Views on Creation
Lecture | Videos | Biographies | Evaluation | Acknowledgements
The Origins of the Universe in Science and Philosophy
Modern astronomy has revealed a universe which appears far removed from traditional religious accounts of Creation. Professor Michael Heller, cosmologist and Catholic priest, tackles the challenges involved in reconciling religion with the fast-moving world of 21st-century science in this lecture held on 27 May 2009 in the award winning Peter Harrison Planetarium at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Professor Heller was introduced by well-known astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and there was also an opportunity for questions after the talk.
The Lecture
Listen online
Watch online
- View the whole lecture (9 videos)
Read full lecture transcript
- Views on Creation transcript (PDF, 0.4 MB. Includes diagrams)
- Q&A session transcript (PDF, 37KB)
From the introduction
"Science is a very great adventure of humankind, and science is a little bit totalitarian – it aims at understanding everything. For instance, if we investigate a small aspect or part of the universe, a little model of a small theory, so we want to comprehend something, it is only a part or an aspect of an entirety; and after all if that entirety should be unexplainable then why should this little fragment of our knowledge lend itself to explanation?
"In this sense every, even the smallest, success scored by the sciences is a sort of promise that somewhere, maybe still very distant, there is an ultimate explanation. So in the background of all models and theories in the sciences there is a longing for the ultimate explanation. In the sciences there are small questions and there are big questions, but in fact even the small questions are somehow connected with the big questions and I think that the biggest question is ‘how, when and why did the universe come into being?’, and this is the subject matter of this talk."
Biographies of speaker and chair
Professor Michael Heller
Michael Heller, a Polish cosmologist and Catholic priest who for more than 40 years has developed sharply focused and strikingly original concepts on the origin and cause of the universe, often under intense governmental repression, won the Templeton Prize in 2008.
He has become a compelling figure in the realms of physics and cosmology, theology, and philosophy with his cogent and provocative concepts on issues that all of these disciplines pursue, albeit from often vastly different perspectives. With an academic and religious background that enables him to comfortably and credibly move within each of these domains, Heller’s extensive writings have evoked new and important consideration of some of humankind's most profound concepts.
Heller's examination of fundamental questions such as 'Does the universe need to have a cause?' engages a wide range of sources who might otherwise find little in common. By drawing together mathematicians, philosophers, cosmologists and theologians who pursue these topics, he also allows each to share insights that may edify the other with respect for their individual methodologies.
Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (established in 2008 through the initiative of Rev. Professor Michał Heller)
Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell FRS
Jocelyn Bell Burnell was made a Fellow of the Royal Society for her considerable contributions to astronomy including her role in the discovery of pulsars whilst still a post graduate student at Cambridge. This discovery initiated major research activity in astronomy and she has subsequently worked right across the spectrum of astronomy, observing new sources from the radio to gamma-ray. Jocelyn has also been an outstanding leader of research both at the Open University and now as Dean of Science at Bath. She is an enthusiastic and committed communicator of science and a champion and promoter of women in science. Jocelyn is a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum.
Evaluation and comments
If you have not done so, please take the opportunity to complete the online evaluation questionnaire.
Alternatively you can download an evaluation questionnaire (Word, 0.2MB) and return it by post to: The Development Office, National Maritime Museum, Park Row, Greenwich, London SE10 9EF.
If you have any other comments about the lecture please send them to development@rmg.co.uk
Acknowledgements
This lecture has been supported by the John Templeton Foundation.