Excerpt #75 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
More than nine out of ten leading American scientists do not believe in the existence of God while some nine out of ten Americans as a whole do.
The vast discrepancy may be due to the fact that scientists are trained to sort out evidence and differentiate fact from fiction.
In a survey, Nature Magazine found that a mere 7% of “greater” scientists believed in the existence of God.
The group of “greater” scientists surveyed were members of the elite National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
The survey found near universal rejection of the transcendent by NAS natural scientists.
Biological scientists had the lowest rate of belief (5.5% in God, 7.1% in immortality), with physicists and astronomers slightly higher (7.5% in God, 7.5% in immortality).
Of God, Bertrand Russell wrote, If I were granted omnipotence, and millions of years to experiment in, I should not think Man much to boast of as the final result of all my efforts.
Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. James Watson revealed DNA’s double-helix structure in 1953.
In doing so, they helped to invent biotechnology, provided the foundation for understanding the diversity of life, revealed the mechanism of inheritance, and shed light on diseases such as cancer and even the origins of anti-social behavior.
Dr. Crick and Dr. Watson are outspoken atheists. Dr. Crick said, “The God hypothesis is rather discredited.”
He argues that since many claims made by specific religions over 2000 years have proved false, the burden of proof should be on the claims they make today, rather than on atheists to disprove the existence of God.
“Archbishop Ussher claimed the world was created in 4004 B.C. Now we know it is 4.5 billion years old. It’s astonishing to me that people continue to accept religious claims,” Dr. Crick said.
“People like myself get along perfectly well with no religious views.”
Dr. Watson said, religious explanations were “myths from the past.”
“Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely.”
In spite of all the yearnings of men, no one can produce a single fact or reason to support the belief in God and in personal immortality. – Clarence Darrow, 1938
Many have been taught that a creator “endowed” us with free will.
This ingenious bit of theological inventiveness was designed to relieve creators, i.e., gods, of the responsibility for having created the dark side of life.
Gods get the credit for all the good things, and we, because of “free will”, get the blame for all the bad.