Science, Nature and Philosophy

The origin and evolution of the universe. The origin and evolution of life. The conflict between Science and Religion.

Cosmology | Evolution | Quantum Theory | Religion

The universe began with the "Big Bang" some 16 billion years ago. The chemical elements have been generated in the "Big Bang" and by thermonuclear reactions in the stars and dispersed in space by supernovae.

The Sun is a third generation star formed with the Solar System and the Earth from condensed space dust some 4.5 billion years ago. Our sun is just another star in just another galaxy in no special position in the universe.

Complex hydrocarbon molecules, the basic building blocks of life, have been found in space. From RNA, the first self-replicating molecule and the predecessor of DNA, the evolution of complex life on Earth is explained by Darwinism and Genetics.

The origin of life and the formation of RNA are still unexplained as is the origin of the universe ie what happened before the "Big Bang"?

How the fundamental laws of science / parameters of nature are established and why they are so precisely right to enable the evolution of the universe and complex life remains to be explained. Scientists seek to determine a rational explanation while theologists and philosophers invoke the supernatural - ie God / deities / supreme intelligence. According to Lee Smolin new universes are generated by black holes and their properties have evolved to match those necessary for the evolution of our universe and complex life within it.

Quotations:

" The only incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible " Albert Einstein

" I have always thought it curious that, while many scientists claim to eschew religion, it actually dominates their thoughts more than the clergy " Fred Hoyle

" If there is a God then He is a mathematician " Professor of Mathematical Philosophy

" Some foolish men declare that a Creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill-advised and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was He before creation? ..... " The Mahapurana, Jinasena

" I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking but by immutable laws " Albert Einstein

" Many people find that modern science is far removed from God. I find on the contrary .... in our knowledge of physical nature we have penetrated so far that we can obtain a vision of the flawless harmony which is in conformity with sublime reason " Hermann Weyl

General Science:

Cosmology / Astrophysics:

" To suppose universal laws of nature capable of being apprehended by the mind and yet having no reason for their special forms but standing inexplicable and irrational is hardly a justifiable position. Uniformities are precisely the sort of facts that need to be accounted for. Law is par excellence the thing that that wants a reason. Now the only possible way of accounting for the laws of nature and for uniformity in general is to suppose them the results of evolution " Charles Sanders Pierce, The Architect of Theories, 1891

" Must all of our scientific understanding of the world really come down to a mythological story in which nothing exists before 20 billion years ago save some disembodied intelligence who, desiring to start a world, chooses the initial conditions and then wills matter into being? I suspect that the attraction for such a story is at least partly fuelled by the nostalgia for the religious conception of the world and by a desire to see ourselves in the place of the creator of the world. " Lee Smolin, Professor of Physics

Evolution / Darwinism / DNA / Genetics:

" Does life have some magical, mystical essence, or is it, like any chemical reaction carried out in a science class, the product of normal physical and chemical processes? Is there something devine at the heart of a cell that brings it to life? The double helix answered that question with a definitive NO " James D.Watson

"Does the way I am owe more to a sequence of As, Ts, Gs and Cs ( the four bases of DNA ) inherited from my parents, or to the experiences I've had ever since my father's sperm and mother's egg fused together?"

" Most of the secrets of the development of life are contained in early embryos, and we are extremely likely to be able to use what we learn from such embryos to save many lives and ameliorate many conditions which make life miserable, we would not only be crazy but wicked to cut ourselves off from these benefits. " Robert Edwards

" Prominent evolutionary biologists have argued that religious belief is a universal human instinct - there is a group of genes for believing in God or gods. A religious instinct may be no more than a by-product of an instinctive superstition to believe that all events have wilful causes. "
Matt Ridley - Genome

".. humans are not the creation of an all-wise, all-powerful deity but the product of evolutionary forces. " Professor Steven Rose

" The purpose of life is reproduction "

" Religious fundamentalists - Christian, Jewish, Islamic - deny evolution accounts for life on earth "

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill:

Catholic leaders, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor and Cardinal Keith O'Brien, criticised the legislation but senior Labour MPs and peers accused the Catholic Church of trying to "dictate Government policy" and of "scaremongering". Lord Winston, a Labour peer and one of the foremost authorities on reproductive health, said the Catholic Church risked "destroying its probity" with "overblown" statements about the legislation accusing Cardinal O'Brien of deliberately misleading the public - " His statements are lying, they are misleading and when the Catholic Church tells untruths it brings discredit upon itself ". Telegraph