Science and faith: Friendly allies, not hostile enemies

Abstract

Contemporary science is a wonderfully collaborative activity. It knows no barriers of geography, race, or creed. At its best, it enables us to wrestle with the problems that beset humanity, and we rightly celebrate when an advance is made that brings relief to millions.
I have spent my life as a pure mathematician, and I often reflect on what physics Nobel Prize–winner Eugene Wigner called “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.” How is it that equations created in the head of a mathematician can relate to the universe outside that head? This question prompted Albert Einstein to say, “The only incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.” The very fact that we believe that science can be done is a thing to be wondered at.