Georges Lemaître: Two Paths to Truth
2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 21; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/14746700.2023.2188371
ISSN1474-6719
Autores Tópico(s)Religion, Ecology, and Ethics
ResumoABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to show that the dialogue between science and religion is not limited to the objective, methodological plane. Georges Lemaître shows that the spiritual and the intellectual paths are not parallel, in the sense that they do not meet. In the sphere of the development of one’s personality and relationships with the world, other people and God—everything becomes an argument. The sphere of research demands special respect for the methodological autonomy of natural sciences and theology. This article demonstrates the evolution of the Belgian scholar’s opinion about the relationship between science and religion in the context of modern cosmology.KEYWORDS: Georges Lemaîtretheology and sciencemodern cosmology Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Mikael Stenmark, How to Relate Science and Religion: A Multidimensional Model (Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2004).2 Ian G. Barbour, Religion and Science. Historical and Contemporary Issues (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1998).3 Kazimierz Jodkowski, “NOMA, cudy i filtr eksplanacyjny [NOMA, Miracles and the Explanatory Filter],” Roczniki Filozoficzne 53:2 (2005), 83–103.4 Ibid., 91.5 Ibid., 98.6 Dominique Lambert, Ryzykowne spotkanie teologii z nauką [A Risky Meeting Between Theology and Science] (Cracow: Copernicus Center Press, 2018).7 It is worth underlining that a change has occurred in how the potential relationships between natural sciences and theology are determined. This change has been motivated by widespread belief about the scientific character of theology itself (even though it is not, of course, a science itself). See, among others, Andrzej Anderwald, in Teologia a nauki przyrodnicze. Rola wiedzy przyrodniczej w dociekaniach teologicznych [Theology and Natural Sciences. The Role of Natural Knowledge in Theological Research] (Opole: Publishing House of the Faculty of Theology of Opole University, 2007), 45–46.8 John Polkinghorne, Faith, Science and Understanding (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000), 45–51.9 Phillip J. E. Peebles, Physical Cosmology (New York: Princeton, 1971), 8.10 Joseph Turek, Wszechświat dynamiczny. Rewolucja naukowa w kosmologii [Dynamic Universe. A Scientific Revolution in Cosmology] (Lublin: Publishing House of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 1995).11 Edwin Hubble, “Extra-Galactic Nebulae,” The Astrophysical Journal 64 (1926), 321.12 Georges Lemaître, “Un univers homogène de masse constante et de rayon croissant, rendant compte de la Vitesse radiale des nébuleuses extra-galactiques,” Annales de la Société scientifique de Bruxelles, série A 47, 49 (1927). Cf. Jean-Pierre Luminet, “Lemaître’s Big Bang,” Frontiers of Fundamental Physics 14 (2014).13 Helge S. Kragh, Conceptions of Cosmos: From Myths to the Accelerating Universe: A History of Cosmology (Kindle Locations 2186–2187). Kindle Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).14 Cf. https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau1812/.15 Adam Krawiec, Marek Szydłowski and Pawel Tambor, “Swoistość ontologiczna i epistemologiczna kosmologii jako nauki o wszechświecie [Ontological and Epistemological Uniqueness of Cosmology as a Science of the Universe],” Filozofia i Nauka. Studia filozoficzne i interdyscyplinarne 6 (2018), 5–30.16 Helge S. Kragh and Dominique Lambert, “The Context of Discovery: Lemaître and the Origin of the Primeval-Atom Universe,” Annals of Science 64:4 (2007), 446.17 Arthur S. Eddington, “The Borderland of Astronomy and Geology,” Nature 111 (1923), 18–21.18 Quoted after Luminet, “Lemaitre’s Big Bang.”. Cf. Georges Lemaître, “The Beginning of the World from the Point of View of Quantum Theory,” Nature 127 (1931), 706.19 Duncan Aikman, “Lemaitre Follows Two Paths to Truth. The Famous Physicist, Who is also a Priest, Tells Why He Finds No Conflict Between Science and Religion,” The New York Times February 19, 1933.20 Dominique Lambert, Droga duchowa Georgesa Lemaître’a [Georges Lemaître’s Spiritual Path] (Tarnów: Biblos, 2012), 21.21 Ibid., 29.22 Ibid., 32.23 Ibid., 45.24 Ibid., 63–69.25 Ibid., 84.26 Ibid., 87–88.27 Ibid., 104.28 James H. Plaskett, “The Expansion of the Universe,” Journal of Royal Society of Canada 27 (1933), 235–252.29 Quoted after Helge S. Kragh, Matter and Spirit in the Universe. Scientific and Religious Preludes to Modern Cosmology (London: Imperial College Press, 2004), 158.30 Lambert, Droga duchowa Georgesa Lemaître’a, 105.31 Ibid., 130–131.32 A paper by Marek Szydlowski and Pawel Tambor, “Ontologiczne i epistemologiczne aspekty pojęcia ‘ex nihilo’ w modelach kosmologicznych kwantowej kosmogenezy [Ontological and Epistemological Aspects of the Notion of ex nihilo in Cosmological Models of Quantum Cosmogenesis],” Studia Philosophiae Christianae 51:1 (2015), 141–163 covers the considerably different understandings of ex nihilo between philosophy and physics.33 Lambert explicitly adds question marks to the titles of two chapters in his book George Lemaitre’s spiritual path: ‘Protect religion from science? Two paths to “the hidden God”’ and ‘Protect science from religion? The issue of Un’Ora’. Cf. Odon Godart and Michael Heller, Cosmology of Lemaitre (Tucson: Pachart Publishing House, 1985).34 Helge Kragh, “Georges Lemaître, Pioneer of Modern Theoretical Cosmology,” Foundations of Physics, 48 (2018), 1341.35 Georges Lemaître, Wszechświat i atom [The Universe and the Atom], in Lambert, Droga duchowa Georgesa Lemaître’a, 190.36 Luminet, “Lemaitre’s Big Bang.” Cf. Lemaître, “The Beginning of the World.”37 This is reminiscent of the discussions on the distinction between strong and weak versions of the anthropic principle used in cosmology. The weak anthropic principle states that we must observe our specific location in the world, which is friendly to life. The strong version replaces the term location with Universe and asserts in an ontologically strong manner that the world without intelligent observers is impossible. The strong version of the anthropic principle has a definite metaphysical tinge, as it contains a speculation about the character of a teleological necessity: ‘the Universe needs to be the way it is’. [cf. Marek Szydlowski and Pawel Tambor, “Risky Anthropic Reasoning in Cosmology. For or Against an Evolutional Nature of the Universe,” The Ignatianum Yearbook of Philosophy 23 (2017), 7–28.].38 Paul A. M. Dirac, The Scientific Work of Georges Lemaître, in: Pontifica Academina scientiarium. Commentarii, II, vol. 11, page 14.39 Michael Heller, Jedna chwila w dziejach wszechświata. Lemaître i jego Kosmos [A Single Moment in the History of the Universe. Lemaître and his cosmos], Kindle Locations 338–339 (Cracow: Copernicus Center Press, 2020).40 Quoted after Joseph Życiński, Bóg Abrahama i Bóg Whiteheada [God of Abraham and God of Whitehead] (Tarnow: Biblos, 1992), 9.41 Alasdair MacIntyre, Bóg Filozofia Uniwersytety [God, Philosophy and Universities] (Warsaw: Pax, 2013), 15.42 Cf. Milosz Holda, Źródło i Noc. Wprowadzenie do współczesnego absconditeizmu [The Spring and the Night. An Introduction into Contemporary Absconditheism] (Cracow: WAM, 2020), 80.43 Stanislaw Judycki, “Czy istnieją rozstrzygające argumenty filozoficzne? [Do Decisive Philosophical Arguments Exist?],” Diametros 2 (2004), 39–56.44 D. Lambert, Ryzykowne spotkanie teologii z nauką [A Risky Meeting Between Theology and Science], Kindle Locations 1488–1492; 1504–1505 (Krakow: Copernicus Center Press, 2018).Additional informationNotes on contributorsPawel TamborPawel Tambor, PhD (doctorate in philosophy of science, master’s degree in theology), is a Lecturer and researcher at The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, and assistant professor at Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce, Poland. His fields of research and specialty: philosophy of science, philosophy of modern cosmology, modelling in science, the relation between science, philosophy, and theology. He is a Catholic priest and the rector of the Major Seminary for Priesthood in Kielce, Poland.
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