Science and Religion Today » On the Record

Jonathan Franzen on Science, Religion, and Art

Heather Wax — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:37:10 +0000

“To be honest, I’m thinking much more about science than about religion when I’m writing. To me, art itself is a religion and the challenge to it is not religion, it’s the hardcore materialism of science,” novelist Jonathan Franzen said during a press conference at the Hay Festival Cartagena.

“So I spend quite a bit of time trying to make sense of how I seem to have a soul, I have this ghostly consciousness, yet I know as a believer in science that this is just coming from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen molecules. I think if you take science seriously there are a lot of interesting questions to ask. I would be happy if more novelists, not just science fiction writers, paid attention to that.”

Brian Cox Says He’s Fighting Maniacs Not Religion

Heather Wax — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:19:22 +0000

“There is a lot of goodwill toward scientists among the religious communities in this country. I met the dean of Guildford Cathedral when I was an atheist on a panel and we got on well. After that I took him to CERN and we became good friends. I also recently got invited to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s house because he liked Wonders of the Solar System,” Brian Cox, the famous particle physicist and professor at The University of Manchester, tells The Telegraph.

“Rowan Williams is a very thoughtful man. If you want to move society forward in a more rational direction, religious leaders can be useful because they share that view. Setting yourself up as anti-religion is not helpful. You can set yourself up as anti-maniac, that’s different. So it’s OK to say that if you believe the world was created 6,000 years ago, as the creationists do, then you are an idiot. There is nothing wrong in saying that because you are an idiot. But setting yourself up as an atheist who is against all religion is not a battle that needs to be fought.”

Francis Collins Says He Doesn’t Mix S&R

Heather Wax — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:43:00 +0000

“I simply would argue you need to be thoughtful when you’re asking a question—is this a faith question or a science question? As long as one keeps that distinction clearly in mind, then I don’t see a conflict,” Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, tells Newsweek.

“There is, of course, a group of rather vocal people who disagree with that, people like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. I obviously don’t agree with their perspective, but I refuse to demonize them. I think they share with me the awe of what science can teach us about nature and the joy of that discovery and the promise that has for bettering the human condition. They don’t share with me the sense that there are other valid ways of finding truth. In terms of being the director of NIH, I don’t think anybody who’s worked with me would be able to identify a circumstance where my personal beliefs about faith have in any way interfered with my role as a scientific leader.”

Howard Markel Says Mummies Have Privacy Rights

Heather Wax — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:32:54 +0000

“I remain of mixed mind about the growing enterprise of exhuming bodies for research,” Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan, tells Wired blogger David Dobbs.

“To start with, digging up bodies automatically gets you into murky territory. Unless they’ve willed their bodies to science, most people expect their bodies to be left alone. And we know the mummies especially expected that. They made those tombs difficult to get into for a reason: They did not want to be disturbed as they went on to the River of the Dead and the afterlife. But we found them, and we have disturbed them repeatedly.”

José Funes: Religion Doesn’t Affect What I Study

Heather Wax — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:45:03 +0000

“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.”

Michio Kaku Isn’t Ashamed to Use the Word “God”

Heather Wax — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:51:35 +0000

“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.”

Why the World Science Festival Has an S&R Panel

Heather Wax — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:09:26 +0000

“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.”

Stephen Hawking Says Science Will Beat Religion

Heather Wax — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:34:01 +0000

“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.

Marilynne Robinson Wades Into the S&R “Wars”

Heather Wax — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:36:21 +0000

“I happen to be deeply interested in science and religion, so well disposed toward them both that the idea that they are natural adversaries has always bothered me. And I am fascinated by the idea that civilizations generate a hum of insight, invention, disputation, affirmation, and controversy, each one like a great mind engaged with its own preoccupations,” Marilynne Robinson, who wrote the new science-and-religion book Absence of Mind (as well as the award-winning novels Housekeeping, Gilead, and Home), tells The Globe and Mail.
“So for me, attentiveness to these ‘wars’ is attentiveness to the unfolding of human history. That said, the issues that emerge in any culture can be profound or vacuous, brilliantly articulated or dealt with crudely. Science and religion are both profoundly important to our culture, so the integrity of the conversation around them is important as well.”

Craig Venter on the First Synthetic Bacterial Cell

Heather Wax — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:46:59 +0000

“For nearly 15 years Ham Smith, Clyde Hutchison, and the rest of our team have been working toward this publication today—the successful completion of our work to construct a bacterial cell that is fully controlled by a synthetic genome,” Craig Venter, president of the J. Craig Venter Institute and one of the paper’s authors, said in a statement released yesterday.
“We have been consumed by this research, but we have also been equally focused on addressing the societal implications of what we believe will be one of the most powerful technologies and industrial drivers for societal good. We look forward to continued review and dialogue about the important applications of this work to ensure that it is used for the benefit of all.”