PZ Myers. The Skeptics Guide to the Universe | Your escape to reality. Myths and Misconceptions Blog. James Randi. Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. Richard Wiseman. Religion vs. Humanism: Isaac Asimov on Science and Spirituality. By Maria Popova “The soft bonds of love are indifferent to life and death.” Science and religion have a long history of friction as diametric opposites. But some of humanity’s greatest minds have found in science itself a rich source of spirituality, from Albert Einstein’s meditation on whether scientists pray to Richard Feynman’s ode to the universe to Carl Sagan on the reverence of science to Bucky Fuller’s scientific rendition of The Lord’s Prayer to Richard Dawkins on the magic of reality .
Here comes a wonderful addition from the mind of beloved science fiction author Isaac Asimov , found in the altogether indispensable It’s Been a Good Life ( public library ) — a revealing selection of Asimov’s letters, diary entries, and his three prior autobiographies, In Memory Yet Green (1979), In Joy Still Felt (1980), and the posthumously published I. Asimov succinctly recapitulates his philosophy: I have never, not for one moment, been tempted toward religion of any kind. Donating = Loving. Isaac Asimov on the Thrill of Lifelong Learning, Science vs. Religion, and the Role of Science Fiction in Advancing Society. By Maria Popova “It’s insulting to imply that only a system of rewards and punishments can keep you a decent human being.” Isaac Asimov was an extraordinary mind and spirit — the author of more than 400 science and science fiction books and a tireless advocate of space exploration, he also took great joy in the humanities (and once annotated Lord Byron’s epic poem “Don Juan”), championed humanism over religion, and celebrated the human spirit itself (he even wrote young Carl Sagan fan mail).
Like many of the best science fiction writers, he was as exceptional at predicting the future as he was at illuminating some of the most timeless predicaments of the human condition. In a 1988 interview with Bill Moyers, found in Bill Moyers: A World of Ideas (public library) — the same remarkable tome that gave us philosopher Martha Nussbaum on how to live with our human fragility — Asimov explores several subjects that still stir enormous cultural concern and friction.
Painting by Rowena Morrill.