I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research.
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.
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead.
Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But there is no doubt in my mind that the lion belongs with it even if he cannot reveal himself to the eye all at once because of his huge dimension. We see him only the way a louse sitting upon him would.
In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither.
Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes.
The state of mind which enables a man to do work of this kind is akin to that of the religious worshiper or the lover; the daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart.
Nature hides her secret because of her essential loftiness, but not by means of ruse.
In science, moreover, the work of the individual is so bound up with that of his scientific predecessors and contemporaries that it appears almost as an impersonal product of his generation.
The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science.
Why does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it. In war it serves that we may poison and mutilate each other. In peace it has made our lives hurried and uncertain. Instead of freeing us in great measure from spiritually exhausting labor, it has made men into slaves of machinery, who for the most part complete their monotonous long day's work with disgust and must continually tremble for their poor rations. ... It is not enough that you should understand about applied science in order that your work may increase man's blessings. Concern for the man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavours; concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.
What the inventive genius of mankind has bestowed upon us in the last hundred years could have made human life care free and happy if the development of the organizing power of man had been able to keep step with his technical advances. As it is, the hardly bought achievements of the machine age in the hands of our generation are as dangerous as a razor in the hands of a three-year-old child. The possession of wonderful means of production has not brought freedom-only care and hunger.
Without disarmament there can be no lasting peace. On the contrary, the continuation of military armaments in their present extent will with certainty lead to new catastrophies.
All of science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.
It has often been said, and certainly not without justification, that the man of science is a poor philosopher. Why then should it not be the right thing for the physicist to let the philosopher do the philosophizing? Such might indeed be the right thing to do at a time when the physicist believes he has at his disposal a rigid system of fundamental laws which are so well established that waves of doubt can't reach them; but it cannot be right at a time when the very foundations of physics itself have become problematic as they are now. At a time like the present, when experience forces us to seek a newer and more solid foundation, the physicist cannot simply surrender to the philosopher the critical contemplation of theoretical foundations; for he himself knows best and feels more surely where the shoe pinches. In looking for an new foundation, he must try to make clear in his own mind just how far the concepts which he uses are justified, and are necessities.
Fundamental ideas play the most essential role in forming a physical theory. Books on physics are full of complicated mathematical formulae. But thought and ideas, not formulae, are the beginning of every physical theory. The ideas must later take the mathematical form of a quantitative theory, to make possible the comparison with experiment.
How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.
Science, in consequence, has been accused of undermining morals—but wrongly. The ethical behavior of man is better based on sympathy, education and social relationships, and requires no support from religion. Man's plight would, indeed, be sad if he had to be kept in order through fear of punishment and hope of rewards after death.
It is, therefore, quite natural that the churches have always fought against science and have persecuted its supporters. But, on the other hand, I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research.
What a deep faith in the rationality of the structure of the world and what a longing to understand even a small glimpse of the reason revealed in the world there must have been in Kepler and Newton to enable them to unravel the mechanism of the heavens in long years of lonely work! Any one who only knows scientific research in its practical applications may easily come to a wrong interpretation of the state of mind of the men who, surrounded by skeptical contemporaries, have shown the way to kindred spirits scattered over all countries in all centuries.
Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.
But science moves forward not when we understand something, it’s when something totally unexpected happens in experiment.
Knowledge of the fact differs from knowledge of the reason for the fact.
The premises must be the cause of the conclusion, more knowable than it, and prior to it; its causes, since we possess scientific knowledge of a thing only when we know its cause;
Now the most universal causes are furthest from sense and particular causes are nearest to sense, and they are thus exactly opposed to each other.
I mean that objects nearer to sense are prior and more knowable to man; objects without qualification prior and more knowable are those further from sense.
The premises of demonstrative knowledge must be true, primary, immediate, more knowable than and prior to the conclusion, which is further related to them as effect to cause... The premises must be the cause of the conclusion, more knowable than it, and prior to it; its causes, since we possess scientific knowledge of a thing only when we know its cause; prior, in order to be causes; antecedently known, this antecedent knowledge being not our mere understanding of the meaning, but knowledge of the fact as well. Now 'prior' and 'more knowable' are ambiguous terms, for there is a difference between what is prior and more knowable in the order of being and what is prior and knowable to man. I mean that objects nearer to sense are prior and more knowable to man; objects without qualification prior and more knowable are those further from sense.
We may assume the superiority ceteris paribus [all things being equal] of the demonstration which derives from fewer postulates or hypotheses—in short from fewer premisses; for... given that all these are equally well known, where they are fewer knowledge will be more speedily acquired...
The science which has to do with nature clearly concerns itself for the most part with bodies and magnitudes and their properties and movements...
The natural way of doing this [seeking scientific knowledge or explanation of fact] is to start from the things which are more knowable and obvious to us and proceed towards those which are clearer and more knowable by nature; for the same things are not 'knowable relatively to us' and 'knowable' without qualification. So in the present inquiry we must follow this method and advance from what is more obscure by nature, but clearer to us, towards what is more clear and more knowable by nature. Now what is to us plain and obvious at first is rather confused masses, the elements and principles of which became known to us by later analysis...
But it is better to assume principles less in number and finite...
It is necessary that every thing which is harmonized, should be generated from that which is void of harmony...
Universal is known according to reason, but that which is particular, according to sense...
Although it is the means by which humankind discovers objective truths in nature, science is and has always been political.
“Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind, has been given by direct revelation from God, though but few acknowledge it. It has been given with a view to prepare the way for the ultimate triumph of truth, and the redemption of the earth from the power of sin and Satan. We should take advantage of all these great discoveries, the accumulated wisdom of ages, and give to our children the benefit of every branch of useful knowledge, to prepare them to step forward and efficiently do their part in the great work.”
The democratization of ideas sometimes confuses the reader as to what is true and what is not, as all ideas are presented horizontally and as fact, thus positioning the blogger's flippant opinion alongside the scholar's well-researched dissertation.
Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe. I mean the real universe. All those light-years. All those worlds. I think of the scope of the universe, the opportunities it affords the Creator, and it takes my breath away.
What is there in the precepts of science that keeps a scientist from doing evil?
What would beings who are thousands of years ahead of us be capable of? Or millions? As a philosopher in our part of the world once said: 'The artifacts of a sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial civilization would be indistinguishable from magic'.
Wherever a discrepancy seems to exist, either a scientist or a theologian - maybe both - hasn't been doing his job.
While the discovery of the Higgs boson was a leap forward for particle physics, many questions still remain that cannot be answered by physics’ Standard Model, the theory that classifies all of the known subatomic particles and describes their interactions. For instance, the Standard Model does not predict the existence of dark matter or dark energy, it doesn't explain how gravity works, it doesn't predict that neutrinos can change their flavor, and it doesn't explain why all the matter in the universe wasn't annihilated by an equal amount of corresponding antimatter.
In 1966, President David O. McKay prophesied scientific discoveries that “stagger the imagination” would make possible the preaching of the gospel to every kindred, tongue, and people. And further: “Discoveries latent with such potent power, either for the blessing or the destruction of human beings as to make men’s responsibility in controlling them the most gigantic ever placed in human hands. … This age is fraught with limitless perils, as well as untold possibilities.”
When I was saying that scientists are humans like everybody else scientists as I said run the gamut of brilliant and wise to stupid and foolish just like plumbers and chiropractors and dentists and uber drivers and any other group scientists are not one whit wiser than than electricians but we think they are because people believe in science not just in science in its facts h2o is water but in science as the answer to life's questions science does not answer life's questions it answers questions such as why does a cancer cell metastasize what is the gravitational pull of the Sun on the planets that science and only science can answer I don't look to the Bible to figure out the gravitational pull of the Sun or how to deal with metastasizing cancer cells I don't know one religious person who does.
This shows you how this person has never thought that anything that I have said through never these is all brand-new should I be more inclined to believe peer review test data or a 2000 year old book written by sheep herders but there is not one religious person who believes that you you you learn peer review test data from the Bible that shows you how foolish this comment this is a person who has never thought this through okay so do you learn thou shalt not murder thou shalt honor your parents thou shalt not steal love thy neighbor as thyself from peer review test data of course not you learn nothing about good and evil which is the most important question on earth from text data from peer review test data but this is this is the ignorance that pervades the secular world .
But it [science] offers zero wisdom there was no wisdom is how to live a life what is the difference between right and wrong we know the limitations of the Bible you may not know the limitations of science that's the difference we don't look to the Bible for science you shouldn't look to science for morality or wisdom that's all I'm saying but the moment you think science tells you anything other than science then it's a religion.
For example scientists made the atom bomb scientists did not decide whether the atom bomb would be dropped on Japan to end World War two lay people did people who had no clue how an atom bomb is made the scientists made the atom bomb they did not decide whether to drop it.
You know what nature tells you nature says the survival of the fittest you know that the hospital is the most unnatural thing in the universe because it's survival of the least fit it's the opposite of nature the opposite if you let nature guide you which that science science is the survival of the fittest should we apply it to human life then close every Hospital.
Where do you get good and evil from science I do get that from the 10 commandments I do get that from love your neighbor as yourself love the stranger that's why we get and that's why the Western world abolish slavery before anybody else it had slaves which was terrible but everyone had slaves so the only moral question is why did anybody abolish it not why did anybody have it if an evil is universal the only question to ask is why did it end not why was it there?
Scientists must use the simplest means of arriving at their results and exclude everything not perceived by the senses.
Religion and science have sometimes appeared in conflict. Yet, the conflict can only be apparent, not real, for science seeks truth, and true religion is truth. There can never be conflict between revealed religion and true science. Truth is truth, whether labeled science or religion. All truth is consistent.
Be mindful that there are many phenomena in God’s universe that cannot, to our present human understanding, be explained.
Facts which at first seem improbable will even on scant explanation drop the cloak which has hidden them, and stand forth in naked and simple beauty.
My dear Kepler, what do you say of the leading philosophers here, to whom I have offered a thousand times of my own accord to show my studies, but who, with the lazy obstinacy of a serpent who has eaten his fill, have never consented to look at the planets or moon, or telescope? Verily, just as serpents close their ears, so do men close their eyes to the light of truth.
We may say, the works of God and the word of God both constitute the avenues of human information, and that whoever ignores the one deprives himself of much of the benefits which flow from accepting the other; that there are two doors which open to the temple of truth, and they are both indispensably necessary to engage man’s full capacity and to endow him with the principles of knowledge, and with the purposes of his being here upon the earth, together with his origin and final destiny.
Scepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can safely be exchanged for fidelity and happiness.
What really is the difference between science and sorcery? ~ Glinda (The Good Witch of the East)
Science...is the systematic dissection of nature, to reduce it to working parts that more or less obey universal laws. Sorcery moves in the opposite direction. It doesn't end, it repairs. It is synthesis rather than analysis. It builds anew rather than revealing the old. In the hands of someone truly skilled...it is Art. One might in fact call it the Superior, or the Finest, Art. It bypasses the Fine Arts of painting and drama and recitation. It doesn't pose or represent the world. It BECOMES. ~ Miss Greyling
Analysis is as destructive of emotion as of the flower which the botanist pulls to pieces.
What Induces a child to learn but his delight in knowing?
He who is content with what has been done is an obstacle in the path of progress.
At the right temperature, if you toss a drop of water into the pan, it won’t evaporate instantly but roll around like an air hockey puck instead. That’s because the principle, called the Leidenfrost effect, is the same in your kitchen as at the arcade. A thin layer of gas between the puck and the surface below allows the disc to become almost frictionless, while in the case of your droplet, a thin layer of water instantly vaporizes when it touches the hot metal, providing a gaseous coating that allows the rest of the droplet to coast on steam.
If we say that religion is useful (making people unselfish, honest, and communal), the atheist will answer that it is a “useful lie,” but couldn’t the same then be said of science and its technological achievements? The atheist has no answer, only a prejudice against spiritual knowledge. An atheist attempting to debunk religion ends up debunking science as well.
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
Within the Gospel of Jesus Christ there is room and place for every truth thus far learned by man, or yet to be made known.
Good science does not say there is no mechanism for this. Good science says: ‘Is there a phenomenon to explain?’ If so, then we do need to find a mechanism.
We must learn not to take traditional morals too seriously. And it is just because even the least dogmatic of religions tends to associate itself with some kind of unalterable moral tradition, that there can be no truce between science and religion.
As one of my favorite professors once said, 'The best students are those who never quite believe their professors.'
Scientists have long been drawn toward the untapped potential of what might lurk down the passages nature chose not to take.
There are myths in almost every culture that warn us that it is possible to know and desire too much for our own good. Whether we’ve engaged with them deeply or superficially, the stories of Adam and Eve, of Prometheus, Icarus and Faust are inscribed on our souls. And whenever science and technology enter dark and uncharted waters, it becomes common to look back upon these stories like stars in the night’s sky, hoping for some sort of guidance.
The life and soul of science is its practical application; and just as the great advances in mathematics have been made through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in physical science many of the greatest advances that have been made from the beginning of the world to the present time have been made in earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind.
It’s important that we’re deeply (skeptical) of our own results, because it’s only by testing and testing again that we will be able to reach the point where we’re confident in them.
Science can never grapple with the irrational. That is why it has no future before it, in this world.
The strong correlation between flashiness and wrongness comes from several factors. First, much, if not most, scientific research is wrong. That’s why it’s research; if we knew the answers ahead of time, we wouldn’t need to do science. Many scientific papers are speculative, dependent on hyperspecific assumptions of controlled parameters, or just crazy ideas shot into the dark. It’s through this constant bubbling of ideas and results and studies that we poke and prod at nature’s workings, hoping to tease out some glimmer of deeper understanding. Second, scientists endure perverse incentives to publish as much as possible—to “publish or perish”—and to get their results in top-tier journals as much as possible. Since the biggest ones only take on the most impactful research, there is tremendous pressure in academia to inflate results and make big, bold claims, increasing the chances that their tenuous results will not hold up to further scrutiny.
While many journalists respect scientists and want to faithfully represent the results of scientific research, publishers face their own incentives to capture eyeballs and clicks and downloads. The more sensational the story, the better.
Most scientific results come slowly, incrementally and with little fanfare.
The best approach to take with science results, news, and headlines is the same approach scientists use themselves: healthy skepticism.
It’s ironically through this process of healthy skepticism that trust in science can be regained. By viewing science results through a scientific lens—initially skeptical but allowing beliefs to shift along with the weight of evidence—we can develop the intuition we need to reject sensational headlines but know when a new result is right. In the meantime, just remember that if it’s interesting, it’s probably wrong.
Religion and science shouldn’t be in competition. The problem is with your (US) preachers – and your scientists. They’re stepping on each other’s toes. With big, heavy boots. They don’t understand that religion and science are there to serve different purposes. We need science to understand how everything on this planet and beyond works. . . .But we also need religion. Not for ridiculous counter-theories about things science can prove. We need it for something else, to fill a different kind of need. The need for meaning. It’s a basic need we have as humans. And it’s a need that’s beyond the realm of science. Your (US) scientists don’t understand that it’s a need they can’t fulfill no matter how man Hadron colliders and Hubble telescopes they build – and your (US) preachers don’t understand that their job is to help you discover a personal, inner sense of meaning and not behave like a bunch of zealots intent on converting the rest of the planet to their rigid, literalist view of how everyone should live their lives. In your (US) country and in the Muslim countries, religion has become a political movement, not a spiritual one. ~ Father Jerome
Religion in (the US) is so focused on fighting science and these compelling atheist voices that your preachers have lost track of what religion is really about. In . . . - the Eastern Church – and in Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, religion isn’t there to offer theories or explanation. We accept that the divine is unknowable. . . .for a lot of rational people . . ., it’s become a choice. Fact or faith. Science or religion. . . .You shouldn’t have to choose. ~ Father Jerome
You can’t reconcile religion with modern life, with all the knowledge we have, with science. . . . ~ Grace Logan
Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.
If you learn what this world is, how it works, you automatically start getting miracles, what will be called miracles. But of course nothing is miraculous. Learn what the magician knows and it's not magic anymore.
The whole fact is that art and science are so close akin that they might very well be lumped together. They are certainly necessary to each other and the delights of either pursuit should satisfy any man.
Often, very difficult problems in physics require profound jumps, revolutions, or different ways of thinking, and it’s only afterward when we realize that we were asking the question in the wrong way.
Science has a non-negotiable stance of methodological materialism. This means no hidden forces, no aid from God, angels, and demons. No magic. No miracles. Wow. If you're religious that sounds bad; I don't think it is. If you are LDS, then you believe in laws and regularities, and it's in this domain that science does its work.
Science is an ethic that promotes a set of best practices that have been shown to explicate the world using a bunch of tools that have worked so far...Scientists believe there's some reality we are trying to capture, and we want to find that reality...I believe science is the most powerful method ever invented for finding truth about the material world.
Some people think God had to make every little thing, but which programmer is greater? The one who can program every single game ever created or a programmer who can write a program that creates all the video games. That, for me, is why God is not diminished if he's created a universe whereby things proceed along from the beginning to the end.
Science (gives) each human animal the presumption to act like a little god. The Earth just can’t take it….I’ll bet the whole structure (will collapse) under its own weight, leaving the rapists at the mercy of their victim – nature….Moving into space just postpone(s) the debacle a few decades. ~ Monica Raines
When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute - and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.
The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgment should always be placed foremost, not the acquisition of special knowledge.
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.
Imagination will take you everywhere.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead - his eyes are closed.
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.
The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. (Sherlock Holmes)
Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.
When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament] "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
Heredity deals the cards; environment plays the hand.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them
If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger.
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.
Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.
If I have seen farther than others it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.
Do not become archivists of facts. Try to penetrate to the secret of their occurence, persistently search for the laws which govern them.
Chance favors the prepared mind.
We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that a savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.
One who believes himself to have all the answers certainly hasn't asked all the questions.
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.
Restlessness is discontent, and discontent is the first necessity of progress.
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Popularity is never a test of truth.
Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.
I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research.
Missing Reference