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Posted on Sat, Apr. 20, 2002 |   |
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Millionaire paying scientists to look for proof of God KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
Investment tycoon Sir John Templeton wants to know, and he's paying $1 million to 15 scientists to look for a purpose in the cosmos.
The scientists, many with international reputations, have spent their careers studying the big-bang theory, the origin of stars and galaxies, the fundamental physical constants, and the origin of life.
Now they've set out to explore the question that intrigues Templeton, as it has philosophers and astronomers for centuries: Is the universe the product of design or accident?
Templeton, 88, faxed his request for the meaning of it all from his home in the Bahamas to Radnor, Pa., home of his Templeton Foundation. Templeton, a devout Christian, sold his mutual fund empire in 1992 for $913 million and devotes himself to philanthropy and to his quest for common ground between science and religion.
The foundation's executive director, Charles Harper, who is trained in physics and theology, crafted the grant program based on the question, "Is there a fundamental purpose in the cosmos?"
What does "purpose" mean? Harper said his faith - Christianity - holds that God created the universe for a purpose, which is connected to the notion of goodness.
In the two years that the program has been running, science has not found any evidence for such a purpose. Some of the scientists involved confided that they don't think science can ever answer the question.
Still, those who received a piece of the money say it is freeing them up to explore ideas that wouldn't be supported by government funding because they touch on philosophy and religion. And while a million dollars is small money for science, it can support a number of theorists developing unconventional ideas.
"The Templeton Foundation felt that with a little money they could have a huge impact on what kinds of research are done," said Max Tegmark, a physicist at the University of Pennsylvania who co-chaired the grant program and helped choose the recipients.
One of the major issues that the scientists are exploring is called "fine-tuning."
Fine-tuning has to do with certain numbers that are "wired into nature," Tegmark said, such as 1836-1, which is the ratio of a proton's mass to an electron's, and 1-137, which is a ratio of basic properties that govern the power of electrical and magnetic forces. If the latter were changed by 1 percent, "the sun would immediately explode," Tegmark said.
Changing these fundamental constants would render the universe uninhabitable - either because matter would fall apart or stars wouldn't shine or the universe would collapse.
"It's as if the universe has a bunch of knobs," and you can't twiddle them without disaster striking, said Tegmark.
Fine-tuning is often invoked as evidence that an intelligent God designed the universe. But fine-tuning in the world of plants and animals was also once used as evidence for God's handiwork until Darwin came along with a scientific explanation - evolution.
Scientists also have several nonreligious explanations for the cosmic fine-tuning. One idea more and more widely discussed is that there are many universes born in many big bangs, the vast majority of them uninhabitable. Just as we shouldn't be surprised to find we live on the one habitable planet in the solar system, said Tegmark, we shouldn't find it surprising that our universe is one of the few livable ones.
Last month, at a Templeton-sponsored conference in Princeton called "Science and Ultimate Reality," Tegmark spoke about three different theories, some more speculative than others, that lead to what he called parallel universes.
Even if there's only one universe, Tegmark said, observations made in the last decade seem to show that it's infinite in all directions, he said.
Harper said that while he doesn't expect these scientists to prove God does or does not exist, or figure out why he/she created the world, Harper believes their work on the fine-tuning problem and the possibility of other universes will enrich the discussion.
The Templeton foundation is not without its critics in science. Nobel-winning physicist Steven Weinberg of the University of Texas has denounced attempts to make science and religion compatible.
"One of the great achievements of science has been, if not to make it impossible for intelligent people to be religious, then at least to make it possible for them not to be religious," he told an audience at a foundation-sponsored meeting.
The Templeton Foundation also funds studies examining whether sick people recover faster if strangers pray for them - studies that have been widely criticized as unscientific.
Some of the scientists present at last month's Princeton symposium said they were happy to get Templeton's money but were concerned that their names might be used to add legitimacy to the foundation's studies of prayer and healing or to promote a sectarian point of view.
Russian-born cosmologist Andre Linde said that his work has shown that, if anything, the emerging scientific view of the universe is more in tune with Eastern religions than with Christianity.
The monotheistic religions, he said, "are all based on the idea of one God, one truth." Eastern religions, he said, "are much more tolerant of the possibility that there are many gods or many universes, or that the universe has different laws in different regions."
Another Templeton grant recipient, physicist John Donoghue of the University of Massachusetts, said he's exploring several possible explanations for the apparent fine-tuning of the universal constants, though he said it's unlikely these questions will reveal whether the universe has a God, or a purpose.
"I think religion would like to know . . . but I don't think we'll come up with a definitive answer," he said.
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