FREEMAN DYSON, Discover Magazine, June 2008
I do not feel like an alien in the universe. The more I examine the universe and study the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known that we were coming.
FREEMAN DYSON, Disturbing the Universe
When all is said and done, science is about things and theology is about words. Things behave in the same way everywhere, but words do not.
FREEMAN DYSON, The Scientist as Rebel
Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect.
FREEMAN DYSON, "Progress in Religion"
If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation.
FREEMAN DYSON, Disturbing the Universe
It is a curious accident of history that the Christian religion became heavily involved with theology. No other religion finds it necessary to formulate elaborately precise statements about the abstract qualities and relationships of gods and humans.... The idea that God may be approached and understood through intellectual analysis is uniquely Christian.... It is probably not an accident that modern science grew explosively in Christian Europe and left the rest of the world behind. A thousand years of theological disputes nurtured the habit of analytical thinking that could also be applied to the analysis of natural phenomena. On the other hand, the close historical relations between theology and science have caused conflicts between science and Christianity that does not exist between science and other religions.
FREEMAN DYSON, The Scientist as Rebel
