4/22/11. Scientists are asking: exactly what is religion, and what is it for?
http://www.economist.com/node/18584074
My friend Tom sent me the following email in response to this article. Tom is a chemist --- and a firm believer in science and religion.
Steve,
Well I guess scientists should start looking somewhere, but I honestly do not think studies like this will generate much findings, other than the spiritual mystery that is beyond scientists ability to study. A year ago I was asked to write an editorial piece for apaper back East that would help the lay person better understand the origins of universe, based on current astrophysical findings, in relation to this mystery. The editor did not publish it because, even with the effort I made, it could not be understood by him enough to print. I am not sure if we have discussed this, but if we have please forgive the repetition. If one studies time, Einstein’s “theory of relativity” (now a confirmed law), the big bang expansion models, the age of the universe based on the most recent supercollider energy of condensation and space background temperatures, all the visible mass in the universe (including even all those small neutrinos, cosmic rays, & electromagnetic radiation convertible mass), the astrophysics’ models come together in an astounding finding. I found a presentation a few years back delivered to the American Academy for the Advancement of Science brightest scientists by a Director of US Dept of Energy programs that is coordinating all of the deep space probe findings, super-accelerator particlestudies, as well as many other related studies. After making a considerable effort to understand this and other presentations, as well asreading some of Einstein’s original works to truly understand relativity,the appreciation of the finding was awe inspiring. The Director had to discuss each program he was coordinating. He had the courage to begin each section with a passage from the Genesis creation story, because the findings were uncanny, if not suggestive beyond one’s imagination. It took me quite a bit of time before I reached the place where I actually felt I had enough background to understand the significance of each finding and how it fit together. I think the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation studies are perhaps one of the important keys to the puzzle. The first major finding was that cosmic forces are so well “fine tuned” to create an almost impossible balance of “critical density” that enables the entire universe to “stay together”. On earth, our meager study of natural laws, in an experimental environment, teach use that such an extraordinary balance does not happen by chance, but requires considerable effort somewhere and somehow of systems working in concert to come about. The second most astounding discovery has to do with what scientists now call “dark energy” and “dark matter”. Anything in the universe that is “physical” is visible because it produces some type of electromagnetic radiation, so we can see it and measure it. The “dark energy and matter” is, in effect, invisible and is beyond scientists' ability to study it, over than just knowing that it is there, because if it were not there then everything (from subatomic particlesto galaxies) would not hold together. The Director ended the presentationat a point where everyone who understood the astounding significance of the findings was now probably very silently awaiting his conclusion. Not knowing where to go from here he simply ended by saying: “The fact that dark energy and exotic dark matter now comprise 95% of our universe, while galaxies of bright stars that fill the heavens are less than one percent, is a good lesson, compelling humility.” The scientists there were among our brightest, and this was no little error in the model. All our observations, all our theoretical modeling, and all our confirmed natural laws are telling use that ALLwe can study is encompasses no more than 1% of what exists. Science can never tell us anything about the other 95%, because it is invisible, thus inaccessible to any physical measurement. We can only know that it is just there – everywhere. I believe deeply in science, but I also believe in the God of your forefathers. I think heaven is very real, if not more real than what we “see” around us.
Kind Regards,
Tom
