“The parts of science that rule out theism are firmly fixed. Finally, it's not just probable that God doesn't exist. For scientism, it's as close to a sure thing as science can get.”

“Science doesn't make it impossible to believe in God, it just makes it possible not to believe in God”

Steven Weinberg (1933) American theoretical physicist

“Just because science can't in practice explain things like the love that motivates a poet to write a sonnet, that doesn't mean that religion can. It's a simple and logical fallacy to say, ' If science can't do something, therefore religion can.”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

“Science knows it doesn't know everything; otherwise, it'd stop. But just because science doesn't know everything doesn't mean you can fill in the gaps with whatever fairy tale most appeals to you.”

Dara Ó Briain (1972) Irish comedian and television presenter

“It seems to me that if somebody intends to marry and wants to find out 'scientifically' if his choice will probably be successful, then he can be helped, perhaps, by psychology, physiology, eugenics, or sociology, but surely by a science which centres around the word 'probable.”

Richard von Mises (1883–1953) Austrian physicist and mathematician

“Science tells us that the earth is getting warmer and we are probably doing it. Science tells us that this is bad. Therefore, we want science.”

Marc Randazza (1969) American writer

“You'll often hear the phrase "science doesn't know everything." Well, of course it doesn't know everything. But just because science doesn't know everything doesn't mean that it knows nothing.”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist

“If contemporary literary fiction doesn't read a bit like science fiction then it's probably not all that contemporary, is it”

Warren Ellis (1968) English comics and fiction writer

“It is probably not an accident that modern science grew explosively in Christian Europe and left the rest of the world behind. A thousand years of theological disputes nurtured the habit of analytical thinking that could also be applied to the analysis of natural phenomena. On the other hand, the close historical relations between theology and science have caused conflicts between science and Christianity that does not exist between science and other religions.”

Freeman Dyson (1923) theoretical physicist and mathematician

“Newton and Descartes started to try and prove that God existed in the same way as they would try and prove something in the laboratory or with their mathematics … And when you try and mix science and religion you get bad science and bad religion. The two are doing two different things. … Science can give you a diagnosis of cancer. It can even cure your disease, but it cannot touch your grief and disappointment, nor can it help you to die well.”

Karen Armstrong (1944) author and comparative religion scholar from Great Britain