Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the nonexistence of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now.
Interpretation
Science challenges religious beliefs by simply disregarding them as well as by disproving them.
Arthur C. Clarke's quote suggests that the influence of science can diminish religious adherence by either ignoring religious claims or by providing evidence that contradicts them. He points out that while certain mythological deities like Zeus or Thor have not been proven to be nonexistent, their lack of followers today reflects the power of science to shift belief systems, leading people to abandon outdated religious notions.
In practice
In a debate about science and religion, one might quote Arthur C. Clarke to illustrate the shifting nature of belief.
Nowhere in space will we rest our eyes upon the familiar shapes of trees and plants, or any of the animals that share our world. Whatsoever life we meet will be as strange and alien as the nightmare creatures of the ocean abyss, or of the insect empire whose horrors are normally hidden from us by their microscopic scale.
As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.
My favorite definition of an intellectual: 'Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence'.
According to 'M' theory, ours is not the only universe. Instead, 'M' theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing.
I thought to myself: What are the most important problems that society faces that I could contribute to? And it was clear that finding new sustainable sources of energy was the most important.
Weapons of mass destruction violate more than individual lives - they cross international borders and jeopardize all people. They also drain resources that could be used instead for medicines, schools and other life-saving supplies. We must come together with even greater determination to prevent a WMD nightmare.
If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
Nuclear power plants must be prepared to withstand everything from earthquakes to tsunamis, from fires to floods to acts of terrorism.
Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.
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