Science and Religion

Science and Religion. What is it with these two? Is it love? Is it hate? Is it professional jealousy? I can’t decide which one is capable of more pretensions and hubris.
I was sitting in church today, listening to the talks in a mildly desultory way, when something someone said made me think of science and religion and how, despite the strident protests to the contrary, the two clubs have a lot in common. Now, I know that there are a lot of ‘scientists’ who are devoutly religious and a bunch of very religious people who nonetheless are working in one scientific field or another, which leads me to suspect that they are not as incompatible as both camps would like to believe.
What I started thinking about was dark matter and dark energy, the new hot topic in cosmology, and how the method of arriving at the necessity for each has striking similarities to how many people make their progress toward faith in God.
Since one or two of you may not be fully aware of the Dark Twins, let me give a very brief and wholly-made-up synopsis of what has been going on. I won’t take the time to refresh my memory, because, as we all know, (say it with me everybody!) I hate research!
In the past decade or two really bright guys and gals made some startling discoveries having to do with the nature and ultimate fate of, the universe. First, it is much bigger than we thought—or even imagined. (I’m happy to say that we Mormons already knew that based on some inside information). Then, the most recent observations, done with highly sophisticated sensors, satellites, telescopes of various types, and trillions of digital calculations, informed us that the universe is expanding at a much faster rate that was previously supposed. And accelerating. This is known as an “observable phenomenon”. No one had a clue as to why that might be happening because the theoretical models then being used did not predict such a thing, and could not be tweaked into accepting the new data. Then, to add insult to injury, it was discovered that massive objects ( like galaxy’s, galactic clusters, Very Large Attractors and the like) were not behaving as they should, according to the completely accepted notion of Newton’s laws and gravity. This phenomenon could only be detected when the gravitational influence was truly massive—thus families of galaxy’s were what clued them in.
As you can imagine, there was a certain amount of anxiety in the worlds of cosmology, astronomy and physics (to name a few) as careers became suddenly irrelevant.
Why was the expansion accelerating when gravitationally it should be at least slowing, if not shrinking? And why were very massive objects behaving in ways not predicted by current models?
A great deal of work, and thought, and experimentation went into finding the answers to these questions, and the answers are; Dark Energy and Dark Matter.
Dark Energy is some kind of unknown and undetectable energy which must be counteracting gravity (which wants to pull everything together), and which is powerful enough to not only keep the entire universe expanding, but is able to accelerate the process. It is calculated that at least three-fourths of all the energy in the universe must be Dark Energy in order for observed phenomenon to be explained.
Dark Matter, on the other hand must exist—again, despite being invisible, undetectable, and having no known characteristics—in unimaginable quantities. This is the only explanation for the observed behavior of RSMO’s. (Really, seriously, Massive Objects). Oh, and Dark Matter has to make up about ninety percent of all matter in the universe.
To recap: Despite absolutely no evidence whatsoever, other than what is seen to be happening, science has had to invent two new theories in order to explain the latest observations, and has been forced to allocate the vast majority of everything in the universe to these two, invisible, unknown, non-emitting, undetectable forces. They are looking hard for evidence other than the necessity of deduction. There are all kinds of theories and ideas floating around vying for attention. “Hey look here guys! Here’s a spot with nothing in it that might be attracting that galaxy over there . . . must be dark matter huh?”
It makes sense that if everything is moving away from everything else faster than we thought, and despite the homogenous influence of gravity, there must be a force providing the energy, right? Ergo, Dark Energy. It exists not because we can see it or sense it, but because it must exist. It is self-evident. But, it could be gremlins pushing everything, their little gossamer wings beating a million times faster than a hummingbirds, getting traction from the Dark Matter. It could be that too, right? Because no one knows. I guess Occam’s Razor suggests the Energy to be more likely, but who knows?
What’s the point Wayne? You’ve been rambling for thirty minutes now.
Well . . . let’s look at another example of belief in something unseen. Got any ideas? Have I let it out of the box? That’s right! It’s God. For thousands of years people have been saying virtually the same thing the scientists are now resorting to. “I look around, I see things I can’t explain, mysterious things, and I conclude based on all this observable phenomenon, that there must be a God. I can’t see Him or describe Him or prove experimentally that He exists, but nature and the endless series of cosmic ‘coincidences’ and the human condition, all compel me to deduce His Reality. And, just like the current state in Cosmology, theologians have been running around for centuries arguing, brain-storming, trying to build a picture of God’s Characteristics based on what we can see of His work. Hardly anybody agrees because its all a matter of perspective. The one thing they do agree on is the Reality of the Necessity of God. Similar in many ways—don’t you think?—to the agreement that Dark Energy and Matter are real because of the necessity of their existence—and no other reason.
Now, some people look around and see no evidence at all. “Just because all this stuff is here, and happening, and there seems to be some order to the universe, doesn’t compel me to believe in a God. I can explain those things without God,” they say. But really, it’s just a mind-set; nothing to do with reality one way or the other. If God can be so easily dismissed by so many, am I not justified to dismiss the idea of Dark Matter and Energy on the basis that there is no evidence of any kind that they exist?
Don’t get me wrong now, I’m perfectly willing to accept the Dark Twins until they are either proven to be real or a better explanation comes along. Personally, I like the gremlins. I like the image of a gazillion of the little tykes pushing against—oh, say . . . anything—a star or galaxy or atom, their little wings buzzing (in frequencies we cannot detect obviously), their cute little faces screwed up with exertion so extreme it makes little balls of Gremlin poop shoot out their butts (forming Dark Matter), which makes them all laugh, which explains the phenomenon of humor.
I’m a huge fan of science and technology, I love all that stuff, even when I don’t understand it—which is nearly all the time. But I find it amusing that science routinely relegates itself to faith, and never realizes it’s happening, while at the same time, so many of its practitioners ridicule religion for the same thing. At least most religious people have the good taste and humility to admit they can’t prove anything, that their faith is based on the unseen, the unknown, on a feeling in their hearts. While science pretends it can know everything. Again, what hubris. They can’t even find the mind, much less the spirit.