Стивен Вайнберг цитаты

„Вероятно, я кажусь белой вороной среди современных ученых, когда проявляю интерес к подобным вещам. В тех редких случаях, когда за обедом или за чаем заходит разговор о религии, самая сильная реакция, которую выражает большинство моих коллег-физиков, увидев, что кто-то все еще способен серьезно обсуждать эти проблемы, – это тихое удивление и улыбка. Многие физики сохраняют номинальное уважение к вере своих родителей, как к форме этнической идентификации, а также как к обряду, полезному при свадьбах и похоронах, но мало кто из них уделяет внимание теологическим проблемам. Я знаком с двумя специалистами по общей теории относительности, являющимися набожными католиками, несколькими физиками-теоретиками, благоговейно относящимися к иудаизму, одним православным экспериментатором, одним теоретиком – убежденным приверженцем ислама и математиком, получающим указания свыше в англиканской церкви. Нет сомнения, что есть и много других глубоко религиозных физиков, с которыми я незнаком, или которые скрывают свои религиозные убеждения. Но, насколько я могу судить по собственным впечатлениям, большинство физиков сегодня интересуются религией недостаточно даже для того, чтобы их можно было считать действующими атеистами.“

—  Стивен Вайнберг

„Чем больше мы уточняем наши представления о Боге, чтобы сделать это понятие приемлемым, тем больше оно кажется бессмысленным.“

—  Стивен Вайнберг

„Для тех, кто не видит никакого конфликта между религией и наукой, религия практически полностью отступила с территории, занятой наукой.“

—  Стивен Вайнберг

„Воспоминания о Холокосте отталкивают меня от попыток оправдать отношение Бога к Человеку. Если существует Бог, имеющий по отношению к человеку особые планы, то Он очень сильно постарался запрятать свою заботу о нас как можно дальше. Мне кажется невежливым, если не сказать неучтивым, возносить такому Богу свои молитвы“

—  Стивен Вайнберг

«Мечты об окончательной теории»

„Единственный путь, по которому может идти любая наука, это предположить, что не было никакого Божественного вторжения, и посмотреть, насколько далеко удастся при этом продвинуться.“

—  Стивен Вайнберг

„Попытка понять Вселенную — одна из очень немногих вещей, которые чуть приподнимают человеческую жизнь над уровнем фарса и придают ей оттенок высокой трагедии.“

—  Стивен Вайнберг

„Некоторые используют слово «бог» настолько широко и щедро, что неизбежно находят бога везде, куда бы ни взглянули. Нередко слышишь фразы: «Бог — совокупность всего», «Бог — лучшая часть человеческой природы», «Бог — это Вселенная.»“

—  Стивен Вайнберг

Безусловно, слову «бог», как и всякому другому, можно придать любое желаемое значение. Если вам угодно провозгласить, что бог — это энергия, вы найдёте бога и в куске угля.
«Мечты об окончательной теории»
Источник: Ричард Докинз, «Бог как иллюзия» (2006) // пер. с англ. Н. Смелковой. — М: КоЛибри (Иностранка), 2008. — гл. 1.

„With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.“

—  Steven Weinberg

„Now I realise that many people don't believe in that any more who call themselves Muslims or Jews or Christians, but that is the traditional God and he's a terrible character. I don't like him.“

—  Steven Weinberg

The Atheism Tapes (2004)
Контексте: Maybe at the very bottom of it... I really don't like God. You know, it's silly to say I don't like God because I don't believe in God, but in the same sense that I don't like Iago, or the Reverend Slope or any of the other villains of literature, the god of traditional Judaism and Christianity and Islam seems to me a terrible character. He's a god who will... who obsessed the degree to which people worship him and anxious to punish with the most awful torments those who don't worship him in the right way. Now I realise that many people don't believe in that any more who call themselves Muslims or Jews or Christians, but that is the traditional God and he's a terrible character. I don't like him.

„I think the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief; and anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done, and may in fact be our greatest contribution to civilization.“

—  Steven Weinberg

Closing statements of presentation at Beyond Belief : Science, Religion, Reason and Survival (5 November 2006)
Контексте: There are those whose views about religion are not very different from my own, but who nevertheless feel that we should try to damp down the conflict, that we should compromise it. … I respect their views and I understand their motives, and I don't condemn them, but I'm not having it. To me, the conflict between science and religion is more important than these issues of science education or even environmentalism. I think the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief; and anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done, and may in fact be our greatest contribution to civilization.

„Maybe at the very bottom of it… I really don't like God.“

—  Steven Weinberg

The Atheism Tapes (2004)
Контексте: Maybe at the very bottom of it... I really don't like God. You know, it's silly to say I don't like God because I don't believe in God, but in the same sense that I don't like Iago, or the Reverend Slope or any of the other villains of literature, the god of traditional Judaism and Christianity and Islam seems to me a terrible character. He's a god who will... who obsessed the degree to which people worship him and anxious to punish with the most awful torments those who don't worship him in the right way. Now I realise that many people don't believe in that any more who call themselves Muslims or Jews or Christians, but that is the traditional God and he's a terrible character. I don't like him.

„There is one constant that seems to be fine tuned…and that is dark energy.“

—  Steven Weinberg

The Atheism Tapes (2004)
Контексте: There is one constant that seems to be fine tuned... and that is dark energy.

„Putting God ahead of humanity is a terrible thing.“

—  Steven Weinberg

The Atheism Tapes (2004)
Контексте: Many people do simply awful things out of sincere religious belief, not using religion as a cover the way that Saddam Hussein may have done, but really because they believe that this is what God wants them to do, going all the way back to Abraham being willing to sacrifice Isaac because God told him to do that. Putting God ahead of humanity is a terrible thing.

„It is corrosive of religious belief, and it's a good thing too.“

—  Steven Weinberg

The Atheism Tapes (2004)
Контексте: I have a friend — or had a friend, now dead — Abdus Salam, a very devout Muslim, who was trying to bring science into the universities in the Gulf states and he told me that he had a terrible time because, although they were very receptive to technology, they felt that science would be a corrosive to religious belief, and they were worried about it... and damn it, I think they were right. It is corrosive of religious belief, and it's a good thing too.

„Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.“

—  Steven Weinberg

Address at the Conference on Cosmic Design, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C. (April 1999)
This comment is modified in a later article derived from these talks:
:Frederick Douglass told in his Narrative how his condition as a slave became worse when his master underwent a religious conversion that allowed him to justify slavery as the punishment of the children of Ham. Mark Twain described his mother as a genuinely good person, whose soft heart pitied even Satan, but who had no doubt about the legitimacy of slavery, because in years of living in antebellum Missouri she had never heard any sermon opposing slavery, but only countless sermons preaching that slavery was God's will. With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.
:* "A Designer Universe?" at PhysLink.com http://www.physlink.com/Education/essay_weinberg.cfm

„All logical arguments can be defeated by the simple refusal to reason logically“

—  Steven Weinberg

Источник: Dreams of a Final Theory

„The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things which lifts human life a little above the level of farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.“

—  Steven Weinberg

(1993), Epilogue, p. 155
The First Three Minutes (1977; second edition 1993)

„The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.“

—  Steven Weinberg

Dreams of a Final Theory: The Search for the Fundamental Laws of Nature (1993), ISBN 0-09-922391-0.

„Science doesn't make it impossible to believe in God, it just makes it possible not to believe in God“

—  Steven Weinberg