Science and Faith

October 25, 1945: The Oval Office

J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb, meets with Harry S. Truman, President of the United States:

...At one point in their conversation, Truman suddenly asked [Oppenheimer] to guess when the Russians would develop their own atomic bomb. When Oppie replied that he did not know, Truman confidently said he knew the answer: "Never."

from American Prometheus by Bird and Sherwin

Needless to say, (or is it needless?) events proved Truman completely wrong. It was obvious to anyone who thought about it for a minute that it was only a matter of time, and probably not much time.

And while we're at it, Bertrand Russell is always good:

Belief in a Divine Mission is one of the many forms of certainty that have afflicted the human race. - Skeptical Essays

The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately. - Unpopular Essays

The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmatic. - An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. - Unpopular Essays