on God

There is no conflict with religion in my work. I don't start from the premise that the world exists for our benefit. If you start from that premise, then it's very difficult to come to terms with the world. I don't see the existence of a big chap with a beard, but you can see the universe has order, although I don't go along with the view that this implies some father of the family who is ordering it. The feature of there being a structure is perfectly clear. It is a very subtle structure, to me that is all there is. But I would be religious in the sense that I don't believe the solution to the problems is to be found in a chaotic approach. When we have a scientific problem, if it is a sophisticated problem, the answer will have a very high intellectual quality about it. In that sense it is religious.

Compiled by G. Kinder & Marilyn Edmonds