Science Vs. Religion: Here's What Scientists Have Said About The Existence Of God

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Science relies on methodically analyzing evidence to back claims, whereas religious faith relies on maintaining belief even without empirical proof. While these two systems of thought may seem incompatible, they're not exclusive, and many scientists throughout history have held complex beliefs on the subject. In 1941, Albert Einstein famously wrote, "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

Believing in God isn't so much a question of scientific reasoning as it is personal philosophy. In most religions, God is said to be outside the universe, so to prove or disprove the presence of a deity would require us to be able to make observations beyond the edges of our universe, which seems like an insolvable paradox. Widely accepted scientific theories like the Big Bang theory help explain how the world came into existence but don't explain why.

Throughout history, many of the most influential scientists lived in contexts where they couldn't fully express their personal beliefs for fear of being persecuted or even killed, which makes it difficult to fully know their internal beliefs. For example, many prominent Jewish scientists such as Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard fled Europe in the 1930s when the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany. The definition of "believing in God" can become even more muddled by the definition of "God." Where some people might take God to mean a single all-knowing being, some people define God more abstractly as an all-encompassing force of the universe.

Baruch Spinoza was a Jewish Dutch-Portuguese philosopher who lived in the 1600s, and who was excommunicated from his religious community due to views seen as radical at the time. He believed God and nature were one, and that God wasn't an all-knowing being but the force of nature itself. This viewpoint is commonly referred to as pantheism, which is the idea that the universe and everything in it are God. Spinoza is often credited as one of the influential figures of this school of thought, and this definition of God is often referred to as Spinoza's God. 

Einstein, one of the most recognizable scientists of all time due to his major breakthroughs that revolutionized modern physics, rejected the idea of a personal god repeatedly throughout his life, going so far as to call mainstream religious beliefs "childish," but he did seem to support pantheism. In a 1929 telegram, he wrote, "I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."

Einstein isn't the only prominent scientist to share similar beliefs. American theoretical physicist and cofounder of string theory Michio Kaku, when asked about his belief, said, "But there's another god, and that's the god of Spinoza. That's the god of beauty, harmony, simplicity." Themes of pantheism come up repeatedly throughout history in traditional philosophies such as Taoism in East Asia and Stoicism in ancient Rome and Greece.

While many scientists have held ideas accepting the concept of Spinoza's God, others have either overtly rejected the idea of God or have zealously accepted traditional religion. The theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking (who had some thoughts on the end of the world) considered himself an atheist in his later life. He wrote in his book "Brief Answers to the Big Questions," "When people ask me if a God created the universe, I tell them that the question itself makes no sense. Time didn't exist before the Big Bang, so there is no time for God to make the universe in." 

The astronomer Antony Hewish, who shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1974, was a supporter of the unity between science and religion. He wrote in a letter to Tihomir Dimitrov, "I think both science and religion are necessary to understand our relation to the Universe ... Why did the big bang eventually lead to conscious beings who question the purpose of life and the existence of the Universe? This is where religion is necessary." The Nobel Prize–winning biochemist Christian Anfinsen expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote, "I think only an idiot can be an atheist.

Few subjects of debate become heated as quickly as the existence of God. The most influential scientists in history have held radically different beliefs on the subject, and because there's no way to know for sure what's outside of the universe, there's no way to know who's right. Whatever idea you may hold on the subject is equally as valid as anybody else's.