Freeman Dyson quotes

[Ivellious]

Ran across a couple quotes from Freeman Dyson, an extremely respected and noteworthy physicist as well as a self-described, non-denominational Christian. I thought that in many ways they sort of summed up my own worldview rather nicely, and I thought they were even more notable because of the source.

The first is dealing with the theology of religions, and whether Dyson thought that the details of it were necessary:

I am neither a saint nor a theologian. To me, good works are more important than theology.

I identify with this quote mostly because it accepts that who or what you believe in is less important, if important at all, when compared to simply how you live your life. In essence, if two people live nearly identical lives in terms of the good and bad they do, and one believes in Christ as their savior while the other practices Islam, I see no difference in their eternal standing.

This next quote is related to the relationship between science and religion as a whole.

Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect. Trouble arises when either science or religion claims universal jurisdiction, when either religious or scientific dogma claims to be infallible. Religious creationists and scientific materialists are equally dogmatic and insensitive. By their arrogance they bring both science and religion into disrepute. The media exaggerate their numbers and importance. The media rarely mention the fact that the great majority of religious people belong to moderate denominations that treat science with respect, or the fact that the great majority of scientists treat religion with respect so long as religion does not claim jurisdiction over scientific questions.

That one's fairly self explanatory.

[Canuckster1127]

Not familiar with Dyson but that rings true to others I know and have known.

Works based religion is nothing new. I don't believe Christianity at it's core is works based believing rather in grace.

However as to the latter, that's similar to some things that I've settled on and explained in similar ways.

Science and Religion are always going to have areas of conflict and disagreement because they have a common denominator that breeds that, and that is that Science is man's interpretation or attempt to understand the physical universe while religion is man's interpretation or attempt to understand the meaning of life outside of just the material realm. Both involve interpretation and both are subject to the limitations of man's ability to understand and also man's perspective which often precludes or excludes things necessary to fully understand something. While science and religion can be understood to always have elements of man's interpretation which will lead to conflict or disagreement, I believe that there is no disconnect outside of man's interpretive realm and that God and the universe he created are not in conflict with one another outside of man's perception. That's a faith position obviously because even the formulation of that anology is necessarily within the realm of human understanding (assuming people will grant that I'm human, which thankfully most have.)