Hay dispatch: The meaning of life

If one scientist were to sit at a table full of philosophers it might seem at first that the scientist had the upper hand purely by virtue of their self confidence. The philosophers’ humility might be no match for the all encompassing certainty of science.

Peter Atkins, Professor of Chemistry and author of A Scientist’s Exploration of the Great Questions of Existence, stood up before an audience of several hundred and proudly declared that science would eventually answer every question relating to the physical world, even perhaps, to morality. Science is the only way to answer a question, he said, as all science is based upon evidence and observation. He then gayly dismissed the existence of anything for which there was no empirical evidence. On the nature of love and the soul, these ideas had to be phrased in more scientific terms.