Scientists don't believe that there is a God, do they?

Question

Scientists refer to hard evidence.
Is there evidence that there is a God?

Answer 1

Actually, the scholar who developed the scientific method did so because of his belief in God. His name was Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham.

Born in Basra (in what is now Iraq) in 965, Ibn al-Haytham was a devout Muslim. He believed that human beings are flawed and only God is perfect. To discover the truth about nature, he reasoned, one had to eliminate human opinion and error and allow the universe to speak for itself. “The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them,” he wrote, “but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration.”

Ibn al-Haytham designed physical experiments to test hypotheses, developing the system of inquiry known as the scientific method.

Ibn al-Haytham’s massive book about light and vision, Kitāb al-Manāzir (Book of Optics), was translated into Latin as De aspectibus in the late thirteenth century in Spain. Copies of the book circulated throughout Europe. Roger Bacon wrote a summary of it entitled Perspectiva (Optics). Bacon also promoted the use of the scientific method described by Ibn al-Haytham.

Ibn al-Haytham remained a devout Muslim throughout his life. “It became my belief that for gaining access to the effulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for truth and knowledge,” he wrote.

Many scientists--from all faiths--continue to believe that science leads the researcher closer to God.

Answer 2

Some do, some don't.

They refer to hard evidence on scientific questions.

Yes, human consciousness. Either a person has always been conscious, consciousness is an illusion, or that person received consciousness from something else. The first seems unlikely because if a person always had consciousness, why do most people seem not to be conscious of always having consciousness? It cannot be an illusion, for there would have to be some consciousness perceiving the illusion of consciousness. Thus, it is likely we somehow obtained consciousness. The next question is whether it's more likely that we received it from inorganic matter that lacks consciousness or from a being that is also conscious? Not proof by any means, but the most logical conclusion based on the evidence.

Answer 3

I'm a scientist, and I believe there is a god. My physics teachers in college all seemed to believe in some kind of higher power. The people I work with believe too, with possibly one exception.

My own experience with scientists is that most believe. It's mainly, I think, a matter of whether you believe logical argument can discover the existence (or lack thereof) of God. I don't believe so.

Answer 4

For what I normally read, about 70% of all scientists don't believe there's a god. The rest of them still thinks there is or may be some sort of "divine initiator", but no one has ever come up with even the slightest scientific suggestion that something like that exists. The concept of some sort of god is only used by those people who just can't wait, or are afraid to not know it all. They fill in their god in every blank in science they like, but still that doesn't give it any scientific credibility.

Answer 5

Good scientists don't let their personal beliefs influence their research. There are theist scientists, agnostic scientists, and atheist scientists. Given that for most of human history people have believed in some form of god, I would expect there to be many scientists who are also believers.

Answer 6

Almost anyone can call themselves a scientist, from the lab technician to the Nobel Prize winner. As the status of the scientist goes up so does the lack of belief in a god, the members of the most prestigious scientific societies in the world are almost to a man atheists.

Answer 7

No, because science can now explain the majority of things that people used to think must have been caused by some type of god because they didn't know any better; such as Rain, Thunder, Wind - basically all weather.

Answer 8

No, there's not even a shred of evidence to support the existence of a God, or indeed anything supernatural.

98% of scientists with a background in biology are secular.

Answer 9

There is a list of the 100 most influencial scientists on adherents.com, along with their religious affiliations:
http://www.adherents.com/people/100_scientists.html

Answer 10

a list of some scientists who believe in God:

* Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
* Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) (WOH) Physics, Astronomy
* Johann Kepler (1571–1630) (WOH) Scientific astronomy
* Athanasius Kircher (1601–1680) Inventor
* John Wilkins (1614–1672)
* Walter Charleton (1619–1707) President of the Royal College of Physicians
* Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) Hydrostatics; Barometer
* Sir William Petty (1623 –1687) Statistics; Scientific economics
* Robert Boyle (1627–1691) (WOH) Chemistry; Gas dynamics
* John Ray (1627–1705) Natural history
* Isaac Barrow (1630–1677) Professor of Mathematics
* Nicolas Steno (1631–1686) Stratigraphy
* Thomas Burnet (1635–1715) Geology
* Increase Mather (1639–1723) Astronomy
* Nehemiah Grew (1641–1712) Medical Doctor, Botany

The Age of Newton

* Isaac Newton (1642–1727) (WOH) Dynamics; Calculus; Gravitation law; Reflecting telescope; Spectrum of light (wrote more about the Bible than science, and emphatically affirmed a Creator. Some have accused him of Arianism, but it’s likely he held to a heterodox form of the Trinity
* Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646–1716) Mathematician
* John Flamsteed (1646–1719) Greenwich Observatory Founder; Astronomy
* William Derham (1657–1735) Ecology
* Cotton Mather (1662–1727) Physician
* John Harris (1666–1719) Mathematician
* John Woodward (1665–1728) Paleontology
* William Whiston (1667–1752) Physics, Geology
* John Hutchinson (1674–1737) Paleontology
* Johathan Edwards (1703–1758) Physics, Meteorology
* Carolus Linneaus (1707–1778) Taxonomy; Biological classification system
* Jean Deluc (1727–1817) Geology
* Richard Kirwan (1733–1812) Mineralogy
* William Herschel (1738–1822) Galactic astronomy; Uranus (probably believed in an old-earth)
* James Parkinson (1755–1824) Physician (old-earth compromiser*)
* John Dalton (1766–1844) Atomic theory; Gas law
* John Kidd, M.D. (1775–1851) Chemical synthetics (old-earth compromiser*)

Just Before Darwin

* Timothy Dwight (1752–1817) Educator
* William Kirby (1759–1850) Entomologist
* Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826) Geographer
* Benjamin Barton (1766–1815) Botanist; Zoologist
* John Dalton (1766–1844) Father of the Modern Atomic Theory; Chemistry
* Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) Comparative anatomy, paleontology (old-earth compromiser*)
* Samuel Miller (1770–1840) Clergy
* Charles Bell (1774–1842) Anatomist
* John Kidd (1775–1851) Chemistry
* Humphrey Davy (1778–1829) Thermokinetics; Safety lamp
* Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864) Mineralogist (old-earth compromiser*)
* Peter Mark Roget (1779–1869) Physician; Physiologist
* Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) Professor (old-earth compromiser*)
* David Brewster (1781–1868) Optical mineralogy, Kaleidoscope (probably believed in an old-earth)
* William Buckland (1784–1856) Geologist (old-earth compromiser*)
* William Prout (1785–1850) Food chemistry (probably believed in an old-earth)
* Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873) Geology (old-earth compromiser*)
* Michael Faraday (1791–1867) (WOH) Electro magnetics; Field theory, Generator
* Samuel F.B. Morse (1791–1872) Telegraph
* John Herschel (1792–1871) Astronomy (old-earth compromiser*)
* Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864) Geology (old-earth compromiser*)
* William Whewell (1794–1866) Anemometer (old-earth compromiser*)
* Joseph Henry (1797–1878) Electric motor; Galvanometer

Just After Darwin

* Richard Owen (1804–1892) Zoology; Paleontology (old-earth compromiser*)
* Matthew Maury (1806–1873) Oceanography, Hydrography (probably believed in an old-earth*)
* Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) Glaciology, Ichthyology (old-earth compromiser, polygenist*)
* Henry Rogers (1808–1866) Geology
* James Glaisher (1809–1903) Meteorology
* Philip H. Gosse (1810–1888) Ornithologist; Zoology
* Sir Henry Rawlinson (1810–1895) Archeologist
* James Simpson (1811–1870) Gynecology, Anesthesiology
* James Dana (1813–1895) Geology (old-earth compromiser*)
* Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert (1817–1901) Agricultural Chemist
* James Joule (1818–1889) Thermodynamics
* Thomas Anderson (1819–1874) Chemist
* Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819–1900) Astronomy
* George Stokes (1819–1903) Fluid Mechanics
* John William Dawson (1820–1899) Geology (probably believed in an old-earth*)
* Rudolph Virchow (1821–1902) Pathology
* Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) (WOH) Genetics
* Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) (WOH) Bacteriology, Biochemistry; Sterilization; Immunization
* Henri Fabre (1823–1915) Entomology of living insects
* William Thompson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907) Energetics; Absolute temperatures; Atlantic cable (believed in an older earth than the Bible indicates, but far younger than the evolutionists wanted*)
* William Huggins (1824–1910) Astral spectrometry
* Bernhard Riemann (1826–1866) Non-Euclidean geometries
* Joseph Lister (1827–1912) Antiseptic surgery
* Balfour Stewart (1828–1887) Ionospheric electricity
* James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) (WOH) Electrodynamics; Statistical thermodynamics
* P.G. Tait (1831–1901) Vector analysis
* John Bell Pettigrew (1834–1908) Anatomist; Physiologist
* John Strutt, Lord Rayleigh (1842–1919) Similitude; Model Analysis; Inert Gases
* Sir William Abney (1843–1920) Astronomy
* Alexander MacAlister (1844–1919) Anatomy
* A.H. Sayce (1845–1933) Archeologist
* John Ambrose Fleming (1849–1945) Electronics; Electron tube; Thermionic valve

Early Modern Period

* Dr. Clifford Burdick, Geologist
* George Washington Carver (1864–1943) Inventor
* L. Merson Davies (1890–1960) Geology; Paleontology
* Douglas Dewar (1875–1957) Ornithologist
* Howard A. Kelly (1858–1943) Gynecology
* Paul Lemoine (1878–1940) Geology
* Dr. Frank Marsh, Biology
* Dr. John Mann, Agriculturist, biological control pioneer
* Edward H. Maunder (1851–1928) Astronomy
* William Mitchell Ramsay (1851–1939) Archeologist
* William Ramsay (1852–1916) Isotopic chemistry, Element transmutation
* Charles Stine (1882–1954) Organic Chemist
* Dr. Arthur Rendle-Short (1885–1955) Surgeon
* Dr. Larry Butler, Biochemist