The Black Vault - The Absence of Perfection

Dartmouth astronomer Marcelo Gleiser is happy to trade religion for science.

by Cindy Kuzma

The universe is not a perfect place-it's constantly changing, and it isn't flawless or complete. Our knowledge of it isn't perfect either, as astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser is the first to admit. We're in the middle of a revolution in our knowledge of the cosmos, thanks to technology and new data-we now know, for instance, that the universe is not only expanding, it's accelerating. But we don't know what powers that acceleration. That's what's so fascinating about science, Gleiser says: "Nature keeps bringing us surprises."

Brazilian-born Gleiser is the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College. His books include The Dancing Universe: From Creation Myths to the Big Bang and The Prophet and the Astronomer: A Scientific Journey to the End of Time.

S&S: From ancient Celtic Druids to Heaven's Gate-the group that killed themselves in 1997 because they thought a spaceship traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet would take them to heaven-you write about our spiritual fixation with the skies and our lasting fear that we can foresee the end of all life there. Can science illuminate our fears?

Marcelo Gleiser: Absolutely. Science is what Carl Sagan once called a candle in the dark-it doesn't promise eternal salvation. That is not its intention. But science does allow people to think for themselves about the processes that guide their lives. In giving a rational perspective of the world and life, science brings freedom to people. You don't just bend to what is predicted by faith alone.

Superstition can be a very paralyzing thing in people's lives-some people will not leave home before reading their horoscopes, because they mold their behavior according to a few lines in a newspaper. I always say that what science does is transform mystery-the unknown-into a rational challenge. In doing that, it gives people a chance to be free, and that is really important.

S&S: You are not a religious man yourself, correct?

MG: Right.

S&S: But you've said that to live without religion, you have to accept that you live in doubt. Much of your work is fueled by the "big questions" in life. Is science your way of trying to overcome a part of that doubt about our existence and purpose, to sort of beat time into submission?

MG: Yes-science is the way. Clearly, I have some quality of spirituality that is channeled toward my science. Ever since I can remember, I did ask these big questions. I was really amazed when I realized that you could ask these questions within science. In each faith, you have a different theory for creation, or for the end of creation. But in science, you have different theories that can actually be discussed and compared to data and you can actually come to an agreement. I was fascinated by that. I consider myself in that sense a spiritual heir of Einstein. Here we are, spending our lives trying to understand how nature works, trying to unveil all these mysteries of the universe. Einstein thought of that as a very religious activity, and I share that thought.

I think the religion and the science that I write about make me whole. I try to be a very conciliatory scientist. Some of my colleagues try to create this deep wedge between science and religion that ends up ostracizing us scientists, because we are in the minority: Many more people believe in God than believe in science. I think that in order for science to really penetrate into the deepest sector of our population, we have to make an effort to establish a dialogue between religion and science. Historically they were together-they came from the same spring, so to speak.

S&S: One of the most simple, beautiful statements in the book is this: "Time is the absence of perfection." What do you mean by this, and how does our perception of time affect our science and our spiritual practices?

MG: In physics, the second law of thermodynamics tells you that everything tends to become more and more disorganized as time goes by. At some point, when things are completely disorganized-when they reach entropy, the maximum level of disorganization-then time stops. There is nothing else for the system to do, in a sense. That instance in which there is absolutely no structure is a state of perfection, because nothing else can happen to the system.

From a more spiritual or religious point of view, well, what happens in paradise? Paradise is precisely where everything is eternal, everything is perfect, and nothing changes in paradise, because there is no need to change something that is already perfect. Time there doesn't flow either, because it doesn't have to. There's this parallel between the absence of change in a physical system because it reached its state of most perfection, of most equilibrium, and this religious idea that in paradise, there shouldn't be any time, because everything is perfect already. In perfection, there is no need for time.

http://www.science-spirit.org/articles/articledetail.cfm?article_id=355