I once heard Albert Einstein was also an atheist.
Devon
Atheist/Agnostics..you'r e in good company
by badwillie 101 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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logansrun
Most of the "Great Scientists" who were Christians were living in a pre-Darwinian, usually even pre-Enlightenment, world. For them, Christianity was simply the only game in town.
B.
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Double Edge
Where are you getting your information? Walt Disney was not an Atheist/Agnostic. Disney wrote this in 1963:
Deeds Rather Than Words
By Walt DisneyIn these days of world tensions, when the faith of men is being tested as never before, I am personally thankful that my parents taught me at a very early age to have a strong personal belief and reliance in the power of prayer for Divine inspiration. My people were members of the Congregational Church in our home town of Marceline, Missouri. It was there where I was first taught the efficacy of religion ... how it helps us immeasurably to meet the trial and stress of life and keeps us attuned to the Divine inspiration. ..............
Every person has his own ideas of the act of praying for God?s guidance, tolerance, and mercy to fulfill his duties and responsibilities. My own concept of prayer is not as a plea for special favors nor as a quick palliation for wrongs knowingly committed. A prayer, it seems to me, implies a promise as well as a request; at the highest level, prayer not only is a supplication for strength and guidance, but also becomes an affirmation of life and thus a reverent praise of God.
Deeds rather than words express my concept of the part religion should play in everyday life.,....
Both my study of Scripture and my career in entertaining children have taught me to cherish them....... ...... I have long felt that the way to keep children out of trouble is to keep them interested in things. Lecturing to children is no answer to delinquency. Preaching won?t keep youngsters out of trouble, but keeping their minds occupied will.
Thus, whatever success I have had in bringing clean, informative entertainment to people of all ages, I attribute in great part to my Congregational upbringing and my lifelong habit of prayer. To me, today, at age sixty-one, all prayer, by the humble or highly placed, has one thing in common: supplication for strength and inspiration to carry on the best human impulses which should bind us together for a better world. Without such inspiration, we would rapidly deteriorate and finally perish. But in our troubled time, the right of men to think and worship as their conscience dictates is being sorely pressed. We can retain these privileges only by being constantly on guard and fighting off any encroachment on these precepts. To retreat from any of the principles handed down by our forefathers, who shed their blood for the ideals we still embrace, would be a complete victory for those who would destroy liberty and justice for the individual.
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logansrun
Double Edge,
It's generally a good idea to provide some sort of reference when you cut and paste something from another site.
B.
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Double Edge
Double Edge, It's generally a good idea to provide some sort of reference when you cut and paste something from another site.
Yes, Logansrun, it is a good idea.... this links for you:
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edge3
To say that only scientists of the past were Christians is pure ingorance. While being an atheist or agnostic may be more common today there are those who work in the sciences today who are theists. Two that come to mind are Kenneth Miller a biology professor at Brown University and Francis Collins Director of the Human Genome Research Institute. The first scientist I ever knew personally was a devout Christian. He is the father of a childhood friend of mine and quite a fine chemist.
I work for a major engineering firm that employees well educated people with degrees ranging from B.S. to Phd's. As far as I can tell many if not most of them are theists.
Additionally you may want to look at the lives of those in the list at the top of this thread. Frank Lloyd Wright for example while being a great and one of my favorite architects was a scoundrel in his personal life. He had no problem screwing the wives of his clients while he designed homes for them. He felt he was simply above any morals of the common man.
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Double Edge
Benjamin Franklin was NOT an Atheist/Agnostic. He didn't profess any religion, but he did believe in God. From the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Chapter 8:
"I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian; and tho' some of the dogmas of that persuasion, such as the eternal decrees of God, election, reprobation, etc., appeared to me unintelligible, others doubtful, and I early absented myself from the public assemblies of the sect, Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that he made the world, and govern'd it by his Providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter. These I esteem'd the essentials of every religion; and, being to be found in all the religions we had in our country, I respected them all, tho' with different degrees of respect, as I found them more or less mix'd with other articles, which, without any tendency to inspire, promote, or confirm morality, serv'd principally to divide us, and make us unfriendly to one another. This respect to all, with an opinion that the worst had some good effects, induc'd me to avoid all discourse that might tend to lessen the good opinion another might have of his own religion; and as our province increas'd in people, and new places of worship were continually wanted, and generally erected by voluntary contributions, my mite for such purpose, whatever might be the sect, was never refused.
Tho' I seldom attended any public worship, I had still an opinion of its propriety, and of its utility when rightly conducted, and I regularly paid my annual subscription for the support of the only Presbyterian minister or meeting we had in Philadelphia." -
ThiChi
SS:
Nor does the evidence show he did not believe in God. Thus, the controversy....
Gumby:
Your quotes are mostly second hand. The fact is we don?t know.
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Realist
devon,
einstein was a pantheist. he believed god is everything and everything is part of "god".
religiousity is mainly determined by whether or not someone needs security. its seems determined by the need for a higher authority. nevertheless the number of atheists and agnostics is particularely high among scientists reflecting the fact that these people have the best understanding of the world.
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logansrun
edge,
To say that only scientists of the past were Christians is pure ingorance.
I'm not sure if that comment was directed toward me or not. If so I rebut: I never said that there were no scientists who also profess Christianity or any other form of religious belief. On my bookshelf right now is a paperback entitled, "Faith In Science" which is a collection of writings by current scientists who also are religious. For the most part, none of them hold to any "traditional" religion, certainly not any fundamentalist version.
While being an atheist or agnostic may be more common today there are those who work in the sciences today who are theists. Two that come to mind are Kenneth Miller a biology professor at Brown University and Francis Collins Director of the Human Genome Research Institute. The first scientist I ever knew personally was a devout Christian. He is the father of a childhood friend of mine and quite a fine chemist.
Right. I actually have read Miller's expose of the intelligent design movement in his book, "Finding Darwin's God." Good read. It does seem, though, that the further one becomes educated in science or philosophy, the smaller the gaps become for God to fill -- and the greater the leap of faith becomes.
Very often the "God" of a modern scientist is more metaphorical than literal. Einstein's "God" if you will.
B.
