Do Leading Scientists' Beliefs on God Influence Society's Views?

[Njorl]

I just heard a good qute, but forgot where it came from. It was something like:

"Madam, I merely believe in one fewer god than you do. When you discover why you discarded all of the others, you will know why I discarded yours."

I wish I remembered who said it.

 

[fbsthreads]

"Madam, I merely believe in one fewer god than you do. When you discover why you discarded all of the others, you will know why I discarded yours."

that is a good one.

http://www.quotegarden.com/religion.html

-attributes it to Stephen Roberts.

 

[Loren Booda]

BlackVision

Leuba attributed the higher level of disbelief and doubt among "greater" scientists to their "superior knowledge, understanding, and experience"

However, they have yet to consistantly and honestly disprove the existence of God, even within their own community. Also, might the NAS leadership when tapping is members encourage tacitly skepticism (a fundamental attitude for scientists) of God?

 

[BlackVision]

I just heard a good qute, but forgot where it came from. It was something like:

"Madam, I merely believe in one fewer god than you do. When you discover why you discarded all of the others, you will know why I discarded yours."

I wish I remembered who said it.

That's a quote by Stephen Roberts.

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."--Stephen Roberts

 

[BlackVision]

Oh I noticed that fbsthreads already stated it was Stephen Roberts. Carry on then :)

 

[BlackVision]

BlackVision. However, they have yet to consistantly and honestly disprove the existence of God, even within their own community. Also, might the NAS leadership when tapping is members encourage tacitly skepticism (a fundamental attitude for scientists) of God?

The burden of proof would not be on the atheist. It is on the one making the claim. It would be similar to someone stating "there is an invisible ghost in my room that likes to drink beer all day long and watch his invisible tv" and asking you to disprove it.

The reason why most scientists are atheists is because it is incompatible with the scientific approach. The necessity of relying on evidence. When the scientific method is applied, the conclusion cannot result in "there is indeed a god" or even "there is ample evidence to consider this a valid scientific theory"

 

[Thallium]

So only because "leading scientists" reject God, that means that everybody else who are presumably "ignorant" and bound to the beliefs of scientists have to reject God as well..? Ask yourself.

 

[loseyourname]

I think we should do a little experiment. Raise an entire generation of children without religion. Given that we no longer have a problem with explanatory gaps in everyday phenomena, I wonder if they would ever postulate any kind of supernatural explanation for anything. In other words, if mankind had had the knowledge of natural processes that we have today in the beginning, would the ideas of gods and spirits and such ever have been developed?

 

[Gza]

So only because "leading scientists" reject God, that means that everybody else who are presumably "ignorant" and bound to the beliefs of scientists have to reject God as well..? Ask yourself.

I don't think that was ever implied by the original poster. It was simply a statement of a fact. You seem to read too much into it when you jokingly assume that anyone else who is not a leading scientist is ignorant. I think you truly need to "Ask yourself", are your unfounded beliefs tying down your thinking?