Five Quotes By Steven Weinberg on Religion

Steven Weinberg (1933–2021) was an American physicist who won the physics Nobel Prize in 1979 for his contribution to the unification of electromagnetism and weak force. This is similar to Maxwell unifying electricity and magnetism in the 19th century.

Weinberg was not only famous as a scientist but also for his writings and talks outside of science. He did important work in philosophy, politics and history. Weinberg gave the following four tips to students to succeed in the sciences:

1. You don't have to know everything
2. Specialize in a developing field
3. Don't be afraid to be wrong
4. Read more of science history

It is well known that Weinberg was an outspoken atheist and against organized religion. He once said: (1) With or without religion, 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.

In another interview, when asked whether he believed in God, Weinberg replied assertively: (2) If by God you mean a personality who is concerned about human beings, who did all this out of love for human beings, who watches us and who intervenes, then I would have to say in the first place how do you know, what makes you think so?

According to Weinberg: (3) One of the great achievements of science has been, if not to make it impossible for intelligent people to be religious, then at least to make it possible for them not to be religious. We should not retreat from this accomplishment.

German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, an agnostic by belief, had once said: The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. Meaning, one can study the universe and by doing so hope to understand its mysterious workings without having to rely on the supernatural.

Weinberg added to this adage, in one of his books, as he wrote: (4) The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless. Weinberg meant, whatever the universe is about, it sure as heck isn’t about us, as claimed by religion.

Steven Weinberg had also warned that the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief. He said: (5) 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.

Weinberg enjoyed an illustrious career from Cornell to Princeton and from Berkeley and Harvard to MIT where he thought of the Nobel worthy idea to unify fundamental forces of nature. He never retired and continued teaching physics and astronomy until his death