Some people go to Africa, others to Asia. I went to MIT, and I was nervous. I was there to nail seven scientific challenges on the door of the church of atheism. But just days before, at the request of student atheists, MIT agreed to ban mention of God and prayer from its commencement ceremonies.
Forty-three short years ago I received my Bachelor’s degree from MIT. During that time, I took seven semesters of16 math courses along the way and also majored in physics. I was back to talk about my book – “Counting to God: A Personal Journey Through Science to Belief”. MIT set me up in one of their modern lecture rooms, and my friend who is head of the Physics Department agreed to introduce me. But would anybody show up? Would people try to disrupt the talk? I was nervous.
I’m told the count was 118 people; not bad considering commencement was the week before and the campus was quiet. It was a mix of students, faculty, and the general Cambridge community including some folks from Harvard. The talk went well; I saw nods of understanding and light bulbs coming on with smiles as I “counted” through seven wonders of modern science: the creation of the universe, the fine-tuning of the universe, the origin of life, the technology of life, the puzzles of macroevolution, the special qualities of Earth, and the non-material nature of the universe as revealed by quantum physics. A video of my talk and my slides should be available soon on countingtogod.com. I hope you get to see them and let me know how you think it went. My friend the Physics professor, who hosts dozens of events each year, told me he received at least five emails later thanking him for sponsoring the talk, and that he couldn’t remember the last time he got that kind of email.
Why did I go to MIT? I went to spread the word that science and religion are not opposites. I went to show the objective basis for belief, that math and science facts support belief in God. I went to expose Scientism, the belief that science can or will explain everything without God, as just a system of belief. I went to spread the word that modern science strongly supports belief in God. That’s why I wrote my book, and that’s why I’m writing this blog.
More next week. Thanks for reading.