I confess that as much as I disapprove calling unbelievers in the existence of God ‘foolish’, I wholeheartedly disapprove those who, like John Guillaumier, call “foolish believers those who believe in a supernatural being for which there is no evidence whatsoever”.
Lately, I have been reading Canon John Ciarlò’s recent publication Il-Ħolqien u l-Ħallieq, Ix-xjenza u l-fidi (Creation and the Creator; science and faith) in which he writes about what different modern believing scientists, philosophers, historians, cosmologists and others said or wrote about their strong belief in the existence of God.
Foremost among these, the author writes about the U-turn of English professor Anthony Flew, considered as the most influential atheistic philosopher of the 20th century who ended up writing the book There is a God. How the world’s most notorious author changed his mind.
American physicist and genetist Francis Collins publicly describes himself as a believing scientist in his recent work The language of God: a scientist presents evidence for belief.
German Wernher von Braun, the leading figure in the development of rocket technology and space science as well as the father of space flight, asks: “What strange rationale make some physicists accept the inconceivable electrons as real while refusing to accept the reality of a Designer on the ground that they cannot conceive him?”
Antonino Zichichi, the famous Italian physicist and president of the World Federation of Scientists, writes in his essay entitled ‘That’s why I believe in Him that made the world’: “The achievements of science do not obscure the divine laws, but reinforce, helping to awaken the wonder and admiration for the wonderful spectacle of the cosmos, that goes from the heart of a proton to the edge of the universe.
“Neither science nor logic conclude that God does not exist. No atheist can then hope to be more logical and scientific person who believes. Those who choose atheism is therefore an act of faith: into thin air. Believing in God is more logical and scientific than believing in nothing”.
Does the correspondent consider these known figures “foolish believers” too?