24 Quotes by George Coyne

Being a scientist helps to support both my life as a Jesuit and my belief in God.

Nothing we learn about the universe threatens our faith. It only enriches it.

If I have a fundamental belief that the universe is created by God, then I also come to the belief that that universe reflects God, it gives me some knowledge of Him. Obviously, therefore, the more I know of the universe is, the more enriched my limited knowledge of God is.

Neither of us can come to either a knowledge of God, or a denial of God by our scientific research.

I think that anybody who thinks science is going to explain everything in biological systems, or in physical cosmology, et cetera, is actually mistaken, because I think within science – if correctly understood – those claims are not being made.

My answer to someone who is in contrast with me – by not seeing God in the scientific data – is that you don’t see God in the scientific data because you’re not me. I have other experiences than you have, that bring me to look at this data as enriching my experience of God.

I hope I’m not giving the impression of an ivory tower science, but for me science is an attempt to understand, it’s an attempt to understand the universe.

The Copernican revolution was actually a contribution to the life of the church, the development of our view of ourselves in terms of the Universe, and therefore our view of God, et cetera. But, that took centuries, and struggles, and conflicts before that happened.

The nature of God is something that is of serious interest to believers, to theologians, and to philosophers. And yet we can’t come to the nature of God, unless we also have some knowledge of the nature of the universe as having come from God.