you have given me, and I have now completed the
work to which you have called me. I have revealed the glory of your
works to those who will read my explanations, at least that part of
your infinite riches which my limited mind could grasp…finally, allow
that these demonstrations give way to Thy glory and the salvation of
souls and nowhere be an obstacle to that.”


Sir Isaac Newton - Discover of the Laws of Gravity and Motion



Sir Isaac Newton is one of the most famous scientists of all time. He
was strongly motivated by his Biblical beliefs. In fact, he felt he
was personally involved in fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel 12:4
“Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” History
shows that Newton actually wrote more about theology than he did about
science.

He was a co-inventor of calculus, the discoverer of the law of
universal gravitation and the three laws of motion. He also invented
the reflecting telescope and is the author of the most important book
of the scientific revolution (the Principia Mathematica).

Newton considered the Lord Jesus Christ the Savior of the world, and
also trusted and believed in miracles as expressed in the Bible. He
wrote strong papers refuting atheism and defending creation and the
Bible. In Newton’s own words, “I have a fundamental belief in the
Bible as the Word of God, written by men who were inspired. I study
the Bible daily.”

In explanation to the many incredible discoveries and advancements
that were made by Newton during the course of his career, Newton had
this to say, “All my discoveries have been made in an answer to
prayer.”

http://4thdayalliance.com/articles/g...tronomers.html



Related Pages
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? - Antony Flew Renounces Atheism
Book Review: There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist
Changed His Mind by Antony Flew
Evidence for the Fine Tuning of the Universe
The Incredible Design of the Earth and Our Solar System

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