MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Victor Bloom MD

In the latest New York Review of Books, March 28, 2002, there is a fascinating exchange between two theoretical physicists of note, John Polkinghorne and Freeman J. Dyson. The latter wrote a review of the Polkinghorne book, "The God of Hope and the End of the World." Polkinghorne spent twenty years doing research in theoretical particle physics and then switched to theology. He was ordained as an Anglican priest and has spent the last twenty years as an influential member of the Church of England. In that capacity he served not only as a link between the church and the academic community, but also as a debater in the controversy between science and religion. His scientific credentials gave him special standing among theologians devoted to the task of resolving the inherent conflict and divisions between the subjective and objective world.

It should be mentioned that Dyson is both a theoretical physicist and a practicing Catholic, and_ so he has the prerequisites to criticize and analyze Polkinghorne's treatise, in which he claims to describe heaven and the afterlife from his own study of biblical sources. Polkinghorne is well-respected as a theologian not only because as a scientist, he converted to religionist, but because it seemed that his scientific knowledge inevitably led to a belief in God. He obviously felt that the scientific version of the universe as a cold, empty and uncaring space was lacking something essential, and was therefore emotionally alienating. And so he filled it in, in his own further writings, with his personal elaborations of the Good Book.

Freeman J. Dyson is a respected physicist, educator and writer, known for his interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations. He was involved in the Orion project, a manned spacecraft to Mars, to seek evidence of intelligent life there, but eventually gave up the idea because of insufficient evidence to pursue the proÛject. His academic credentials are considerable, coming to the U.S.A. from England on a special scholarship and studying under J. Robert Oppenheimer, then director of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton. He eventually became a professor of physics at Cornell University and the Institute of Advanced Study.

Despite being a scientist, he did not give up his religious practices. However, his religious beliefs are quite unique and personal. This is his account in the book review:

"I am myself a Christian, a member of a community that preserves an ancient heritage of great literature and great music, provides help and counsel to young and old when they are in trouble, educates children in moral responsibility, and worships God in its own fashion. But I find Polkinghorne's theology altogether too narrow for my taste.

I have no use for a theology that claims to know the answers to deep questions but bases its arguments on the beliefs of a single tribe. I am a practicing Christian but Ânot a believing Christian. To me, to worship God means to recognize that mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of our universe in a way that altogether surpasses our comprehension.

When I listen to Polkinghorne describing the afterlife, I think of God answering Job out of the whirlwind, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?... Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou has understanding... Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? Or has thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?"

God's answer to Job is all the theology I need. As a scientist, I live in a universe of overwhelming size and mystery. The mysteries of life and language, good and evil, chance and necessity, and of our own existence as conscious human beings in an impersonal cosmos are even greater than the mysteries of physics and astronomy. Behind the mysteries that we can name, there are deeper mysteries that we have not even begun to expÂlore."

Such a statement is in a manner of speaking--- 'a consummation devoutly to be wished.' It brings together the best of science, in the way of intelligent, rational thought, and the best of religion, which has its roots in morality and humanism. At this time of religious wars and the conflict of civilizations, the fundamentalists seeking to overcome the secular world, this statement of tolerance and pluralism is hopefully a vision of the future, one in which the world can live in peace and truly accept the basic morality of the Golden Rule.

Just as religion and science are no longer battling for domination of intellectual discourse, so must the fundamentalist religious world come to terms with the reality of the secular world, the world of Western Civilization.

Dr. Bloom is a psychiatrist in Grosse Pointe Park and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry. He welcomes comments to his email address: vbloom@comcast.net and visitors to his website: www.victorbloom.com