The open inquiring nature of science is fundamentally incompatible with the closed
authoritarian nature of most religious training. Reasons for rejection of personal god concepts
by Charles Darwin Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell are used by this author to underline
this incompatibility and to show how each of these important scientists came to reject
organized religion. Conflicts between scientific and religious habits of mind are described and
ideas for education are offered. Common assumptions about our natural environment and human
nature are shown to be obstacles to scientific literacy and to a sound liberal education.
Research on the nature of the relationship between scientific and religious habits of mind is
proposed recognizing the potential incompatibilities between these important influences in
society.
