The scientist who recognizes God knows only the God of Newton. To him the God imagined by Laplace and Comte is wholly inadequate. He feels that God is in nature, that the orderly ways in which nature works are themselves the manifestations of God's will and purpose. Its laws are his orderly way of working.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the belief that the natural laws of the universe are a reflection of God's will, contrasting differing views of God held by scientists.
Arthur Compton's quote highlights the relationship between science and religion, suggesting that true understanding of God can only be realized through the laws of nature. Compton argues that the orderly mechanisms of the natural world reveal God's intentions and that simplistic or purely philosophical interpretations of God, like those offered by Laplace and Comte, do not suffice in capturing the divine essence embedded in the cosmos.
In practice
This quote can be used in a scientific discussion about the intersection of faith and the natural laws.
Those whose thinking is disciplined by science, like all others, need a basis for the good life, for aspiration, for courage to do great deeds. They need a faith to live by. The hope of the world lies in those who have such faith and who use the methods of science to make their visions become real. Such visions and hope and faith are not a part of science.
Yet is it possible in terms of the motion of atoms to explain how men can invent an electric motor, or design and build a great cathedral? If such achievements represent anything more than the requirements of physical law, it means that science must investigate the additional controlling factors, whatever they may be, in order that the world of nature may be adequately understood.
There is no great invention, from fire to flying, which has not been hailed as an insult to some god.
Even if there were no actual evidence in favor of the Darwinian theory, we should still be justified in preferring it over all rival theories.
In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting.
I thought scientists were going to find out exactly how everything worked, and then make it work better. I fully expected that by the time I was twenty-one, some scientist, maybe my brother, would have taken a color photograph of God Almighty—and sold it to Popular Mechanics magazine. Scientific truth was going to make us so happy and comfortable. What actually happened when I was twenty-one was that we dropped scientific truth on Hiroshima.
In order to figure out how to make atoms compute, you have to learn how to speak their language and to understand how they process information under normal circumstances.
Unless a price can be put on carbon emissions that is high enough to force power companies and manufacturers to reduce their fossil-fuel use, there seems to be little chance of avoiding hugely damaging temperature increases
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