I guess this is one of the most impressive interviews of Richard Feynman, who is, without doubt, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. He argues that science is not meant to give answers to the metaphysical problems of human existence, but on the contrary, it's constructed on the inferences about nature itself, and how it works in an uncertain but a beautiful way. He talks in such an intimate, excited, and motivating, so to say, in a Feynmanian mood; which makes me smile while watching the joy of defending his ideas. To understand and think on each and every word of this defence in detail, I tried to transcript the video as much as I could. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Richard Feynman on God
If you expected science to give all the answers to the wonderful questions about what we are, where are we going, what is the meaning of the universe is and so on, then I think you could easily become disillusioned and look for some mystic answers to these problems. How a scientist can take a mystic answer, I don’t know because the whole spirit is to understand - well never mind that - I don’t understand that but anyhow - if you think of - the way I think of what we are doing is we’re exploring we’re trying to find as much as we can about the world. People say to me ‘Are you looking for the ultimate laws of Physics?’. No, I’m not. I’m just looking to find out more about the world, and if it turns outs there was a simple ultimate law that explains everything, so be it! That would be very nice discovery. If it turns out that it’s like an onion with millions of layers and we just get tired of looking at the layers then that’s the way it is! But whatever way it comes out, nature is there and she is gonna come out the way she is. Therefore, when we go on investigating we shouldn’t pre-decide what it is we’re trying to do, except to find out more about it. If you said - but the problem is why do you find out more about? If you thought that you were trying to find out more about it because you’re gonna get an answer to some deep philosophical question, you may be wrong and it may be that you can’t get an answer to that particular question by finding out more about the character of nature. My interest in science is to simply find out the world, and more I find out; better it is. I like to find out.
There are very remarkable mysteries about the fact that they were able to do so many more things that apparently animals can’t do, and other questions like that. But those are the mysteries I want to investigate without knowing the answer to them. So all together I can’t believe the special stories that have been made up about our relationship to the universe because they seem to be too simple, too connected, too local, too prudential! The earth, you came to the earth! One of the aspects of God came to the earth! And look what’s out there! It isn’t in proportion. Anyway it’s no use to argue so I can’t argue it. I’m just trying to tell you why the scientific views that I have do have some effect on my belief. Also another thing, has to do with the question of ‘how do you find out something is true?’. And if you have all these theories of the different religious of all different theories about the thing, then you begin to wonder. Once you start doubting, just like you supposed to doubt. You asked me if the science is true. You said ‘no no you don’t know whats true, you try to find out; and everything is possibly wrong.’ Start understanding religion by saying everything is possibly wrong. Let us see. As soon as you do that you start sliding down of an edge, which is hard to recover from. And so one - with the scientific view - or my fathers view, that we should look to see what’s true and what’s may be, may not be true - Once you start doubting which I think to me is a very fundamental part of my soul is to doubt and to ask. When you doubt and ask, it gets a little harder to believe.
You see, one thing is I can live with doubt, and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing then to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything; and the many things I don’t know anything about! Such as whether it means anything to ask why we’re here, and what the question might mean. I might think about a little bit and if I can’t figure it out then I go to something else. But I don’t have to know an answer. I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things. By being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is; as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn’t frighten me.
