God VS Popular Culture and Science

Popular Culture, Science & God fill a great part of our daily lives. Thought of compiling what a few personal idols of popular culture and science think of God's place in the scheme of things.

Diana Ross in her memoirs (Secrets of a Sparrow) wrote:
"I sing because I'm happy,
I sing because I'm free.
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches me."
This song talks about how God protects all his creatures, even his little ones. Further - "I am one with all of God's creatures: His dogs and cats, His sons and daughters. In the deepest part of my being, I know for certain that I am never alone."

Madonna often exploited religious imagery (1989s 'Like a Prayer' sold 18 million copies), talked of pre-marital pregnancy ('Papa don't preach') and even made fun of the nuns but when Lourdes Maria was born to her in 1996, she wanted none other than the Pope himself to baptize her. Change of heart or a yet another reinvention for the Chameleon? I think this is for real. After briefly flirting with Hinduism in 1998, she now practices the Kabbalah.

Newton (source: 'The Arrow of Time' - Stephen Hawking) incorporated God in his view of nature because of his strong religious convictions. He insisted that the solar system would require attention from God from time to time if it were not to suffer instability. For Newton, God was the creator and maintainer of the universe.

Einstein (source: 'Science, Philosophy and Religion, A Symposium, 1941) is credited with saying, 'To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot. But I am convinced that such behavior on the part of representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is to maintain itself not in clear light but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress. In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests.'

Charles Darwin (source:http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/philosophy/Charles_Darwin_quotes.html) From his autobiography: 'I had gradually come by this time (i.e. 1836 to 1839) to see the Old Testament, from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rain-bow as a sign etc, and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindus, or the beliefs of any barbarian....Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted for a single second that my conclusion was correct. I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother, and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.'

Well, as Jesus said, (Matthew 7:8) "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."