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johnbrandy,

You are responding seriously to a joke. The Onion, which is where this originally appeared, is all satire and exaggeration. My early response about the role of Satan was intended to keep the joke rolling along.

Having said that, you might be interested in a book that I am presently reading aloud to a neighbor who is losing his sight, The Faith of Scientists in Their Own Words edited and with commentary by Nancy K. Frankenberry. It includes staunch believers, atheists, and those in between from Galileo to the present day.

Yesterday, the two of us were enjoying the remarkable mind of Newton, expressing ideas that in today's context would be called Intelligent Design, but that term would not fit the context of the late 17th century, when Newton wrote those words. He was discussing the planetary orbits and how they came to be. He didn't have access to computer models that might explain how such an apparently orderly system could evolve, given enough time, from a condensing gas cloud acting under the laws of gravity and motion.

The book as a whole gives genuine insight into the role of faith among scientists.

We now return you to The Onion and your originally scheduled frivolity.

Fred Bortz -- Science and technology books for young readers (www.fredbortz.com) and Science book reviews (www.scienceshelf.com)