The belief that everything in the universe, all we see and all we have yet to see is the creation (by-product) of random acts of coincidence with foundations solely in
pure science and rationale mixed with generous doses of cause and effect and trial and error.
True atheists do not believe in any form of
God, or
God related creation, including any form of morale standard that would indicate the existence of right versus wrong. Although atheists
may one day be able to explain all matters and conditions of the universe, they
will never be able to rationalize questions like: Why is there a universe? Why does it go on as it does? or Has it any meaning? (see C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
True atheists also agree that belief in pure science and a belief in
God cannot be reconciled. Although many of
history's greatest scientists (Einstein), inventors (Benjamin Franklin) and mathematicians (Blaise Pascal) were believers in
God. See example below.
Einstein is probably the best known and most highly revered scientist of the twentieth century, and is associated with major revolutions in our thinking about time, gravity, and the conversion of matter to energy (E=mc2). Although never coming to belief in a personal
God, he recognized the impossibility of a non-created universe. The Encyclopedia Britannica says of him: "Firmly denying atheism,
Einstein expressed a belief in "Spinoza's
God who reveals himself in the harmony of what exists." This actually motivated his interest in science, as he once remarked to a young physicist: "I want to know how
God created this world, I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details." Einstein's famous epithet on the "uncertainty principle" was "
God does not
play dice" - and to him this was a real statement about a
God in whom he believed. A famous saying of his was "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."