"Sir,
( ( a + bn ) / n ) = x,
Therefore God exists;
reply!"
Puzzled? But this was said by famous mathematician Euler, to defeat a French encyclopedist Denis Diderot who was supporting atheism, in the Court of a Russian Empress. Diderot , to whom algebra was Hebrew, ran away! (Original lines are: "Monsieur, ( ( a + bn ) / n = x, donc Dieu existe; répondez!")
Following are some of the quotes about God, religion, etc. It should be remembered that most of the people who said them lived in a different social, religious, political systems with different ideology, belief systems and limited scientific knowledge than as on today. It is also possible that the people who made these quotes changed their opinions later on. It is to be remembered that some of the quotes made to support atheism may actually support belief in God and vice versa. Some of these quotes might mean different when taken with their original context. As a rationalist does not change his opinions just because some of the great people did not agree with them, these quotes are not to convince theists or atheists. These are just few of the brilliant thought provoking lines.
When St. Augustine was asked: "What did God do before he created the universe?", he didn't reply: "He was preparing Hell for people who asked such questions!". Instead, he said that, "Time was a property of the universe that God created, and that time did not exist before the beginning of the universe."
About
the Principle of Uncertainty, Nobel laureate Physicist Albert Einstein once
said, "God does not play dice with the world." I think he wanted to
believe that God had certain objectives when he set this world to run with
certain initial position and laws. The Principle of Uncertainty limits ability
to predict outcome of a system of interacting factors. If one can't fully
predict what chain of events is being set in motion by one's actions, one can't
exactly execute own intentions. So if the Principle of Uncertainty is universal
(i.e. even applicable to God), then God has let some randomness to enter his
world over which he does not have any control. So Einstein didn't want to
believe in the Principle of Uncertainty.
In his book 'Celestial Mechanics', French astronomer and mathematician Pierre
Simon, Marquis de Laplace describes the world as a mathematical description of
the solar system, which suggested that the system was invariably stable and
could be self-sustaining. When French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte asked him about
God's position into this mathematical system, Laplace is said to have replied,
"Sire, I have done without that hypothesis." (Some say that this quote
is misinterpretation of a line from Laplace's 'System of the World', in which
Laplace actually refers to some hypothesis proposed by Isaac Newton and Laplace
wanted to discard this hypothesis and not God. I don't have access to this
book.)
A Western traveler encountering an Oriental philosopher asked him to describe the nature of the world:
"It is a great ball resting on the flat back of the world turtle."
"Ah yes, but what does the world turtle stand on?"
"On the back of a still larger turtle."
"Yes, but what does he stand on?"
"A very perceptive question. But it's no use, mister; it's turtles all the way down."
Please draw my attention to any discrepancies in these quotes.