Recently, I have encountered quite a few people who have said to me “I don’t believe in God – I am a scientist!”. And I have thought about this for some time, as I have spiritual beliefs and I have a science and research background/skillset.
There are in fact a plethora of scientists who do have religious beliefs, including those working in quantum physics, molecular biology etc etc (including Plank, Einstein, Newton, Galileo). Furthermore, there are quantum physicists and biologists who believe that there is evidence for the existence of God – e..g Dr Amit Goswani, and others who believe that evolution has been misinterpreted and can be better explained by epigenetics, and spontaneous evolution. The fact that I seek an evidence-base for the existence of God is my own prejudice and my own preference not a basis for arrogance or superiority.
I do not think that it is acceptable to mock what we cannot ever know for sure. In every day science, we are working with likelihoods not certainty, and with new evidence comes new beliefs and understandings. A scientist use data from a known population in order to describe it meaningfully, to draw conclusions from it, and make informed decisions – but the inferences are only as good as the data and even then there are so many confounders and prejudices.
thebarefootchroniclesofus 