Science and religion: reflections on the list of believing scientists

The article is devoted to the actual problem of the relationship between science and religion. Over the past two or three centuries the authority of science, despite its involvement in the creation of weapons of mass destruction and other misfortunes, has increased, and the authority of religion and the church has fallen. Numerous scientific discoveries, mass education and the spread of the scientific worldview contributed to this. In these circumstances a weighty argument in favor of religion and the church is the testimony of scientists claiming their own religiosity and the availability of scientific evidence for the existence of God. The article examines one of the lists of believing scientists, many of whom are posted on the Internet, and it questions the religiosity of the scientists listed in it, as well as the possibility of interaction between science and religion in principle. The author divides scholars from the list into two groups - those to whom religion is attributed and those who declare their religion. In the first case the critique of the arguments is used that allow scientists to be included in the list of believers, their logical consistency is assessed. In the second a logical analysis and interpretation of the statements of the scientists themselves is provided. An important role in proving the main hypothesis of the research is played by the conceptual analysis and clarification of the basic concepts - religion, faith, believer, and atheist. The existence of such a phenomenon as atheistic agnosticism is separately substantiated. The author outlines a range of reasons why, from their point of view, a scientist can turn to religion, but emphasizes that in the vast majority of cases this belief is not religious in nature.