Anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion, should be done and may, in fact, in the end, be our greatest contribution to civilization.
Interpretation
We should use science to challenge religious beliefs, as it may greatly benefit civilization.
Steven Weinberg's quote suggests that scientists have a responsibility to undermine religious doctrines that hinder progress and understanding. He believes that promoting scientific inquiry over faith could ultimately lead to significant advancements in civilization, emphasizing the importance of rational thought and empirical evidence in shaping human society.
In practice
In a debate about the impact of science on society, this quote could support the argument for prioritizing scientific education over religious influence.
It was one time when people thought the value of the fine structure constant was important. Now of course it's still important, of course, as a practical matter,but we now know that the value it has is a function, that in any fundamental theory you derive the fine structure constant as a function of all sorts of mass ratios and so on and it's not really that fundamental.
Americans swept away the instruments of English hereditary inequality - entails and titles of nobility - even before we had a constitution.
It's very difficult to convince other countries that they shouldn't pursue nuclear weapons programs if we ourselves are actively developing a component of a strategic defense system.
[Science] is corrosive of religious belief, and it's a good thing too.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
I'm offended by the kind of smarmy religiosity that's all around us, perhaps more in America than in Europe, and not really that harmful because it's not really that intense or even that serious, but just... you know after a while you get tired of hearing clergymen giving the invocation at various public celebrations and you feel, haven't we outgrown all this? Do we have to listen to this?
If it is not totalitarian to arrest a man and detain him, when you cannot charge him with any offence against any written law β if that is not what we have always cried out against in Fascist states β then what is it?β¦ If we are to survive as a free democracy, then we must be prepared, in principle, to concede to our enemies β even those who do not subscribe to our views β as much constitutional rights as you concede yourself.
For, dear me, why abandon a belief, Merely because it ceases to be true, Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt, It will turn true again, for so it goes.
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they're just one thing, and we shouldn't complicate the matter.
There is no God, cry the masses more and more vociferously; and with the loss of God man loses his sense of values β is, as it were, massacred because he feels himself of no account.
For Zen students, a weed is a treasure.
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