“I had a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 and he never said you have to study this or that,” José Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, tells New Scientist.
“We have complete freedom for research, and the topics we study are the topics that the astronomers are interested in: planetary science, clusters of galaxies, cosmology, and the big bang. I study nearby galaxies. A Jesuit joining us in September will study extrasolar planets.”

“I work in something called String Theory which makes the statement that we are reading the mind of God. … We physicists are the only scientists who can say the word “God” and not blush,” Michio Kaku writes on his Big Think blog.
“The fact of the matter is that we are dealing with the cosmic questions of existence and meaning. Thomas Huxley, the great biologist of the last century, said that the question of all questions for science and religion is to determine our true place and our true role in the Universe. For both science and religion it is the same question. However, there has essentially been a divorce in the last century or so between that of science and the Humanists and I think that it’s very sad that we don’t speak the same language anymore.”

“The bottom line is that we’re resolute in our belief that an honest discussion about faith and science is an important one, and that it should take place in an open, editorially independent manner. And where else to have such a conversation than at a function dedicated to the celebration of rationality and the power of science? We recognize and respect that there are differing views on this. And for that reason, we will continue to invite thinkers from all points of the spectrum—even those who disagree that the conversation should happen in the first place,” says Greg Boustead, the festival’s editorial producer.
“As for this year’s Faith and Science panel—featuring Francisco Ayala, Paul Davies, Elaine Pagels, and Thupten Jinpa—see Kristopher Hite’s comprehensive coverage of the discussion on his blog, Tom Paine’s Ghost. Kristopher Hite is a biochemistry Ph.D. candidate from Colorado State University who volunteered at this year’s Festival and was on the scene to cover Faith and Science at his own request.”

“There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works,” Stephen Hawking tells Diane Sawyer in an interview to air tonight on ABC’s World News.

He also tells her that:

What could define God [is thinking of God] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God. They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible.