Big Bang: Is there room for God?
The discovery of the Higgs boson is so fresh that the exhibit in Cern's museum has not yet been updated.
Now that the Higgs has finally been spotted - a scientific discovery that takes us closer than ever to the first moments after the Big Bang - Cern has opened its doors to scholars that take a very different approach to the question of how the Universe came to exist.
So what happened when people of such different - very different - views of the Universe came together to discuss how it all began?
"I realised there was a need to discuss this," says Rolf Heuer, Cern's director general.
"There's a need for us, as naive scientists, to discuss with philosophers of theologians the time before or around the Big Bang."
Cern's co-organiser of this unusual meeting of minds was Wilton Park - a global forum set up by Winston Churchill.
But even the idea of a "time before the Big Bang" is impossible territory for physicists.
It is a zone of pure speculation - before time and space as scientists understand it came to exist, and where the laws of physics completely break down.
So does that make it a realm where science and religion can come to an understanding?
One of the meeting's most outspoken participants, Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University, says definitely not.
"One gets the impression from a meeting like this that scientists care about God; they don't," he says.
Science and faith
- The first person to propose the Big Bang theory was a catholic priest. Georges Lemaitre was also professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain when, in 1931, he proposed in an academic paper that the expanding universe must have originated at a finite point in time. His religious interests were as important to him as his science, and he served as president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences from 1960 until his death in 1966.
- Charles Darwin, who could be said to have sparked the religion vs science debate, struggled with his own faith. Darwin trained as an Anglican parson and, in his diaries from explorations on his ship, the Beagle, even referred to himself as "quite orthodox". In his autobiography, Darwin wrote: "The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble to us; and I for one must be content to remain an Agnostic."
"You can't disprove the theory of God.
"The power of science is uncertainty. Everything is uncertain, but science can define that uncertainty."That's why science makes progress and religion doesn't."
But the suggestion that science and religion are fundamentally incompatible was a point of contention during the meeting.
John Lennox, professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford, is also a self-declared Christian. He thinks the very fact that human beings can do science is evidence for God.
"If the atheists are right the mind that does science... is the end product of a mindless unguided process.
"Now, if you knew your computer was the product of a mindless unguided process, you wouldn't trust it.
"So, to me atheism undermines the rationality I need to do science."
But this seemingly intractable God vs science debate was only a part of the meeting.
Prof Heuer said he wanted the participants to "develop a common understanding" of one another's' viewpoints.
But even exchanging ideas was, at times, tricky; scientists and philosophers often speak a very different language.
The discovery of a "Higgs-like particle" preceded this religious and scientific meeting"We have to educate one another in the terms that we use," he says.
For example, he explains, "philosophers have been discussing the meaning of [the word] truth for centuries.
"It's defined as a justified true belief."
But for many physicists, it is uncomfortable territory to use that word when talking about what we know about the Universe and the Big Bang.
Prof Krauss says that the word is at the heart of "one of the fundamental differences between science and religion".
"People who are religious believe they know the truth," he says.
"And they know the answer before even asking the question. Whereas, with scientists, it's the exact opposite.
"In science, although we use the word truth, what really matters is if it works."
"That's why it's a sensitive issue, because if you know the truth, there's no need to deal with this little question of whether something works or not."
The Big Bang
Despite the barrier of opposing
world views and incompatible lexicons, Dr Pinsent believes that engaging
with philosophy could help science to better address the very big
questions.
He says this is partly because, science in isolation "is very good for producing stuff" but not so good for producing ideas.
He invokes Einstein as an example of a truly philosophical scientist.
"[He] began by asking the sorts of questions a child would ask," says Dr Pinsent, "like what would it be like to ride on a beam of light."
And Rolf Heuer is open to the idea of bringing philosophy into Cern itself.
"I wouldn't go so far as to let them run experiments here," he jokes, "but I wouldn't see any problem to have a philosopher in residence. "
The main conclusion of the event has been simple: keep talking.
"We face a problem in our culture of hyperspecialisation," says Dr Pinsent.
"This ignorance of other fields can cause problems, like a lack of social cohesion.
And although Prof Krauss said the meeting felt at times like "people who can't communicate trying to communicate," even he sees some value in this somewhat esoteric exchange.
"Many people of faith view science as a threat," he said.
"I don't think science is a threat, so it is useful for scientists to show that they don't necessarily view it that way."
As one contributor put it during the meeting: "Religion doesn't add to scientific facts, but it does shape our view of the world."
And since Cern is searching for clues about how that world came to exist in the first place, it wants to see how its discoveries might fit into any world view.
Labels: Astronomy, Bioscience, Human Relations, religion, Science, Space
posted by Pieface @ 6:54 PM
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