Werner Heisenberg was one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century. He was the first to consistently formulate quantum mechanics in 1925. In 1932 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the uncertainty principle which states that it is impossible to specify the exact position and momentum of a particle (tiny piece of matter) at the same time.

His philosophical ponderings on the problem of atoms first began when he saw the illustration of the multiatomic gas molecules in which the atoms were joined into molecules with little “hooks and eyes” in his physics textbook. He said, ...

"To my mind, hooks and eyes were quite arbitrary structures whose shape could be altered at will to adapt them to different technical tasks, whereas atoms and their combination into molecules were supposed to be governed by strict natural laws".  When he came across the description of the atoms as cubes and pyramids by Plato in the book Plato’s Timaeu he became deeply interested to understand about the order in natural phenomena. He believed that there had always been a path to the central order in the language of music, in philosophy and in religion.  He considered science and religion as the objective and subjective aspects in understanding the fundamental order of reality revealed in the harmonious beauty of the universe. He said, “Science is the basis of technology, religion the basis of ethics. …the conflict between the two, which has been raging since the eighteenth century, seems founded on a misunderstanding, or, more precisely, on a confusion of the images and parables of religion with scientific statements. ... Science is ... the manner in which we confront, in which we argue about, the objective side of reality. Religious faith, on the other hand, is the expression of the subjective decisions that help us choose the standards by which we propose to act and live. ...I doubt whether human societies can live with so sharp a distinction between knowledge and faith."

At middle age and again near the end of his life, Heisenberg declared science and religion to be “complementary” aspects of reality, each with its own language and symbolism and each with its own limited realm of validity. Different religiously or intuitively apprehended truths should be viewed as different sides of the same truth, while rational science - his own profession - should be viewed as just one among a variety of ways of perceiving reality.