Science and Everyday Life Cannot be Separated

You frequently state, and in your letter you imply, that I have developed a completely one-sided outlook and look at everything in terms of science. Obviously my method of thought and reasoning is influenced by a scientific training – if that were not so my scientific training will have been a waste and a failure. But you look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralizing invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence. But science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Science, for me, gives a partial explanation of life. In so far as it goes, it is based on fact, experience and experiment. Your theories are those which you and many other people find easiest and pleasantest to believe, but so far as I can see, they have no foundation other than they leaf to a pleasanter view of life (and an exaggerated idea of our own importance)...

I agree that faith is essential to success in life (success of any sort) but I do not accept your definition of faith, i.e. belief in life after death. In my view, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer to success and that success in our aims (the improvement of the lot of mankind, present and future) is worth attaining. Anyone able to believe in all that religion implies obviously must have such faith, but I maintain that faith in this world is perfectly possible without faith in another world…

It has just occurred to me that you may raise the question of the creator. A creator of what? ... I see no reason to believe that a creator of protoplasm or primeval matter, if such there be, has any reason to be interested in our significant race in a tiny corner of the universe, and still less in us, as still more significant individuals. Again, I see no reason why the belief that we are insignificant or fortuitous should lessen our faith – as I have defined it.

Notes:

A good passage from Rosalind Franklin covering science and spirituality.

Folksonomies: science atheism spirituality

Taxonomies:
/science (0.658530)
/religion and spirituality (0.389517)
/art and entertainment/comics and animation/anime and manga (0.268088)

Keywords:
completely one-sided outlook (0.995610 (positive:0.414023)), everyday life (0.927650 (negative:-0.009489)), scientific training (0.883689 (negative:-0.780861)), science (0.784211 (positive:0.058997)), faith (0.646245 (positive:0.171669)), Rosalind Franklin (0.644645 (positive:0.208565)), good passage (0.636572 (positive:0.208565)), everyday existence (0.601721 (neutral:0.000000)), exaggerated idea (0.591802 (negative:-0.629381)), partial explanation (0.586023 (neutral:0.000000)), primeval matter (0.579764 (neutral:0.000000)), real life (0.568405 (neutral:0.000000)), tiny corner (0.558858 (positive:0.415907)), pleasanter view (0.555208 (negative:-0.279325)), significant race (0.550750 (positive:0.415907)), significant individuals (0.548871 (neutral:0.000000)), success (0.471215 (positive:0.602069)), belief (0.450210 (positive:0.255632)), reason (0.429730 (negative:-0.213833)), creator (0.418630 (positive:0.219574)), sort (0.385546 (negative:-0.306751)), protoplasm (0.299836 (neutral:0.000000)), letter (0.282792 (neutral:0.000000)), terms (0.282430 (positive:0.414023)), invention (0.280654 (negative:-0.554203)), reasoning (0.279983 (negative:-0.780861)), spirituality (0.278342 (positive:0.208565)), mankind (0.277874 (positive:0.661400)), method (0.277696 (negative:-0.780861)), fact (0.277615 (neutral:0.000000))

Entities:
Rosalind Franklin:Person (0.907040 (positive:0.208565))

Concepts:
Religion (0.953776): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Faith (0.923255): dbpedia | freebase
Scientific method (0.896510): dbpedia | freebase
Science (0.759983): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Epistemology (0.728918): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Theory (0.720945): dbpedia | freebase
Truth (0.704018): dbpedia | freebase
Belief (0.687801): dbpedia | freebase

 Cambridge Women: Twelve Portraits
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Shils , Edward and Blacker , Carmen (1996-02-22), Cambridge Women: Twelve Portraits, Cambridge Univ Pr, Retrieved on 2012-05-17
  • Source Material [books.google.com]
  • Folksonomies: social science