A Nobel Laureate Reflects on the Universe, God and the Nature of Discovery

Last updated on: November 13, 2014 at 7:30 pm by Epiphenom

A Nobel Laureate Reflects on the Universe, God and the Nature of Discovery 2014-11-13T19:30:12+01:00 Epiphenom

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Herbert A Hauptman is a pioneer of x-ray crystollography, and winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1985. Now 91, he’s written a short memoir (actually, he was interviewed by D J Grothe, of the Center for Inquiry, who then wrote the book).

There’s a review of his book – On the Beauty of Science: A Nobel Laureate Reflects on the Universe, God and the Nature of Discovery over at Buffalo News (Hauptman lives in Buffalo, NY). Here’s some excerpts:

“On the Beauty of Science” is a sure-to-be-controversial call to arms, as Hauptman argues forcefully that science and religion are incompatible and that Americans must learn to think more critically about science and other issues.

“I believe there is a direct negative connection between belief in religion, especially fundamentalist religion, and public scientific illiteracy,” he writes …

… It’s not just a matter of too little knowledge of science, Hauptman writes. The problem is compounded by too much belief in religion, ghosts, angels and alternative medicine, to boot.

“I believe that from an early age, most children in our society are inculcated in superstition and mumbo-jumbo, and so there is no development of the scientific approach to looking at the world,” he writes. Hauptman points out that surveys show 60 percent of all scientists are nonbelievers, but 90 percent of top scientists — members of the National Academy of Science — identify themselves as atheists.

Hauptman also tries to figure out why people are religious, and he wonders if human beings have a predisposition to be religious.

Hauptman contends that the fact that the universe is orderly doesn’t provide evidence for God’s existence, and he writes that there isn’t an “ultimate meaning” for life.

But, he continues, “Even if there is no God and life is ultimately meaningless, you don’t end up loving your wife any less than you would if there were a God.” Then he takes on the view held by some that, without belief in God, nothing keeps atheists from acting badly.

“But if that is the reason that you believe in God, because you are afraid of what might happen if you aren’t a decent person, that’s not a very good reason either,” Hauptman writes.

He goes further to argue that science has done far more for humanity than religion, pointing to the development of air travel, computers and modern medicine as examples.

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