An evening sky over an observatory (Wikimedia Commons)
“My original decision to devote myself to science was a direct result of the discovery which has never ceased to fill me with enthusiasm since my early youth—the comprehension of the far from obvious fact that the laws of human reasoning coincide with the laws governing the sequences of the impressions we receive from the world about us; that, therefore, pure reasoning can enable man to gain an insight into the mechanism of the latter. In this connection, it is of paramount importance that the outside world is something independent from man, something absolute, and the quest for the laws which apply to this absolute appeared to me as the most sublime scientific pursuit in life.” (Max Planck, “A Scientific Autobiography” [1948])
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“Life cannot have had a random beginning. . . . The trouble is that there are about 2000 enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in 10^40,000, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup.” (Fred Hoyle)
The astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle (1915-2001), perhaps best known for his work on stellar nucleosynthesis and his advocacy of a steady-state cosmology — he coined the term “Big Bang” as an expression of his derision for a cosmological model that seemed to him (he being an atheist) too close to the creation story in Genesis — was also known for his willingness to adopt controversial stances on various other scientific matters.
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