{"id":13118,"date":"2019-03-22T11:32:24","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T15:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=13118"},"modified":"2019-03-22T13:55:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T17:55:40","slug":"science-not-kill-god-physicist-marcelo-gleiser-awarded-prize-work-blending-science-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2019\/03\/science-not-kill-god-physicist-marcelo-gleiser-awarded-prize-work-blending-science-religion","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Science Does Not Kill God\u2019: Physicist Marcelo Gleiser Awarded Prize For Work Blending Science and Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wikimedia<\/a>
Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Militant atheists and religious zealots alike have long peddled the idea that science and religion are incompatible. Prizewinning theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser, however, takes intense issue with that statement. In fact, he recently won the annual Templeton Prize for his work debunking the idea.<\/p>\n

Gleiser is far from the only scientist to disagree with the idea that faith and logic cannot coexist, but he takes it further than many others. Rather than saying science and faith can get along like two children who happen to use the same sandbox, Gleiser states that traditional religion is actually more compatible with science than atheism. Many militant atheists, such as Richard Dawkins, claim that atheism is the only religion a true scientist can practice. Gleiser, however, states bluntly that atheism is not even remotely scientific. It is not, he claims, based on logic or reason as so many atheistic zealots claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly think atheism is inconsistent with the scientific method,\u201d Gleiser said. \u201c[Atheism] is a statement, a categorical statement that expresses belief in nonbelief. \u2018I don\u2019t believe even though I have no evidence for or against, simply I don\u2019t believe.\u2019 Period. It\u2019s a declaration, but in science, we don\u2019t really do declarations. We say, \u2018Okay, you can have a hypothesis, you have to have some evidence against or for that.\u2019\u2026I have no evidence for God or any kind of god\u2026[but I] would acknowledge no right to make a final statement about something [I] don\u2019t know about\u2026The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gleiser also stands against the militant New Atheists who claim science can explain absolutely everything. In his 35 year career, Gleiser has worked on properties of the early universe, behavior of fundamental particles and the origin of life. Nothing he has seen, however, has convinced him that science can solve every problem or unravel every mystery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a difference between \u201cscience\u201d and what we can call \u201cscientism,\u201d which is the notion that science can solve all problems,\u201d Gleiser said. \u201cWe cannot presume that we are going to solve all the problems of the world using a strict scientific approach. It will not be the case, and it hasn\u2019t ever been the case, because the world is too complex, and science has methodological powers as well as methodological limitations.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is part of why Gleiser takes issue with the popular idea that science can truly explain the origins of the universe or distill the complexities of existence into a single theory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get upset by misstatements, like when you have scientists\u2014Stephen Hawking and Lawrence Krauss among them\u2014claiming we have solved the problem of the origin of the universe, or that string theory is correct and that the final \u2018theory of everything\u2019 is at hand. Such statements are bogus,\u201d Gleiser said. \u201cIt is impossible for science to obtain a true theory of everything\u2026The way we acquire information about the world is through measurement. It\u2019s through instruments, right? And because of that, our measurements and instruments are always going to tell us a lot of stuff, but they are going to leave stuff out. And we cannot possibly ever think that we could have a theory of everything, because we cannot ever think that we know everything that there is to know about the universe\u2026Knowledge advances, yes? But it\u2019s surrounded by this ocean of the unknown. The paradox of knowledge is that as it expands and the boundary between the known and the unknown changes, you inevitably start to ask questions that you couldn\u2019t even ask before.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Gleiser sees such attempts as nothing more than a way to try and turn science into an actual religion. \u201cIt is the blank statement that there could ever be a theory of everything that I think is fundamentally wrong from a philosophical perspective. This whole notion of finality and final ideas is, to me, just an attempt to turn science into a religious system, which is something I disagree with profoundly,\u201d Gleiser said. \u201cTo say that science has all the answers, to me is just nonsense\u2026I\u2019m not going to lie about what science can and cannot do because politicians are misusing science and trying to politicize the scientific discourse. I\u2019m going to be honest about the powers of science so that people can actually believe me for my honesty and transparency. If you don\u2019t want to be honest and transparent, you\u2019re just going to become a liar like everybody else\u2026 I feel as if I am a guardian for the integrity of science right now; someone you can trust because this person is open and honest enough to admit that the scientific enterprise has limitations\u2014which doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s weak!\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than bowing to politicians or attempting to become a pseudo-religion, Gleiser argues that scientists should be \u201cpeople who keep curiosity burning, trying to find answers to some of the questions they asked as children.\u201d Encouraging and growing curiosity, to Gleiser, is one of the most important responsibilities of science.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to discourage people from looking for unified explanations of nature\u2026A lot of physics is based on this drive to simplify and bring things together,\u201d Gleiser said. \u201cSo then how do you go ahead and justify doing research if you don\u2019t think you can get to the final answer? Well, because research is not about the final answer, it\u2019s about the process of discovery. It\u2019s what you find along the way that matters, and it is curiosity that moves the human spirit forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

This echoes what George Bernard Shaw famously proclaimed while toasting Albert Einstein. \u201cScience is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating 10 more.\u201d For real scientists, that is one of the most exciting facts about their jobs. There is always another paradox to unravel, another question to answer, another mystery to solve. There is always something more to learn, and scientists could never ask for anything better than yet more things to make them curious.<\/p>\n

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Militant atheists and religious zealots alike have long peddled the idea that science and religion are incompatible. Prizewinning theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser, however, takes intense issue with that statement. In fact, he recently won the annual Templeton Prize for his work debunking the idea. 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