Why do intellectuals believe in god

Some famous physicists hold the view that there are some theories in physics that can never be reconciled with others — there will always be some areas of physics in which our knowledge is incomplete or inconsistent. Roger Penrose suggested this in his talk at UTD last year. In mathematics we have a similar situation. By , all was well with mathematics.

One example of its great achievements was the proof of Gauss's Theorem that every integer could be expressed as the sum of the squares of 4 integers that literally took hundreds of steps to prove. It was believed that mathematics was complete, consistent , and decidable. The term completeness requires that all true statements in a mathematical system can be proved from the axioms of that system.

Consistency means that it is impossible to derive two conflicting theorems from the axioms, while decidability requires that, for every problem in mathematics, a definite, or mechanical method exists within mathematics to solve the problem. In Hilbert asked exactly these three questions of mathematics, saying that in his opinion all three were in fact true properties of mathematics.

There are true assertions that can never be proven using the axioms within the system. He also showed that mathematics must be either incomplete or inconsistent. If arithmetic were consistent, he reasoned, then every assertion would be provable. In fact, arithmetic cannot be proved consistent within its own axiomatic system.

Suppose we classify all the assertions in a given mathematical system into two groups, Group I contains all true, but unprovable assertions and Group II contains all true assertions that can be proved. The sentence must be true. Therefore there are indeed assertions in mathematics that, while true, cannot be proved.

It is important to realize that we can only deduce the truth of the statement by considering it from the outside. Its truth cannot be proved from within the system of mathematical logic, hence mathematical logic is an incomplete system.

Alan Turing, a British mathematician and Computer Scientist, showed that mathematics is also undecidable. These discoveries do not weaken the powers of science or mathematics, or weaken the resolve of scientists and mathematicians to continue their search for new meaning and new applications of their theorems.

They are truths that we must accept. Beliefs again:. Mathematics deals with the abstract. One can invent worlds way beyond those that we have consciously observed and solve problems in these strange worlds.

Sometimes these domains, as they are called, contain the real world at certain points and, of course, a great deal of mathematics deals with simplifications of, or special cases of our world. Does anyone believe in mathematics? It would be a strange statement to make. No doubt someone will say that farmers have complete faith in the ability of arithmetic to count sheep. We rarely say that we believe something that is irrefutable. We never consciously commit to such beliefs. There is no public profession of faith in trigonometry or geometry, save for those SATs.

Similarly, we can conduct research in our physics labs as if particles really are super-strings while knowing that some day a better model may appear. Even more troubling, we can live our lives as if God exists without actually believing in His existence. Paul tells us that we will fall short, because no one can be without sin, whether we believe or not. In other words, I have absolutely no doubt that X is true now and always will be.

Clearly this enables belief in mathematics, but makes belief of science less attractive. To rectify this, I would argue that the Christian should possess this kind of belief AND be totally devoted to following the Christian life and leave it to you to decide what that last clause means. I contend that belief in science is unnecessary. Neither science nor I benefit from such belief, but I suppose such logic will not prevent some from doing so.

One may believe almost anything. I recall my daughter asking why she should believe in Jesus when we had lied to her about Santa Clause. Beliefs are often traded with great flippancy. Brief History of Philosophy:. If we look back at the great scientists who lived before about , many openly gave thanks to God for their discoveries. Science was carried out in religious establishments and many of the early universities were religious institutions. Artists and great thinkers of medieval times devoted themselves to religious thoughts.

I will only give a few highlights. It was Aquinas who first tried to understand the split between the universals and the particulars, between grace and nature. Art had glorified the Holy Family up to this time by depicting them symbolically in gold, larger than life.

This was the birth of the humanistic renaissance. Aquinas had drawn a line separating grace and nature, thus freeing nature from the Holy, and allowing man to consider it apart from the Creator. The thinker could suspend faith while reasoning about natural things.

Aquinas felt that the will of man had fallen in the garden, but not his intellect. Yet it also forms causal narratives for natural occurrences and postulates the existence of other minds. Thus the idea of hidden Gods explaining natural events was born. In addition to the biological basis for religious belief, there are environmental explanations.

It is self-evident from the fact that religions are predominant in certain geographical areas but not others, that birthplace strongly influences religious belief. There are also social factors effecting religious belief. For example, a significant body of scientific evidence suggests that popular religion results from social dysfunction. Religion may be a coping mechanism for the stress caused by the lack of a good social safety net—hence the vast disparity between religious belief in Western Europe and the United States.

There is also a strong correlation between religious belief and various measures of social dysfunction including homicides, the proportion of people incarcerated, infant mortality, sexually transmitted diseases, teenage births, abortions, corruption, income inequality and more. While no causal relationship has been established, a United Nations list of the 20 best countries to live in shows the least religious nations generally at the top.

Only in the United States, which was ranked as the 13th best country to live in, is religious belief strong relative to other countries. Moreover, virtually all the countries with comparatively little religious belief ranked high on the list of best countries, while the majority of countries with strong religious belief ranked low. Despite all this most people still accept some religious claims.

People believe many weird things that are completely irrational—astrology, fortunetelling, alien abductions, telekinesis and mind reading—and reject claims supported by an overwhelming body of evidence—biological evolution for example. More than three times as many Americans believe in the virgin birth of Jesus than in biological evolution, although few theologians take the former seriously, while no serious biologist rejects the latter!

With the wonders of science every day attesting to its truth, why do many prefer superstition and pseudo science? This best summarizes why people tend to believe. Why, then, do some highly educated people believe religious claims? First , smart persons are good at defending ideas that they originally believed for non-smart reasons.

They want to believe something, say for emotional reasons, and they then become adept at defending those beliefs. No rational person would say there is more evidence for creation science than biological evolution, but the former satisfies some psychological need for many that the latter does not. How else to explain the hubris of the philosopher or theologian who knows little of biology or physics yet denies the findings of those sciences?

It is arrogant of those with no scientific credentials and no experience in the field or laboratory, to reject the hard-earned knowledge of the science. Some Protestant traditions , for example, see rationality or scientific thinking as central to their religious lives. Meanwhile, a new generation of postmodern atheists highlight the limits of human knowledge, and see scientific knowledge as hugely limited, problematic even, especially when it comes to existential and ethical questions.

These atheists might, for example, follow thinkers like Charles Baudelaire in the view that true knowledge is only found in artistic expression. And while many atheists do like to think of themselves as pro science, science and technology itself can sometimes be the basis of religious thinking or beliefs, or something very much like it. For example, the rise of the transhumanist movement , which centres on the belief that humans can and should transcend their current natural state and limitations through the use of technology, is an example of how technological innovation is driving the emergence of new movements that have much in common with religiosity.

The science of the biological world, for example, is much more than a topic of intellectual curiosity — for some atheists, it provides meaning and comfort in much the same way that belief in God can for theists. Psychologists show that belief in science increases in the face of stress and existential anxiety , just as religious beliefs intensify for theists in these situations.

Clearly, the idea that being atheist is down to rationality alone is starting to look distinctly irrational. But the good news for all concerned is that rationality is overrated. Puzzle 2: What is an Identity? Philosophy and the Superhero. Trying to Let Go of the Past.

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