| Cambridge University theoretical physicist John D. | | | | And, like all great questions, they can turn out to |
| Barrow, the winner of the 2006 Templeton Prize for | | | | have answers that take us down unexpected paths, |
| Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about | | | | further and further away from the familiar and the |
| Spiritual Realities, is a man of many talents. | | | | everyday: multiverses, extra dimensions, the bending |
| The author of 17 books and over 400 journal articles, | | | | of time and of space - all may reveal a universe that |
| as well as a play exploring the meaning of infinity, | | | | contains more than is needed for life, more even |
| Barrow is perhaps best-known as the co-author, with | | | | than is needed for speculation. We see now how it is |
| Tulane University mathematical physicist Frank Tipler, | | | | possible for a universe that displays unending |
| of the 1986 book The Anthropic Cosmological | | | | complexity and exquisite structure to be governed |
| Principle, in which he investigated whether the Earth is | | | | by a few simple laws - perhaps just one law - that |
| indeed fine-tuned for life. Reviewing the book for | | | | are symmetrical and intelligible, laws that govern the |
| The New York Times, noted science journalist | | | | most remarkable things in our universe: populations of |
| Timothy Ferris wrote, "I was infuriated by it, | | | | elementary "particles" that are everywhere perfectly |
| disagreed with it and loved reading it." | | | | identical. |
| In the following essay, written for the occasion of | | | | Reality's hidden logic |
| winning the Templeton Prize, Barrow reflects on the | | | | It is to this simple and beautiful world behind the |
| majesty of nature, our ever-expanding knowledge of | | | | appearances -- where the lawfulness of nature is |
| the universe and why religion should always have a | | | | most elegantly and completely revealed -- that |
| place at the table with science. | | | | physicists look to find the hallmark of the universe. |
| A little over a year ago I was in a great church -- the | | | | Everyone else looks at the outcomes of these laws. |
| Basilica of St. Mark in Venice. Its predecessor was | | | | The outcomes are often complicated, hard to |
| raised in the year 832 to house the mortal remains of | | | | understand and of great significance - they even |
| St. Mark the Evangelist, which had supposedly been | | | | include ourselves - but the true simplicity and |
| brought to Venice from Alexandria four years earlier | | | | symmetry of the universe is to be found in the |
| by two Venetian merchants. They are alleged to | | | | things that are not seen. Most remarkable of all, we |
| have hidden the remains of the martyred saint under | | | | find that there are mathematical equations, little |
| layers of pork so as to avoid the attentions of | | | | squiggles on pieces of paper, that tell us how whole |
| Muslim customs officials. | | | | universes behave. There is a logic larger than |
| The present Byzantine-style basilica, with its | | | | universes that is more surprising because we can |
| distinctive cluster of low domes, was begun in 1063 | | | | understand a meaningful part of it and, thereby, |
| and consecrated in 1089. Today it sits next to the | | | | share in its appreciation. |
| Doge's Palace on the edge of St. Mark's Square, | | | | Once we thought everything in the universe was |
| attracting tourists and pigeons rather than pilgrims | | | | made of the things material that we find on Earth. |
| with a façade to launch a thousand postcards. | | | | We have now discovered that this too was only a |
| I arrived at the church in the early evening with a | | | | first guess. More than 70 percent of the universe is |
| small group of other scientists for a guided tour after | | | | composed of a form of dark energy whose precise |
| it had closed to visitors for the day. When we | | | | identity is unknown. It reveals its presence by its |
| entered, it was almost in total darkness. There are | | | | dramatic effect upon the expansion of the universe. |
| few windows, and they are small and far from | | | | Unlike all other known forms of matter, which exert |
| transparent. We were asked to sit in the center, | | | | gravitational attractive forces on other forms of |
| allowing just a few faint floor lights and an occasional | | | | matter and among themselves, this dark form of |
| electric candle to guide us to our seats. Above us | | | | energy responds repulsively to gravity, causing all |
| there was only darkness. | | | | material to accelerate away from it, creating an |
| Then, very slowly, the light levels rose above us and | | | | acceleration in the expansion of the universe that |
| around us, and the interior began to be illuminated by | | | | began to occur when it had reached about 75 |
| a discreet system of hidden sodium lights. The | | | | percent of its presence extent. This discovery about |
| darkness around us gave way to a spectacular | | | | our universe was a surprise - like discovering |
| golden light. The arching ceilings above us were | | | | something totally unexpected about an old friend. |
| covered in a spectacular gleaming mosaic of glass and | | | | Again, appearances were deceptive. |
| gold. Between the 11th and the 15th centuries nearly | | | | So with the universe, as it was that evening in St. |
| 11,000 square feet of gold mosaic was made, square | | | | Mark's, things are not always as they seem when we |
| by square, mixing gold with glass through a delicate | | | | look upward. The whole is so much more than the |
| process that is still not fully understood, to produce | | | | sum of its parts. The architects of our religious and |
| this sparkling golden sanctuary. Appearances can be | | | | scientific pictures of the universe, and the many |
| deceptive. | | | | commentators on their meanings that followed them, |
| But, on reflection, what was more striking to me was | | | | could see only a small part of what there is and |
| the realization that the hundreds of master | | | | knew only a small part of what it has to teach us |
| craftsmen who had worked for centuries to create | | | | about our place in the universe. We begin to see |
| this fabulous sight had never seen it in its full glory. | | | | afresh the extraordinary nature of our local |
| They worked in the gloomy interior, aided by | | | | environment and the link that attaches life to the |
| candlelight and smoky oil lamps to illuminate the small | | | | vastness of space and time. Appearances can indeed |
| area on which they worked, but not one of them | | | | be deceptive. |
| had ever seen the full glory of the golden ceiling. For | | | | Knowing what we don't know |
| them, like us, 500 years afterward, appearances | | | | There are some who say that just because we use |
| were deceptive. | | | | our minds to appreciate the order and complexity of |
| Getting closer to the stars | | | | the universe around us, there is nothing more to that |
| Our universe is a bit like that too. The ancient writers | | | | order than what is imposed by the human mind. That |
| who celebrated the heavens' declaration of the glory | | | | is a serious misjudgment. Were it true, we would |
| of the Lord saw only through a glass darkly. | | | | expect to find our greatest and most reliable |
| Unbeknown to them and countless others who | | | | understanding of the world in the everyday events |
| followed them, the universe has revealed itself by | | | | for which millions of years of natural selection have |
| the instruments that modern science has made | | | | sharpened our wits and prepared our senses. |
| possible to be far bigger, more spectacular and more | | | | And when we look toward the outer space of |
| humbling than we ever imagined it to be. | | | | galaxies and black holes, or into the inner space of |
| The universe appears big and old, dark and cold, | | | | quarks and electrons, we should expect to find few |
| hostile to life as we know it, dangerous and costly to | | | | resonances between our minds and the ways of |
| explore. Many a philosopher of the past concluded | | | | these worlds. Natural selection requires no |
| that the universe was meaningless and antithetical to | | | | understanding of quarks and black holes for our |
| life: a bleak and black realm in which our little planet is | | | | survival and multiplication. |
| a temporary outcome of the blind forces of nature. | | | | And yet, we find these expectations turned upon |
| Yet, appearances may again be deceptive. | | | | their heads. The most precise and reliable knowledge |
| Over the past 75 years, astronomers have illuminated | | | | we have about anything in the universe is of events |
| the vault of the heavens in a completely unexpected | | | | in a binary star system more than 3,000 light-years |
| way. The universe is not only big, but it is also | | | | from our planet and in the subatomic world of |
| getting bigger. It is expanding. Great clusters of | | | | electrons and light rays, where it is accurate to |
| galaxies are moving away from each other at | | | | better than nine decimal places. And curiously, our |
| increasing speeds. This means that the size of the | | | | greatest uncertainties all relate to the local problems |
| universe we can see is inextricably bound up with its | | | | of understanding ourselves - human societies, human |
| age. It is big because it is old. | | | | behavior and human minds - all the things that really |
| These huge periods of time are important for our | | | | mattered for human survival. But that is because |
| own existence. We are made of complicated atoms | | | | they need to be complex: Were our minds simple |
| of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, along with many | | | | enough to be understood, they would be too simple |
| others. Maybe one day other forms of terrestrial | | | | to understand. |
| intelligence will be made of silicon atoms. The nuclei of | | | | In all the science we pursue, we are used to seeing |
| all these atoms do not come ready-made with the | | | | progress. Our first attempts to grasp the laws of |
| universe. They are put together by a long | | | | nature are often incomplete. They capture just a |
| slow-burning sequence of nuclear reactions in the | | | | part of the truth, or they see it through a glass only |
| stars. It takes almost 10 billion years for this stellar | | | | darkly. |
| alchemy to burn hydrogen to helium, and on to | | | | Some think that our progress is like a never-ending |
| beryllium, and carbon and oxygen and beyond, before | | | | sequence of revolutions that overthrow the old |
| the dying stars explode in supernovae and spread | | | | order, condemned never to converge upon anything |
| their life-giving debris around the universe where it | | | | more definitive than a more useful style of thinking. |
| finds its way into grains of dust, planets, and | | | | But scientific progress doesn't look like that from the |
| ultimately into people. The nucleus of every carbon | | | | inside. Our new theories extend and subsume old |
| atom in our bodies has been through a star. We are | | | | ones. The former theories are recovered in some |
| closer to the stars than we could ever have | | | | limited situation - slow motions, weak gravitational |
| imagined. | | | | fields, large sizes, or low energies - from the new. |
| Driven to understand | | | | Newton's 300-year-old theory of mechanics and |
| Astronomy has transformed the simple-minded, | | | | gravity has been superseded by Einstein's, which will |
| life-averse, meaningless universe of the skeptical | | | | be succeeded by M theory or its unknown successor |
| philosophers. It breathes new life into so many | | | | in the future. But in a thousand years' time |
| religious questions of ultimate concern and | | | | schoolchildren will still study Newton's theories and |
| never-ending fascination. Many of the deepest and | | | | engineers will still rely upon them just as they do |
| most engaging questions that we grapple with still | | | | today. They will be the simple limiting form for slow |
| about the nature of the universe have their origins in | | | | motions and weak gravity of the ultimate theory, |
| our purely religious quest for meaning. | | | | whatever it turns out to be. |
| The concept of a lawful universe with order that can | | | | In our religious conceptions of the universe, we also |
| be understood and relied upon emerged largely out | | | | use approximations and analogies to have some |
| of religious beliefs about the nature of God. The | | | | grasp of ultimate things. They are not the whole |
| atomistic picture of matter arose long before there | | | | truth, but this does not stop them being a part of |
| could have been any experimental evidence for or | | | | the truth -- a shadow that is cast in a limiting situation |
| against it. | | | | of some simplicity. Our scientific picture of the |
| Out of these beliefs came confidence that there was | | | | universe has revealed time and again how blinkered |
| an unchanging order behind the appearances that | | | | and conservative our outlook has often been, how |
| was worth studying. Great questions about the origin | | | | self-serving our interim picture of the universe, how |
| and end of the universe, possibly the sources of all | | | | mundane our expectations, and how parochial our |
| observed complexity, and the potential infinity of | | | | attempts to find or deny the links between scientific |
| space grew out of our religious focus on the great | | | | and religious approaches to the nature of the |
| questions of existence and the nature of God. | | | | universe. |