Science and religion, separate pursuits

The letter by Keith Schofield in the August 2012 issue of Physics Today (page 12 ) is a restatement of an old logical fallacy known as the “god of the gaps” argument. The Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides wrote, ¹

There is a group of human beings who consider it a grievous thing that causes should be given for any law; what would please them most is that the intellect would not find a meaning for the commandments and prohibitions. What compels them to feel thus is a sickness… . For they think that if … there is a thing for which the intellect could not find any meaning at all … it indubitably derives from God.

For many years I taught a physics course titled From Particles to Galaxies. In it, I dealt with the structure and origin of the universe. Students often brought up the issue of God. I finally wrote a book ² based on the course. My main point in that text is that science and religion are totally independent intellectual subjects. It is important, as Maimonides put it, to be a scientist and to find scientific reasons for everything in the world. None of that negates the existence of God.

To believe in God does not necessarily mean a belief that every word in a holy book is true. Religion shows us how to live a moral life. The choice of what we do with our lives is ours.