Advice of Scholars - MAX PLANCK AND HIS RELIGIOUS BELIEF (PART 1)

Max Planck, one of the most well-known scholars in thenatural sciences, was born in the city of Kiel in Germany. After he became aprofessor, first he worked in Kiel, then in 1889, he became a member of theteaching staff at the University of Berlin. His activities in Berlin lasted for30 years. He died in 1947.

Max Planck mostly dealt with radiation. His mostimportant finding was that the energy rays coming out from atoms diffused inquanta. He called this finding the ‘quantum theory,’ and calculated the energyto be produced. A nobel prize for physicist was given to him in 1918 for hisdiscovery.

Max Planck stated in his book (Der Strom von derAufklärung bis zur Gegenwart) that: “Both religion and branches of scienceexpose that there is an enormous Power which is unattainable. This Powercreated the world and keeps it under His sovereignty. However, their languagesused in expressing this Power is different from each other. However, eventhough the methods of their explanations seem to be different, they originallyare the same. These two explanations are not contrary to each other, butcomplement each other.

“Both religion and branches of science accept that thisuniverse must have been created by a Power whose entity will never beunderstood, and which will never be attained by man. We cannot understandexactly the greatness of this enormous Power, and will never be able tounderstand it. Maybe, the tiniest part of His power might be understoodindirectly by human beings.

“Religion uses reasonable symbols so that man canunderstand this Power, the Creator, and can approach Him. Branches of scienceuse rules and formulas so that this Power can be known. If we unite these twoways, it will be clearly seen what a great power this Creator has. Therefore,His existence and greatness is expressed with the word Allah by religion, andwith research, measurements and formulas by branches of science, which are asmall field of this Power.