Science Makes Scientists Virtuous

Part of the strength of science is that it has tended to attract individuals who love knowledge and the creation of it. Just as important to the integrity of science have been the unwritten rules of the game. These provide recognition and approbation for work which is imaginative and accurate, and apathy or criticism for the trivial or inaccurate .... Thus, it is the communication process which is at the core of the vitality and integrity of science .... The system of rewards and punishments ...

 Carl Sagan on the Belief in God

I think it's impossible to be a scientist and to confront, even occassionally, the grandure, subtlety, elegance and magnificience of the universe without feeling a sense of reverence and awe, but that's very different from concluding that there's a god who issues punishments and rewards after your dead or that prayer works or that the bible is written by anybody but fallible human beings. [...] The word god is used to cover so many different points of view... First of all, you can be religi...