Editor's Note: One of the things that has come out of the battle between extremists in the evolution/creation controversy has been a flow of literature from atheists claiming that good scientists and intelligent, educated people do not believe in God. This is simply not true. Tihomir Dimitrov has compiled an e-book on http://nobelists.net of quotations of Nobel Prize winning scientists. In each issue of this journal we hope to quote statements from some of these.

Dr. Townes received his Ph.D. in physics from California Institute of Technology and was involved in research at Columbia, MIT, and the University of California.

"I strongly believe in the existence of God, based on intuition, observations, logic, and also scientific knowledge."

"Science, with its experiments and logic, tries to understand the order or structure of the universe. Religion, with its theological inspiration and reflection, tries to understand the purpose or meaning of the universe. These two are cross-related. Purpose implies structure, and structure ought to be interpretable in terms of purpose. At least this is the way I see it. I am a physicist. I also consider myself a Christian. As I try to understand the nature of our universe in these two modes of thinking, I see many commonalities and crossovers between science and religion. It seems logical that in the long run the two will even converge."

"Science wants to know the mechanism of the universe, religion--the meaning. The two cannot be separated."

"We scientists work on the basis of a fundamental assumption regarding reason in nature and reason in the human mind, an assumption that is held as a cardinal principle of faith. Yet this faith is so automatically and generally accepted that we hardly recognize it as an essential basis of science."

"As a religious person, I strongly sense the presence and actions of a creative Being far beyond myself and yet always personal and close by."

"In fact, it seems to me, a revelation can be viewed as a sudden discovery of understanding of man and man's relation to his universe, to God, and his relation to other men."

Back to Contents Does God Exist?, MarApr08.