Editing Francis Crick (section)

==Views on religion==
Crick referred to himself as a humanist, which he defined as the belief "that human problems can and must be faced in terms of human moral and intellectual resources without invoking supernatural authority."  He publicly called for humanism to replace religion as a guiding force for humanity, writing:

<blockquote>The human dilemma is hardly new.  We find ourselves through no wish of our own on this slowly revolving planet in an obscure corner of a vast universe.  Our questioning intelligence will not let us live in cow-like content with our lot.  We have a deep need to know why we are here.  What is the world made of?  More important, what are we made of?  In the past religion answered these questions, often in considerable detail.  Now we know that almost all these answers are highly likely to be nonsense, having sprung from man's ignorance and his enormous capacity for self-deception&nbsp;... The simple fables of the religions of the world have come to seem like tales told to children.  Even understood symbolically they are often perverse, if not rather unpleasant&nbsp;... Humanists, then, live in a mysterious, exciting and intellectually expanding world, which, once glimpsed, makes the old worlds of the religions seem fake-cosy and stale<ref>{{cite journal|last=Crick|first=Francis|title=Why I Am a Humanist |date=1966 |journal=[[Varsity (Cambridge)|Varsity]] |via=Francis Crick Papers: The Wellcome Library|url=http://search.wellcomelibrary.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1817155|access-date=2014-03-15}}</ref></blockquote>

Crick was especially critical of Christianity:

<blockquote>I do not respect Christian beliefs.  I think they are ridiculous.  If we could get rid of them we could more easily get down to the serious problem of trying to find out what the world is all about.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Crick|first=Francis|title=Letter to the Editor, ''Varsity'', the University of Cambridge newspaper. (1966).|journal=Francis Crick Papers|url=http://search.wellcomelibrary.org/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1817155|publisher=The Wellcome Library|access-date=2014-03-15|year=1966}}</ref></blockquote>

Crick once joked, "Christianity may be OK between consenting adults in private but should not be taught to young children."<ref name="guardianbooks">{{Cite news| title=Genius was in his DNA | author=McKie, Robin | date=17 September 2006 | url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/biography/0,,1874072,00.html | work=The Guardian | access-date=4 August 2007 | location=London}}</ref>

In his book ''Of Molecules and Men'', Crick expressed his views on the [[relationship between science and religion]].<ref>''Of Molecules and Men'' (Prometheus Books, 2004; original edition 1967) {{ISBN|1-59102-185-5}}. A portion of the book was published as "[https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/SC/B/C/F/F/_/scbcff.pdf The Computer, the Eye, the Soul]" in ''Saturday Review'' (1966): 53–55.</ref> After suggesting that it would become possible for a computer to be programmed so as to have a [[Soul (spirit)|soul]], he wondered: at what point during biological evolution did the first organism have a soul? At what moment does a baby get a soul? Crick stated his view that the idea of a non-material soul that could enter a body and then persist after death is just that, an imagined idea. For Crick, the mind is a product of physical brain activity and the brain had evolved by natural means over millions of years. He felt that it was important that evolution by [[natural selection]] be taught in schools and that it was regrettable that English schools had compulsory religious instruction. He also considered that a new scientific world view was rapidly being established, and predicted that once the detailed workings of the brain were eventually revealed, erroneous Christian concepts about the nature of humans and the world would no longer be tenable; traditional conceptions of the "soul" would be replaced by a new understanding of the physical basis of mind. He was sceptical of [[organised religion]], referring to himself as a sceptic and an agnostic with "a strong inclination towards atheism".<ref name="CrickWMP10">[[#Crick|Crick (1990)]], p. 10: Crick described himself as agnostic, with a "strong inclination towards atheism".</ref>

In 1960, Crick accepted an honorary fellowship at [[Churchill College, Cambridge]], one factor being that the new college did not have a chapel. Some time later a large donation was made to establish a chapel and the College Council decided to accept it. Crick resigned his fellowship in protest.<ref name="pmid15151106">{{Cite journal|author=Beckett C |title=For the Record: The Francis Crick Archive at the Wellcome Library |journal=Med Hist |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=245–60 |year=2004 |pmid=15151106 |pmc=546341|doi=10.1017/S0025727300007419 }}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080604203926/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fconnected%2F2003%2F03%2F19%2Fecfgod19.xml Do our genes reveal the hand of God?] ''The Daily Telegraph''. 20 March 2003.</ref>

In October 1969, Crick participated in a celebration of the 100th year of the journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' in which he attempted to make some predictions about what the next 30&nbsp;years would hold for molecular biology. His speculations were later published in ''Nature''.<ref name="Nature_1970">{{Cite journal|author=Crick F |title=Molecular biology in the year 2000 |journal=Nature |volume=228 |issue=5272 |pages=613–5 |date=November 1970 |pmid=4920018 |doi= 10.1038/228613a0|url= https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/SC/B/C/C/J/_/scbccj.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050912214225/http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/SC/B/C/C/J/_/scbccj.pdf |archive-date=2005-09-12 |url-status=live |format=PDF reprint|bibcode = 1970Natur.228..613C |s2cid=4190938 }}</ref> Near the end of the article, Crick briefly mentioned the search for life on other planets, but he held little hope that [[extraterrestrial life]] would be found by the year 2000. He also discussed what he described as a possible new direction for research, what he called "biochemical theology". Crick wrote "so many people pray that one finds it hard to believe that they do not get some satisfaction from it".<ref name="Nature_1970" /> A field similar to Crick's hypothesized "biochemical theology" now exists as [[neurotheology]].<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Borg J, Andrée B, Soderstrom H, Farde L |date=November 2003 |title=The serotonin system and spiritual experiences |journal=Am J Psychiatry |volume=160 |issue=11 |pages=1965–9 |doi=10.1176/appi.ajp.160.11.1965 |pmid=14594742 |s2cid=5911066}}</ref>

Crick suggested that it might be possible to find chemical changes in the brain that were molecular correlates of the act of prayer. He speculated that there might be a detectable change in the level of some [[neurotransmitter]] or [[neurohormone]] when people pray. Crick's view of the relationship between science and religion continued to play a role in his work as he made the transition from [[molecular biology]] research into theoretical neuroscience.

Crick asked in 1998 "and if some of the Bible is manifestly wrong, why should any of the rest of it be accepted automatically?&nbsp;... And what would be more important than to find our true place in the universe by removing one by one these unfortunate vestiges of earlier beliefs?"<ref name="CrickWMP11">[[#Crick|Crick (1990)]], p. 11</ref>

In 2003 he was one of 22 Nobel laureates who signed the [[Humanism and Its Aspirations|''Humanist Manifesto'']].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_III/Notable_Signers |title=Notable Signers |work=Humanism and Its Aspirations |publisher=American Humanist Association |access-date=28 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005105825/http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_III/Notable_Signers |archive-date=5 October 2012 }}</ref>

===Creationism===
Crick was a firm critic of [[young Earth creationism]]. In the 1987 [[United States Supreme Court]] case ''[[Edwards v. Aguillard]]'', Crick joined a group of other [[Nobel laureate]]s who advised, {{"'}}Creation-science' simply has no place in the public-school science classroom."<ref>[http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/edwards-v-aguillard/amicus1.html Amicus Curiae Brief of 72 Nobel Laureates, 17 State Academies of Science, and 7 Other Scientific Organization in Support of Appellees] filed in the case ''Edwards v. Aguillard'' before the U.S. Supreme Court (1986).</ref> Crick was also an advocate for the establishment of [[Darwin Day]] as a British national holiday.<ref>Press release from the British Humanist Association: [http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/cms/contentViewArticle.asp?article=1348 Darwin Day a natural holiday?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051026085046/http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/cms/contentViewArticle.asp?article=1348 |date=26 October 2005 }} (12 February 2003).</ref>