Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630), one of the greatest astronomers:
"God is great. Great is his power, infinite his wisdom. Praise him, heaven and earth, sun, moon, and stars in your own language. My Lord and my Creator! I would like to proclaim the magnificence of your works to men to the extent that my limited intelligence can understand."
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543), astronomer and the first in-depth proponent of heliocentrism:
"Who could live in close contact with the most consummate order and divine wisdom and not feel drawn to the loftiest aspirations? Who could not adore the architect of all these things?"
Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727), founder of classical theoretical physics:
"What we know is a drop, what we do not know is a vast ocean. The admirable arrangement and harmony of the
universe could only have come from the plan of an omniscient and omnipotent Being."
Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), founder of systematic botany:
"I have seen the eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipotent God pass close by, and I knelt prostrate in adoration."
Alessandro Volta (1745 – 1827), discovered the basic notions of electricity:
"I confess the holy, apostolic, and Roman Catholic faith. I thank God who has given me this faith, in which I have the firm intention to live and die."
Andre-Marie Ampere (1775 – 1836), discovered the fundamental laws of electricity:
"How great is God, and our science is just a trifle!"
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789 – 1857), a distinguished mathematician, founder of complex analysis:
"I am a Christian, that is, I believe in the divinity of Christ, like all the great astronomers and all the great mathematicians of the past."
Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), dubbed the "Prince of Mathematicians," because his insights contributed to many fields of mathematics and science:
"When our last hour sounds, we will have the great and ineffable joy of seeing the one whom we could only glimpse in all our work."
Justus von Liebig (1803 – 1873), a celebrated chemist:
"The greatness and infinite wisdom of the Creator will be recognized only by those who really endeavor to draw their ideas from the great book we call nature."
Robert Mayer (1814 – 1878), natural scientist (Law of the Conservation of Energy):
"I am ending my life with a conviction that comes from the depths of my heart: true science and true philosophy can not be anything but a[n introductory study] of the Christian religion."
Angelo Secchi (1803 – 1895), famous astronomer:
"From contemplating the heavens to God, there is only a short distance."
Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882), Theory of Evolution:
"I have never denied the existence of God. I think the theory of evolution is fully compatible with faith in God. I think the greatest argument for the existence of God is the impossibility of demonstrating and understanding that the immense universe, sublime above all measure, and man were the result of chance."
Thomas A. Edison (1847 – 1931), the prolific inventor who held 1200 patents:
"My utmost respect and admiration to all the engineers, especially the greatest of them all: God."
Carl Ludwig Schleich (1859 – 1922), famous surgeon, pioneer of local anesthesia:
"I became a believer in my own way through the microscope and observation of nature, and I want to contribute, insofar as I can, to the full harmony between science and religion."
Guglielmo Marconi (1874 – 1937), inventor of wireless telegraphy, Nobel Prize 1909:
"I declare it proudly: I am a believer. I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe not only as a Catholic, but also as a scientist."
Robert Millikan (1868 – 1953), great American physicist, Nobel Prize 1923:
"I can assert most definitely that the denial of faith lacks any scientific basis. In my view, there will never be a true contradiction between faith and science."
Arthur Eddingtong (1882 – 1946), English Astronomer Royal, mathematician and astrophysicist:
"None of the inventors of atheism was a naturalist. All of them were very mediocre philosophers."
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955), founder of modern physics (Theory of Relativity inter alia) and 1921 Nobel prize:
"Everyone who is seriously committed to the cultivation of science becomes convinced that in all the laws of the universe is manifest a spirit vastly superior to man, and to which we with our powers must feel humble."
Max Planck (1858 – 1947), founder of quantum physics, Nobel Prize 1918:
"Nothing prevents us, and the momentum of our knowledge requires it… to interrelate the order of the universe and the God of religion. For the believer, God stands at the beginning of their speeches; for the physicist, at the end of them."
Erwin Schrödinger (1887 – 1961), discoverer of wave mechanics, Nobel Prize 1933:
"The finest masterpiece is the one made by God, according to the principles of quantum mechanics…"
Howard H. Aiken (1900-1973), computer pioneer:
"Modern physics teaches me that nature is not capable of ordering itself. The universe presupposes a huge mass of order. It therefore requires a great "First Cause" that is not subject to the second law of transformation of energy and that is therefore Supernatural."
Wernher von Braun (1912 – 1977), German-American, foremost rocket engineer and space architect:
"Above everything is the glory of God, who created the great universe, which man and science discover and research day after day in profound adoration."
Charles Townes (1915), physicist who shared the 1964 Nobel Prize for discovering the principles of the laser:
"As a religious man, I feel the presence and intervention of a Creator beyond myself, but who is always nearby… intelligence had something to do with the creation of the laws of the universe."
Allan Sandage (1926-2010) American astronomer, calculated the rate at which the universe expands and its age by observing distant stars:
"I was practically an atheist in my childhood. Science was what led me to the conclusion that the world is much more complex than we can explain. I can only explain the mystery of existence to myself by the Supernatural."
A business card and a big surprise:
"A young college student was traveling in the same railway compartment as an elderly man who was praying his Rosary. The young man dared to confront him: "Instead of praying the Rosary, why don’t you take the time to learn and educate yourself a little more? I can send you an instructive book." The old man replied: "Please send me the book at this address, and he handed the young man his card. The card read: Luis Pasteur, Paris Institute of Science. The college student felt quite ashamed. He had planned to give advice to the most famous scholar of his time, the inventor of vaccines, esteemed worldwide and a devotee of the Rosary."
Javier Ordovas
Courtesy of Aleteia.org/es
And today we celebrate...