Great Scientists Who Believed in God

Einstein once said in an interview in J.S. Viereck’s book “Glimpses of the Great”, in response to a question about whether he believed in God:

“Your question [about God] is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question to which I can answer simply ‘yes’ or ‘no’. I am not an atheist. I do not know whether I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. Can I not answer with a parable? The human mind, however well trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a small child entering a vast library, the walls of which are lined to the ceiling with books in many languages. The child knows that someone must have written these books. He does not know who or how. He does not understand the languages ​​in which they are written. The child notices a certain plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order which he does not understand, but only dimly guesses. It seems to me that this is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, towards God. We see the universe, wonderfully arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand these laws only vaguely. Our limited mind cannot comprehend the mysterious force that moves the constellations.” 

It is generally accepted that scientists are people who have a negative attitude towards religion. However, as it turns out, there are many examples in history of great scientists who managed to combine scientific activity and faith in God.

It did not prevent these scientists from making great discoveries, but on the contrary, it encouraged them to explore the world created by God. They lived at different times, were born in different countries, worked in different scientific fields, but they were all united by their love for science and for God.

We will tell you about only a few of them.

According to the Epiphany Cathedral, out of 300 most prominent scientists who lived in the 17th — 19th centuries, 276 people (92%) believed in God; 18 people (6%) doubted, wavered or indifferent to religion; 6 people (2%) were atheists.

There are also many religious scientists among the scientists of the 20th — 21st centuries. Of the 100 modern scientists surveyed, only about 10% declared themselves non-believers, while the remaining almost 90% openly admitted to being believers.

Indeed, where did the universe begin? How did life on Earth originate? These have been the most pressing questions for humanity for centuries. Over the past century, we have learned more about science and the creation of the universe than was known before the twentieth century. Even more remarkable is that in recent decades, new discoveries have emerged that lead to new theories that provide us with unique hypotheses about the presence of God and the nature of the universe.

One writer who has brought sophistication to this contentious subject is John Polkinghorne. Since leaving his post as professor of physics at Cambridge in 1979 to become an Anglican priest, John has written some two dozen books on science and religion. In one such book, Science and Theology (1998), Polkinghorne offers a qualification (based on the work of the scholar Ian G. Barbour) of the different ways in which science and religion can relate. The most familiar is the conflict position. In it, science and religion are irreconcilably opposed, each challenging the legitimacy of the other. Sometimes, however, science and religion can be seen as independent, two separate spheres of inquiry. Sometimes they are seen as in dialogue (or agreement), overlapping but not necessarily in conflict, especially with regard to the deepest mysteries, such as creation and consciousness. And sometimes the two are integrated (or one assimilates the other) and united in a common quest to understand the universe and our place in it.

“All the matter of the world must have been present in the beginning, but the story it has to tell can be written step by step,” as Father Georges Lemaitre put it in 1931 “Nature”.

Humanity’s quest to understand nature is a fascinating story spanning centuries. From the basic ideas of natural philosophy to the computational models of neural networks, the human mind has been hard at work.

Scientists’ efforts to uncover these steps, and the faith in God that has given them confidence in their pursuit of scientific truth, are part of this intriguing story of discovery — of mapping reality.

Nobel laureate Arno Penzias, who helped make the key discovery that supports the Big Bang theory, noted the obvious connection between its claim of a cosmic beginning and the concept of divine creation. “The best data we have is exactly what I would predict if I had nothing but the five books of Moses… [and] the Bible as a whole,” Penzias writes.

All of this highlights the growing gap between the public’s perception of science’s message and what the scientific evidence actually shows. The great discoveries of the past century point not to “blind, pitiless indifference,” but to an exquisite design for life and the universe, and perhaps an intelligent creator behind it all.

Isaac Newton says: “The marvelous structure of the cosmos and its complete harmony can only be explained by the fact that the cosmos was — CREATED according to the plan of the Omniscient and Omnipotent Being — the Lord God. This is my first and last word.” “I derive the laws of mechanics — from the Laws of God!” “We know the teachings of Moses and the prophets, and Jesus Christ himself. And if we do not agree with them, then we are also inexcusable — like the Jews.”

The outstanding scientist, physicist, mathematician, writer, philosopher Blaise Pascal says:
“There are three categories of people: some — have found and found God and serve him — these people are reasonable and happy.
Others — have not found and do not seek Him, do not want to recognize Him: — these people are insane and unhappy.
The third have not found, but are looking for Him — these people are reasonable, but also — unhappy.”

Pascal calls on man to humility before God. “Humble yourself, weak mind, be silent, senseless nature; know that man is a creature infinitely incomprehensible to man himself, and weak before God, and ask your Lord about your unknown true state, about your purpose in this world. Listen to God, man!”

The famous physicist Michael Faraday says: “I am amazed why people prefer to wander in the dark, in the unknown on many important issues, when God has given us all such a wonderful and wonderful book — the Bible?!”

The English botanist Robert Brown, who described the nucleus of a plant cell and discovered Brownian motion, says: “The knowledge of God in the world is the movement of the mind awakening from the vanity of life.”

The French scientist, one of the founders of electrodynamics, physicist Andre Ampere says: “In nature, we can — observe and study the works of God the Creator and from them rise in knowledge — to the Creator. How great is God, and our knowledge is insignificant!”

The famous physicist Thomas Edison says: “I have always believed in God and I declare that the existence of God can even be proven — by chemical means!”

Louis Pasteur, chemist, biologist: “The day will come when they will laugh at the stupidity of our contemporary materialistic philosophy. The more I study nature, the more I stop — in reverent amazement — before the Great works of the Creator of the Universe. I pray during — my work in the laboratory.

Immanuel Kant, the great German philosopher once admitted: “All the books I have read have not given me the consolation that the word of God has given me. The existence of the Bible is the greatest Blessing that humanity has ever experienced”

English astronomer William Herschel says: “The more science develops, the more discoveries are made in all areas, the MORE evidence appears of the existence of the ETERNAL, Creative and Almighty God. All scientific discoveries
are allowed by God for one purpose, namely, to CONFIRM the Divine Revelation that was given to people in the Bible.”

Max Born (1882 — 1970), a German physicist, one of the founders of quantum physics, Nobel Prize laureate says: “Many scientists believe in God. Those who say that studying science makes a person an atheist are probably some funny people and not quite reasonable.”

Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852 — 1908), who received the Nobel Prize, says: “It was my research that led me to God, to faith!”

Nikita Ilyich Tolstoy, Russian philologist, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, says: “I was raised in strict Orthodoxy. I have always considered myself an Orthodox believer and have never been a member of any party.”

Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov, geneticist, plant breeder, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences — a deeply religious person who observed fasts and regularly attended church services.

Sergey Pavlovich Korolev, scientist, rocket creator, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences — an Orthodox believer, even during the times of militant atheism he tried to attend church services.

Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky, a famous Russian writer, says: “Only Christianity can make a person a Human in the literal sense, a cultured, highly moral and decent person, only it can lead a person along this great and dangerous road, pointing to the living ideal of perfection — Jesus Christ.”

Alexander Stepanovich Popov, the inventor of radio, graduated from a theological school and seminary, and was always a deeply religious Orthodox person, all his life.

Russian scientist Anatoly Alekseevich Logunov, academician, physicist, vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, rector of Moscow State University personally said: “Faith is broader than science. Science can only enter as an integral part of religion. There is no contradiction between religion and science: science cannot contradict faith, and faith does not contradict science.”

So, to claim that faith in God is the result of dark ignorance, that science and religion are incompatible, in our time only the ignorant and the deceitful, people who benefit and who are interested in God not existing, can do so.

The examples that have already been given are more than enough for every reasonable, thinking and serious person in our country to draw the right conclusions for themselves and think about their life and their place in it, find God, recognize Him and begin to obey Him, because Faith begins with obedience, with the fulfillment of God’s Laws. God’s Laws determine the rules of life and human behavior. The Orthodox faith of our ancestors is, first of all, great love, hope and trust in God, love for their homeland and good relations between people.

(To be continued)