Pope John Paul II states that heaven is not a place but a condition. An identical phrase had already been written more than three centuries earlier by a man who refused religious funerals, even though he was later buried in Westminster Abbey: Isaac Newton. Piergiorgio Odifreddi comments that “this teaches those who don’t know, and confirms to those who do, that scientists are much smarter than priests and understand things centuries before them, even when it comes to religion. Therefore, they should be modestly listened to and pondered, rather than haughtily criticized and censored.”
