A Scientist & Religion

[☆ pantheory ☆]

Paul Dirac was a very famous physicist, a genius, but little known by the public in his time or since. He was also known as a man of very very few words.  Because of his behavior some now believe he was autistic.  But he has a long quote concerning an asserted discussion about religion with other very famous physicists when they were all waiting to hear a lecture. Who recorded this quote? no one knows. It could have been Dirac himself.

When asked about his fame after receiving the Nobel Prize, he simply said “I’m a failure,”  because of his belief in the failed mathematical logic of Quantum Mechanics, 1933.

https://physicsworld.com/a/paul-dirac-the-purest-soul-in-physics/

 

“I cannot understand why we idle discussing religion. If we are honest as scientists have to be, we must admit that religion is a jumble of false assertions with no basis in reality. The very idea of God is a product of the human imagination. It is quite understandable why primitive people, who were so much more exposed to the overpowering forces of nature than we are today, should have personified these forces in fear and trembling. But nowadays, when we understand so many natural processes, we have no need for such solutions. I can't for the life of me see how the postulate of an Almighty God helps us in any way. What I do see is that this assumption leads to such unproductive questions as why God allows so much misery and injustice, the exploitation of the poor by the rich and all the other horrors he might have prevented.

If religion is still being taught, it is by no means because its ideas still convince us, but simply because some of us want to keep the lower classes quiet. Quiet people are much easier to govern than clamorous and dissatisfied ones. They are also much easier to exploit. Religion is a kind of opium that allows a nation to lull itself into wishful dreams and so forget the injustices that are being perpetrated against the people, hence the close alliance between those two great political forces, the State and the Church. Both need the illusion that a kindly God rewards in heaven if not on earth. All those who have not risen up against injustice, who have done their duty quietly and uncomplainingly,  is precisely why the honest assertion that God is a mere product of the human imagination is branded as the worst of all mortal sins.”

 

Although he sounds like a pure atheist, most classify him as an agnostic. This could be because many scientists and others of the time did not like to be classified as an atheist because in the world then there were more scientists claiming a religious belief than those claiming to be atheists or agnostic, since intellect does not want to be looked-down-on for religious reasons IMO.

 

Einstein's related quote: "I'm not an atheist, and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist ... I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings".

 

Spinoza's God:  https://cah.ucf.edu/fpr/article/spinoza-on-god-affects-and-the-nature-of-sorrow/

 

Your thoughts?

[◊ Weezer ◊]

7 hours ago, pantheory said:

 

Your thoughts?

 

My beliefs are similar to what you wrote above.  In my mind, there is something (probably a lot) "out there" that we are have yet to identify.  But I don't like calling it "God".  And I believe Abrahamic religions were fabricated to brain wash, manipulate and control naive people.  

[☆ moxieflux66 ☆]

7 hours ago, pantheory said:

If religion is still being taught, it is by no means because its ideas still convince us, but simply because some of us want to keep the lower classes quiet. Quiet people are much easier to govern than clamorous and dissatisfied ones. They are also much easier to exploit.

That's my favorite part!  

 

That's a man with a marvelous economy with words, eh? 

[older]

On 6/30/2024 at 2:06 PM, pantheory said:

If religion is still being taught, it is by no means because its ideas still convince us, but simply because some of us want to keep the lower classes quiet. Quiet people are much easier to govern than clamorous and dissatisfied ones. They are also much easier to exploit.

 

[TABA]

On 6/30/2024 at 5:06 PM, pantheory said:

Einstein's related quote: "I'm not an atheist, and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist ... I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings".

 

On 7/1/2024 at 12:22 AM, Weezer said:

In my mind, there is something (probably a lot) "out there" that we are have yet to identify.  But I don't like calling it "God".

I agree.  Einstein’s and Spinoza’s “God” is so far from what most people think of as “God” that I think a different word should be used.  Something impressive, but not “God”.