Hi designtheorist,
I've not had time to read your entire post (I have to be off to work in a moment), but I do notice that this claim appears false.
These scientists did not all join some organized religion, but their views about the possible existence of God and the nature of the universe changed because of the big bang. Here are a few high profile examples:
Arthur Eddington, one-time atheist, became agnostic.
Where do you get that idea from? It sounds unlikely to me since Eddington was a Quaker, raised by Quaker parents. Sources that I can find refer to him as "a lifelong Quaker". Certainly he was an objector to World War One, because of his Quaker principles and that was well before the Big Bang existed as an idea.
-Added by Edit- I also think that your information about Sandage is wrong. Sandage did not convert to Christianity
because of the Big Bang. He did convert, that's true, but only late in life, whereas he had been working on the Big bang all his professional life. Further, Sandage was very much of the opinion that science and religion were complementary but separate. I think it unlikely that he would have agreed with your position in this thread. He doubtless thought that the Big Bang was compatible with Christianity, but I doubt very much that he would have considered it to actually support Christianity. Here are some more quotes from Sandage;
quote:
In the case of scientific cosmology, the most one could say is that astronomers may have found the first effect, but not necessarily thereby the first cause sought by Anselm and Aquinas
quote:
Knowledge of the creation is not knowledge of the creator,
quote:
The answer to the question, "why", which I suppose down deep I was searching for in science, I realized itself had no answer in science. I forced myself to the statement that you’re asking the wrong questions or demanding too much for a proof. Why don’t you just begin to believe and see what happens?
William A Durbin writes of Sandage's conversion;
quote:
Again, this step was not necessitated by any implications of big bang cosmology or, more broadly, by the experience of beauty and truth in science.
You can read Durbin's whole article
Negotiating the Boundaries of Science and Religion II: The Conversion of Allan Sandage. It goes into Sandage's beliefs about religion and science and his conversion at some length.
I am also uncertain about your characterisation of Paul Davies as an agnostic, although in this case I think you've underestimated his religiosity. He comes across more as a theist to me, if not a very specific sort of theist. Adherents.com has him down as a deist.
Even if true, I fail to see how this matters. I don't care how many religiose scientists you can name. It's just an argument from authority.
Mutate and Survive
Edited by Granny Magda, : No reason given.
Edited by Granny Magda, : No reason given.
Edited by Granny Magda, : No reason given.
On two occasions I have been asked, — "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" ... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. - Charles Babbage