Inquisitiveness
Inquisitiveness has got to be one of the most important characteristics of a good scientist or any other person in the natural sciences. This is exactly what causes a person to question the belief that an atom is the smallest particle there is, only to discover that even atoms consists of smaller building blocks. Not being a nuclear physicist I have to allow room for the possibility that my example is too simple, but I am sure there are many things that drives us to continuously ask the big old question: Why?
CS Lewis wrote (I'm paraphrasing) that it is obvious that science cannot answer all questions. Even after science has answered every single question it can reasonably be expected to answer, you will still be able to ask: Why?
As an example, I could explain to you the function of every part of an internal combustion engine, and when I am done, you still won't know why we need an engine in the first place. The answer to the question will also inevitably lie outside the field of engineering, it will instead be the social need to travel from point A to point B in a motor vehicle. It is almost too obvious that there will never be an end to asking why when you deal with the truly inquisitive.
Someone once remarked that whenever they need an atheist for an argument or a debate (at university), they go to the philosophy department, because the physics department doesn't have any good ones. How true such a claim is today is probably debatable, but it is a known phenomenon that many physicists, mathematicians and the like manage to be great scientists while still believing in a God.
This state of affairs is almost unavoidable. Anyone can see that our champion (science) won't conquer all. We know that today, we don't even have to wait until our hero reaches this inevitable point of failure. Not even gap theory covers this one, the big why gap is left wide open. At this point I have to ask the questions: What is a truly inquisitive scientist to do? Doesn't it make sense to consider other possibilities right now? Who are worse off: those who can't see, or those who refuse to look?
It is of course possible that there is no answer to the big why. This possibility is unthinkable to me. The conclusion I come to is that it is no surprise that religious affliction affects so many good scientists. You could even say that you'd expect the really good ones to be religious.
CS Lewis wrote (I'm paraphrasing) that it is obvious that science cannot answer all questions. Even after science has answered every single question it can reasonably be expected to answer, you will still be able to ask: Why?
As an example, I could explain to you the function of every part of an internal combustion engine, and when I am done, you still won't know why we need an engine in the first place. The answer to the question will also inevitably lie outside the field of engineering, it will instead be the social need to travel from point A to point B in a motor vehicle. It is almost too obvious that there will never be an end to asking why when you deal with the truly inquisitive.
Someone once remarked that whenever they need an atheist for an argument or a debate (at university), they go to the philosophy department, because the physics department doesn't have any good ones. How true such a claim is today is probably debatable, but it is a known phenomenon that many physicists, mathematicians and the like manage to be great scientists while still believing in a God.
This state of affairs is almost unavoidable. Anyone can see that our champion (science) won't conquer all. We know that today, we don't even have to wait until our hero reaches this inevitable point of failure. Not even gap theory covers this one, the big why gap is left wide open. At this point I have to ask the questions: What is a truly inquisitive scientist to do? Doesn't it make sense to consider other possibilities right now? Who are worse off: those who can't see, or those who refuse to look?
It is of course possible that there is no answer to the big why. This possibility is unthinkable to me. The conclusion I come to is that it is no surprise that religious affliction affects so many good scientists. You could even say that you'd expect the really good ones to be religious.
posted by ispburger at 1:13 am
1 Comments:
We were inquisitive long before we heard of big words like 'science' and 'religion'
:-D
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