Public Universities Don't Want Science Students To Believe In God

Why this is, I cannot say, but I can certainly recall being challenged by a number of college professors on my knowledge & experiences with God. One professor stated I "could not be both a scientist AND a Christian" as if I had no choice but to choose one or the other. When I was asked why I would bother with Biology/Chemisty when I have 'my faith', I answered, "I want to know how He does it. The smaller the life components, the more complex the mechanisms become." I like to compare it to a pocket watch which has one simple function: to tell time. Within the watch is a hundred and eighty parts that require three thousand steps to bring together. For me, science and faith are a perfect fit. More often than not, to begin experimentation and testing you've got to have faith in something even if it's previous results, trends, a hypothesis, et cetera.

There's a misconception that us scientists don't believe in God (or so this is what many will have students believe in universities). I'm approaching my 9th year as a Biochemist. I can say that at least 40% of the biochemists in my office without a doubt believe in God (most are Christian). Some don't, some I haven't had the discussion with, but by no means is it a small minority. To summarize, the representation of the 'real world' in secular academia does not reflect reality of the scientific and God believing world.

Although I couldn't say one way or another if theoretical physicist Dr. Kaku's details (as I don't understand them myself) are definitive proof of God, I find the article interesting:

Scientist says he found definitive proof that God exists

a reply to: saint4God

I apologize that I don't have the time to read the article you linked to at the moment....

However, I've always thought of science as a way to understand HOW things work and my faith as a way to understand WHY things work.

As you wrote, science and religion are not mutually exclusive (at least in my opinion).

a reply to: saint4God

It is my opinion that science and faith are irreconcilable. Science is the method of observing the world around you to better understand it and faith is the act of believing you understand something that cannot be observed.

Faith literally has no place in science. Or would you like to explain otherwise? How does faith in a deity being help you to make discoveries?

Is all faith beneficial? Or just faith in your version of god?

a reply to: saint4God

No one has the right to say "one cannot be both a scientist, and a Christian". What an outrageous notion. Some of the most well known faces in the history of higher reasoning were proponents of one or another faith, as well as being capable of observing the physical reality of the universe. These are far from mutually exclusive positions...what rotten nonsense!

a reply to: TrueBrit

Nobody except christians make the claim that people say that you cannot be a scientist and a christian. But how does one's faith help to make discoveries? Which scientific discoveries were made because of one's faith in a deity?

While I'm not a woman of faith, I fully support your endeavors and I think its beautiful that you have you both. Don't let your professors opinions, or the opinions of others deter you from the excursion for knowledge.

-Alee

a reply to: saint4God

An unsourced article from a random woo woo website does not make for a great opening gambit.

a reply to: Woodcarver

What you have just said is patently false.

It is not only Christians who utter such nonsene. There are plenty of fundamentalist atheists out there with the same personality problems that lead to ridiculous sentiments being expressed, without anything solid to back them. It is not a problem exclusive to the faithful.

As for ones faith helping to make a discovery, that is not how it works in the least. A persons faith keeps them rooted, that is what it is for. Faith is the way to operate the affairs of the spirit, and science the way to operate the affairs of physical existence. Both are necessary tool kits to posses, but used for entirely different things in life.

I'm not sure they don't want them to believe in God. Now some are very obtuse to any opinion other than theirs which is neither scholarly nor scientific, but that's just from personal experience in STEM.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Woodcarver

What you have just said is patently false.

It is not only Christians who utter such nonsene. There are plenty of fundamentalist atheists out there with the same personality problems that lead to ridiculous sentiments being expressed, without anything solid to back them. It is not a problem exclusive to the faithful.

As for ones faith helping to make a discovery, that is not how it works in the least. A persons faith keeps them rooted, that is what it is for. Faith is the way to operate the affairs of the spirit, and science the way to operate the affairs of physical existence. Both are necessary tool kits to posses, but used for entirely different things in life.

What i said is completely true. And you just defined it better than i did. Faith does not work in science. It is for woo woo spirituality, which is actually better defined as "people learning to deal with their minds." It is your brain that creates your mind. And religion sends you far off on a wild goose chase to appease some far off deity that is really just your mind. Strength and peace of mind can not come from an outside source. Why do you think everyone agrees with their own personal god, but disagrees with everyone else's?

originally posted by: Woodcarver
a reply to: saint4God

It is my opinion that science and faith are irreconcilable. Science is the method of observing the world around you to better understand it and faith is the act of believing you understand something that cannot be observed.

Faith literally has no place in science. Or would you like to explain otherwise?

I think you're in the majority with the college professors and don't understand myself the cause for the stumbling block. My problem is that it becomes double-talk because in science we face things we believe in things that cannot be observed or even measured on a regular basis. Gravity was used before it was understood, as was momentum, ointments, and so forth. Entire tools, catalogs and techniques were trusted without any knowledge of the premise. Having faith in 'what works' led us to the hypothesis, testing and data to figure out how/why.

How does faith in a deity being help you to make discoveries?

I think the unscientific approach is to throw one's hands up into the air and say, "GodDidIt" and walk away, so I hope we're in agreement there. I've heard that there are people who do this but can't say I know many in daily life who aren't at least a bit curious as to how or why. For me, God was a motivation, an ambition to learn and has given me a greater appreciation for living things as I believe they were His work. It's like when an artist hands to you their signed masterpiece. Yes, it's a beautiful picture to be appreciated by all, but now it's personal. You can see the work he has put into it and is special since it is a gift for you to enjoy.

Is all faith beneficial? Or just faith in your version of god?

I believe my faith is very beneficial to the degree that at one point it saved my life, at another saved the life of my wife and marriage. It's certainly been more beneficial than my previous aggressive agnosticism...which just lead to a lot of frustration by not being able to understand universally what was happening and why our part in it seemed absolutely pointless. Foundationally, being able to trust in God has clarified a lot that otherwise would makes no sense.

a reply to: Woodcarver

en.m.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: saint4God

No one has the right to say "one cannot be both a scientist, and a Christian". What an outrageous notion. Some of the most well known faces in the history of higher reasoning were proponents of one or another faith, as well as being capable of observing the physical reality of the universe. These are far from mutually exclusive positions...what rotten nonsense!

Thank you for the support and wish I had heard this when I was a student. It would've been a comfort to know I wasn't the oddball in the outfield.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Do you disagree with your god about anything?

Do you completly agree with anyone else's opinion of what god likes or doesn't like?

a reply to: saint4God

Einstein on religion and science;

"I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details."

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

more quotes here

Cheers - Dave

originally posted by: Woodcarver
Nobody except christians make the claim that people say that you cannot be a scientist and a christian.

University of D*******:
Dr. S***** S**** (Biology)
Dr. R*** K***** (Biology)
Dr. H***** S****** (Physics)
Dr. A*** F** (World Religions)

I did my senior research with Dr. S***** & Dr. K****

Give them a call, they still work there last I'd checked.

[edited, removed names by request]

originally posted by: NerdGoddess
While I'm not a woman of faith, I fully support your endeavors and I think its beautiful that you have you both. Don't let your professors opinions, or the opinions of others deter you from the excursion for knowledge.

-Alee

Thank you for these kind words and I'm glad I didn't. Blessings be

originally posted by: Woodcarver
a reply to: saint4God

It is my opinion that science and faith are irreconcilable.

On the contrary, science and faith are complementary. You need one, to completely understand the other.

You cannot understand the Holy Bible completely, without the knowledge provided by science.

The scriptures tells us so:

"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book,
even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge
shall be increased." -- KJV, Daniel 12:4

So, as you can clearly see, some things written in the scriptures are deliberately "coded" in obscure language, so that only later when "knowledge is increased" will man be able to "decode" the messages.

Science is the method of observing the world around you to better understand it and faith is the act of believing you understand something that cannot be observed.

Not exactly. Faith is believing that someone more intelligent than us knew more than we do today, and left a message for us with important information in it, some of which we can understand immediately, and some that would only be understood by later generations. It's the same paradigm of the Father and the Son. Children come into the world knowing very little, and trust that their Father is more knowledgeable, having been around longer, and so listen to His message, which helps them to make the right decisions in life, while growing up.

Faith literally has no place in science.

You're probably right there. But, science has a big role to play in faith.

Or would you like to explain otherwise? How does faith in a deity being help you to make discoveries?

Well, for one thing, Faith claims that "man is a creation".

So, that gives us motivation to see if we can create living things.

Faith says, "man is created in the image of god".

That tells us that, if god created man, then man should be able to create new type of life.

We already create new types of bacteria, so our Faith can't be that wrong.

We are a little like the god we believe created us. We too can create things, using "science." !

Is all faith beneficial? Or just faith in your version of god?

Is all knowledge beneficial? I would think it depends on what you do with your Faith.

a reply to: saint4God

Which part of this OP describes his proof for god? The best i can pick out is that Dr. Kaku says the words "gods mind" a few times. Which completly blows my mind why he would use that language when describing quantum equations. But other than his awe of mathematics and the vastness of the universe, where is the proof you are describing?

Did you only find this interesting because it said "proof of god's existance"? Did you look deeper into this article to pull the details of this proof out, so that you could explain this to us?

Or did you link us to a religious click bait site which uses michio's attempt to pander to the religious minded, so that you could do the same here.?

originally posted by: GetHyped
a reply to: saint4God

An unsourced article from a random woo woo website does not make for a great opening gambit.

I admit I was also disappointed in the lack of details in the woo woo website, but the Youtube video hearing Dr. Kaku speaking seems to lend some credibility to the assertion.