Atheism in Five Minutes - Teemu Taira
10. Have All Great Scientists Been Atheists?
Atheism in Five Minutes - Teemu Taira
Aku Visala [+]
University of Helsinki
Aku Visala (PhD, Philosophy of Religion) is a Research Fellow of the Finnish Academy at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has held postdoctoral positions at the universities of Oxford (UK), Princeton (USA), and Notre Dame (USA). His work is located at the crossroads of analytic philosophy, theology, and the cognitive sciences.
Description
Most great scientists have not been atheists. Many early modern great scientists, like Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) and Robert Boyle (1627-1691) were Christians. Up until the 20th century, most scientists have held standard or non-standard religious, mostly Christian, beliefs. In the last hundred years or so, the sciences have gone through a process of secularization, which has produced many great scientists, who are atheists. However, some great scientists are still religious.