I Stand Writing

As I first started reading into this essay, I got the sense that I had read up on this topic before and as it turns out I was right. Last quarter in my Philosophy of Environmental ethics class this essay had been assigned while we were discussing the different kinds of Ethics between Christians and Non Christians. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it then and it was a nice refresher having touched on it again here. The following is a summary of the main points and ideas of Feynman’s The Relationship of Science and Religion.

I like the way that Feynman starts the essay by using a young man whose eyes have just been opened to the broad world of scientific thinking as an example. My father also pushed his god on me and as I grew into a young man myself, I also began to question my father’s god. Feynman states that doubt is a requirement in a scientist’s ideals and that all things must be put into at least some form of scrutiny. The important thing then is not truth, but what we know and how certainly we know it. In most cases nothing is completely certain and when you acknowledge that you are then ready to take on an attitude of uncertainty in your every day life. The question is then changed from “does God exist?” to “how certain am I that God exists?” After this shift in thinking takes place in the scientifically educated, Feynman disbelieves that a scientist is capable of having the certainty of religious belief in God.

The next point in this article is to try and understand why science causes God and religion to be unbelievable and what facts seem to disprove him. Feynman starts by using the massive universe as an example. Our planet and even our galaxy is a miniscule part of the whole universe and within this thinking one must also acknowledge that man is then practically nothing compared with the vast universe. Taking that idea even further and pondering what is really out there will leave anyone bewildered and humored as well, but then is it unreasonable...