Richest grant goes to cosmologist who says religion best explains laws of universe

[Kulapavana]

MICHAEL VALPY

 

Cambridge University cosmologist and mathematician John Barrow was awarded $1.6-million yesterday to do research into whether God is sitting at the control panel behind the Theory of Everything about the universe.

 

He won the 2006 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities, the world's richest individual scholarly research grant. Its initiator, mutual-fund investor Sir John Templeton, specified that it be worth more than the Nobel Prize (which is worth about $1.5-million) so the media would take it seriously.

 

Dr. Barrow, 53, author of 17 books and one play (about infinity), believes that monotheistic religious thought about God and creation offers a better explanation than anything else, including most science, of how the universe works.

 

He is one of the leading proponents of the anthropic principle of the universe, the dials-set-right idea -- the notion that the universe is, in Goldilocks's words, "just right" for life on Earth. Because if it were a little bigger or smaller, a little colder or warmer, a little younger or older, then life wouldn't exist.

 

His ideas and research fit to a T many theologians' underlying notions of the new cosmology, the idea that, because the universe did not create itself, it must have a cause separate from itself. Or as one of them, reading Dr. Barrow's acceptance speech for his award, said admiringly: "I wish I'd said that."

 

Dr. Barrow is director of Cambridge's Millennium Mathematics Project and Gresham professor of astronomy at London's Gresham College, the world's oldest science professorship, founded in 1596. He has been a popular writer in Britain since the publication of his 1986 book, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, co-authored with

mathematician Frank Tipler, and has lectured on cosmology at the Venice Film Festival, 10 Downing St., Windsor Castle and the Vatican.

 

His most recent book is The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless. His 2002 play, Infinities, was a smash hit for the two seasons it ran at Milan's La Scala.

 

Dr. Barrow said in an interview yesterday he is not sure yet how he will use the money. He also said he doesn't think the U.S.-based John Templeton Foundation, which oversees selection of the award's annual winner, had any particular expectations of what research he would do.

 

The essence of his research, as he put it, is the quest for the simple laws -- "perhaps just one law" -- that lie behind all the complexities of the universe, "like the laws of nature that are so impressively, beautifully symmetrical, but can have such highly irregular, asymmetrical outcomes."

 

What has attracted the Templeton Foundation is his engagement with the structure of the universe and its laws that make life possible, as well as the multidisciplinary perspectives he has developed on the limits of scientific explanation and the mysteries of nothingness and infinity.

 

"Over the past 75 years," he says, "astronomers have illuminated the vault of the heavens in a completely unexpected way."

 

They have found, he says, a universe not only bigger than was once thought, but getting bigger. They have found that life on Earth comprises complicated atoms of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen whose nuclei took almost 10 billion years to be formed by "stellar alchemy" before being blasted through the universe by the explosions of dying stars.

 

"So you begin to understand why it is no surprise that the universe seems so big and so old. It takes nearly 10 billion years to make the building blocks of living complexity in the stars and, because the universe is expanding, it must be at least 10 billion light years in size. We could not exist in a universe that was significantly smaller.

 

"The vastness of the universe is often cited as evidence for the extreme likelihood of life elsewhere. [but] while there may be life, even conscious life, elsewhere, sheer size is not compelling. The universe needs to be billions of light years in size just to support one lonely outpost of life."

 

Dr. Barrow says that astronomy's revelations -- that a big, old, dark, cold universe with its planets and stars and galaxies separated by vast distances is necessary for the creation and existence of pinpricks of life -- have "transformed the simple- minded, life-averse, meaningless universe of the skeptical philosophers.

 

"It breathes new life into so many religious questions of ultimate concern and never-ending fascination. Many of the deepest and most engaging questions that we grapple with still about the nature of the universe have their origins in our purely religious quest for meaning.

 

"We see now how it is possible for a universe that displays unending complexity and exquisite structure to be governed by a few simple laws that are symmetrical and intelligible, laws which govern the most remarkable things in our universe -- populations of elementary 'particles' that are everywhere perfectly identical.

 

"There are some who say that just because we use our minds to appreciate the order and complexity of the universe around us, there is nothing more to that order than what is imposed by the human mind. That is a serious misjudgment." <!--IBF.ATTACHMENT_25629-->

[D B Cooper Jr]

Wow!

 

I am hoping they will give me double that if I hand them a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, lets just hope they are able to grasp its essence. Finally I may have found a get rich quick scheme that will take care of me for the rest of my life! Just kidding.

 

Seriously though that is good news and hopefully academia will take his research seriously and then the public will accept it as truth and it will lead the public to abandon atheistic philosophies and usher in a new era of peaceful theism and the inhabitants of this dreadful planet will become pacified and content.

[Guest guest]

I doubt Hinduism, in any of its forms is what he had in mind when he said religion had the right ideas about the universe.

 

He probably wants to prove christianity's supremacy or something.

[D B Cooper Jr]

You may be right. But American academia is full of very cynical, materially minded people so to see them take baby steps toward accepting some sort of order to the universe is in my mind a positive development. Full blown Krsna Consciousness they are probably not prepared for yet, very few people I know are. Most of the people I know go apesh*t at the thought of giving up drugs, sex and alcohol and accepting a higher authority so we got to take it slow.

[Guest guest]

WELCOME TO SUPPORT EAST WEST INTERACTION

 

INTRODUCTION: COSMOLOGY VEDAS

 

BY VIDYARDHI NANDURI.

 

WHAT IS COSMOLOGY?

A Borderland between Science and Philosophy.

Both Scientists and Philosophers could be ignorant with t he exception of a few Noble Souls. Both of these groups do not wish to enter in to the other side of the fence. How to break the barrier?

If we need to strive for completeness : i.e., total comprehension with divine understanding of (1). Science in Philosophy and (2). Philosophy of Science, one needs direction,

 

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Scientific aspects in relation to the Universe

Many other aspects incidental for the growth of Science and knowledge

The gaps that may crop up – future generations to digest, analyse and progress for the welfare of Humanity.

NECESSITY-DEMAND-CURIOSITY and SUSTENANCE

The Science of Cosmology and Vedas is essentially a search for UNITY in diversity.

The Cosmology Scientists are in search for evolution of complete cosmic Energy and Philosophers are in search for Divine Consciousness beyond Intellect.

The present Society is passing through three-tier conflicts of minds.

A Center for interlinks helps all mankind in many Knowledge fields :

 

1. The Science of Philosophy: Divinity, Vedas, Upanishads, Temples & Yoga

2. Philosophy of Science : Plasmas, Electro-magnetic fields and Cosmology

3. Resource : Reflectors,3-Tier Consciousness, Source, Fields and Flows

4. Noble Cause : Human-Being, Environment, Divine Nature and Harmony

 

 

 

BOOKS:

 

Edit Summary:Cosmology,Cosmogony,Space Science,Philosophy,

 

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PLASMA VISION OF THE UNIVERSE-1993 (Reg No: TXU 729718 ) (No# Pages-95, Figures 58)

THE VISION OF COSMIC TO *PREM UNIVERSE-1995 (Reg No: TXU 893693 ) *PREM: Plasma Regulated Electro-Magnetic Universe (No# Pages 148, Figures 56)

VEDIC VISION OF THE UNIVERSE-1996(Reg No:TXU729719)(No# Pages 137, Figures 35)

VEDIC VISION OF THE UNIVERSE-II, 1997(Reg No: TXU 893691)(No# Pages 122, Figures 16). It is Based on Vedas,Upanishads and Scientific relevance to Cosmology

VEDIC VISION OF THE UNIVERSE- Part 3, 1997 (No# Pages 150). Background information on Vedas, Puranas articles on Cosmology

THE SCIENTIFIC ESSENCE OF COSMIC PHILOSOPHY-1999 (Reg No: TXU 982-556 ) (No# Pages 88, Figures 39) It is based on the science of philosophy and the philosophy of science and integration.

OM COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS TO COSMOLOGY REVISION-2000(Reg No: TXU 982-559) (No# Pages 94, Figures 16)

FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE (1996) Background Research Papers: NEWTON to PRESENT DAY (No# Pages 175)(Being updated)

NEW-BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT:SEARCH BEYOND DARK MATTER TXU 1-282-571 JUNE 2005

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Articles from cosmologyreview.com by author

The Cosmic Vison of the Universe: Part I - Basic Approach..available US $8 includes Postage

The Cosmic Vison of the Universe: Part II Scientific Approach -available US $6 includes postage

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MICHAEL VALPY

 

Cambridge University cosmologist and mathematician John Barrow was awarded $1.6-million yesterday to do research into whether God is sitting at the control panel behind the Theory of Everything about the universe.

 

He won the 2006 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities, the world's richest individual scholarly research grant. Its initiator, mutual-fund investor Sir John Templeton, specified that it be worth more than the Nobel Prize (which is worth about $1.5-million) so the media would take it seriously.

 

Dr. Barrow, 53, author of 17 books and one play (about infinity), believes that monotheistic religious thought about God and creation offers a better explanation than anything else, including most science, of how the universe works.

 

He is one of the leading proponents of the anthropic principle of the universe, the dials-set-right idea -- the notion that the universe is, in Goldilocks's words, "just right" for life on Earth. Because if it were a little bigger or smaller, a little colder or warmer, a little younger or older, then life wouldn't exist.

 

His ideas and research fit to a T many theologians' underlying notions of the new cosmology, the idea that, because the universe did not create itself, it must have a cause separate from itself. Or as one of them, reading Dr. Barrow's acceptance speech for his award, said admiringly: "I wish I'd said that."

 

Dr. Barrow is director of Cambridge's Millennium Mathematics Project and Gresham professor of astronomy at London's Gresham College, the world's oldest science professorship, founded in 1596. He has been a popular writer in Britain since the publication of his 1986 book, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, co-authored with

mathematician Frank Tipler, and has lectured on cosmology at the Venice Film Festival, 10 Downing St., Windsor Castle and the Vatican.

 

His most recent book is The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless. His 2002 play, Infinities, was a smash hit for the two seasons it ran at Milan's La Scala.

 

Dr. Barrow said in an interview yesterday he is not sure yet how he will use the money. He also said he doesn't think the U.S.-based John Templeton Foundation, which oversees selection of the award's annual winner, had any particular expectations of what research he would do.

 

The essence of his research, as he put it, is the quest for the simple laws -- "perhaps just one law" -- that lie behind all the complexities of the universe, "like the laws of nature that are so impressively, beautifully symmetrical, but can have such highly irregular, asymmetrical outcomes."

 

What has attracted the Templeton Foundation is his engagement with the structure of the universe and its laws that make life possible, as well as the multidisciplinary perspectives he has developed on the limits of scientific explanation and the mysteries of nothingness and infinity.

 

"Over the past 75 years," he says, "astronomers have illuminated the vault of the heavens in a completely unexpected way."

 

They have found, he says, a universe not only bigger than was once thought, but getting bigger. They have found that life on Earth comprises complicated atoms of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen whose nuclei took almost 10 billion years to be formed by "stellar alchemy" before being blasted through the universe by the explosions of dying stars.

 

"So you begin to understand why it is no surprise that the universe seems so big and so old. It takes nearly 10 billion years to make the building blocks of living complexity in the stars and, because the universe is expanding, it must be at least 10 billion light years in size. We could not exist in a universe that was significantly smaller.

 

"The vastness of the universe is often cited as evidence for the extreme likelihood of life elsewhere. [but] while there may be life, even conscious life, elsewhere, sheer size is not compelling. The universe needs to be billions of light years in size just to support one lonely outpost of life."

 

Dr. Barrow says that astronomy's revelations -- that a big, old, dark, cold universe with its planets and stars and galaxies separated by vast distances is necessary for the creation and existence of pinpricks of life -- have "transformed the simple- minded, life-averse, meaningless universe of the skeptical philosophers.

 

"It breathes new life into so many religious questions of ultimate concern and never-ending fascination. Many of the deepest and most engaging questions that we grapple with still about the nature of the universe have their origins in our purely religious quest for meaning.

 

"We see now how it is possible for a universe that displays unending complexity and exquisite structure to be governed by a few simple laws that are symmetrical and intelligible, laws which govern the most remarkable things in our universe -- populations of elementary 'particles' that are everywhere perfectly identical.

 

"There are some who say that just because we use our minds to appreciate the order and complexity of the universe around us, there is nothing more to that order than what is imposed by the human mind. That is a serious misjudgment." <!--IBF.ATTACHMENT_25629-->

[Nrsinghadev]

Hare Krishna,

 

this reminds me of a audiolecture of Prabhupada I recently heard. There he said that when two material scientists work equally hard towards the same object having the same material knowledge, but only one will get the recognition, that person is favored by God. He gave the example that a professor Bose actualy invented the telex, but another professor named Marconi just took his idea and presented it first, so he got all the credit for it. Thus it was explained that Marconi was favored by God and not Bose, indicating that there is nothing we can do to increase our good fortune, which like bad fortune will come automatically therefore working very hard, striving for material gain is considered foolishness because these material circumstances are already written in stone.

 

Now as a testimony to the rascaldom of this age, this professor is getting credit for re-telling what has been told in scriptures for thousands and thousands of years, and they're giving him a prize for drawing the same conclusion but presenting it in his own words through the means of material science.

I doubt it that if a representative of the Krishna consciousness movement would walk up to that commitee simply presenting God's words to them that that devotee would also receive sponsorship like that. They probably wouldn't even take him serious, unless he wears a suit and tie.

But isn't this an indication that the Lord does not favor His devotees? No. God favors the jiva accordingly so a materialist receives the favor in the form of the very perishable and temporary benefit of money whereas the devotee receives the favor in the form of the priceless and eternal love of Godhead.

 

Haribol!