Many of the great scientists in the world were also men of faith.
Neil deGrasse Tyson wrote a great article on this subject for Natural History magazine. You can read it here:
http://research.amnh.org/~tyson/PerimeterOfIgnorance.phpThe point he makes is that scientists such as Newton only invoked god when they had reached the limits of their own knowledge. Basically, they copped out.
I guess that's one way of looking at it... Most people that write about such topics have an axe to grind, one way or another.
I'm a mathematician, and reading Newton et. al. (Gauss is my favorite), these people had some very serious intelligence. Gauss, in particular. He didn't cop out of *anything*, and could pretty much reduce his detractors to ashes without much trouble. He could probably do that in today's society, were he still alive.
But it's all theoretical, since they aren't around to defend themselves.
I don't know if you read the article, but I thought this paragraph was especially notable:
"There may be a limit to what the human mind can figure out about our universe. But how presumptuous it would be for me to claim that if I can't solve a problem, neither can any other person who has ever lived or who will ever be born. Suppose Galileo and Laplace had felt that way? Better yet, what if Newton had not? He might then have solved Laplace's problem a century earlier, making it possible for Laplace to cross the next frontier of ignorance."
He is refering to the story earlier in the article about how Laplace solved the problem that Newton had answered with an unsatisfactory "god does it." So yes, Newton did cop out. There was more knowledge to be had, but he found it too difficult and quit.
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