God’s Universe

We live in a universe with a very long history, a vast cosmos where things are being worked out over unimaginably long ages. Stars and galaxies have formed, and elements come forth from great stellar cauldrons. The necessary elements are present, the environment is fit for life, and slowly life forms have populated the earth. Are the creative forces purposeful, and in fact divine? 

Owen Gingerich believes in a universe of intention and purpose. We can at least conjecture that we are part of that purpose and have just enough freedom that conscience and responsibility may be part of the mix. They may even be the reason that pain and suffering are present in the world. The universe might actually be comprehensible. 

Taking Johannes Kepler as his guide, Gingerich argues that an individual can be both a creative scientist and a believer in divine design--that indeed the very motivation for scientific research can derive from a desire to trace God’s handiwork. The scientist with theistic metaphysics will approach laboratory problems much the same as does his atheistic colleague across the hall. Both are likely to view the astonishing adaptations in nature with a sense of surprise, wonder, and mystery. 

In God’s Universe Gingerich carves out "a theistic space" from which it is possible to contemplate a universe where God plays an interactive role, unnoticed yet not excluded by science.

God and the Astronomer: Exoplanets, Life and Human Significance

In recent years, astronomers have detected over 600 planets outside of our own solar system, and many more are being identified as possible planets. Thus very rapidly the study of these "exoplanets" has moved from being in the realm of science fiction to being a top priority of the world's astronomical programs. Actual images of extra solar planets are now being revealed for the first time. The NASA-ESA Hubble Space Telescope is already characterizing the atmospheres of Jupiter-like planets in other systems. And the recent launch of the NASA Kepler space telescope is enabling the first statistical assessment of how common solar systems like our own really are.

Will we find planets like "Earth"? How will we know if there's life beyond Earth? And what will finding (or not finding) other life-friendly planets mean for our understanding of human significance and our relationship to God? As we begin to characterize these "other worlds" and assess their habitability, the question of the significance and uniqueness of life on Earth will impact our society as never before. I will provide a comprehensive overview of the techniques and status of exoplanet detection, followed by reflections as to the societal impact of finding out that Earths are common, or rare. Will finding other potentially habitable planets create another "Copernican Revolution"? Will perceptions of the significance of life on Earth change when we find other Earth-like planets? I will discuss the intriguing implications for humans of searching for life elsewhere.

Jennifer Wiseman

Jennifer Wiseman

Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is an astronomer and the Director of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is also the Senior Project Scientist for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. She previously served as Chief of the Laboratory for Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research employs the use of radio, infrared and optical telescopes to study the formation of stars and planets in dense interstellar clouds. She received her B.S. in physics from MIT, discovering comet Wiseman-Skiff in 1987, and continued her studies at Harvard, earning a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1995. She continued her research as a Jansky Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and as a Hubble Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University. She is currently a Fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation, a network of Christians in science. Dr. Wiseman also has an interest in public science engagement and policy and has served as a Congressional Science Fellow of the American Physical Society, working with the staff of the Science Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Marco Bersanelli

Marco Bersanelli is Full Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Director of the PhD School in Physics at the University of Milan, where he does research in observational cosmology. He has participated in a number of experiments in cosmology, including two expeditions to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. He is one of the leading scientists of the Planck space mission, the European Space Agency project studying the early universe, successfully launched in 2009. In addition to numerous science papers, he published scientific and interdisciplinary essays and books, including From Galileo to Gell-Mann (Templeton Press, 2009) about the human adventure of scientific research. He serves as Science Director of Euresis, a scientific association promoting science as an expression of the broader quest for beauty and meaning.