Between Heaven & Earth
Science and Belief in the Nuclear Age
by Peter E. Hodgson
Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University, 2005
(366 pages, $27.95, paperback)
reviewed by Anne Barbeau Gardiner
In this collection of 26 essays and reviews published mostly over the last six years in a range of popular and academic journals, Peter Hodgson, an eminent nuclear physicist at Oxford University, discusses in a clear, forceful style the connections between religion, philosophy, and science.
The five sections of the book cover theology and science, the philosophy of science, modern physics, nuclear power, and science and society. The topics of the essays range from the Judeo-Christian origin of modern science, the “Mind” of the universe, and chance and time, to the thought of Christian humanists like Newman and Chesterton.
Science, Hodgson notes, is based on the belief that the world is “good, rational, contingent, and open to the human mind,” a belief rooted in Christianity and lacking in all ancient civilizations. Modern physics is even now “sustained” by these Christian roots.
Although there is a “methodological gap” between science and religion—empirical research cannot produce ethical principles, much less explain why we and the universe exist—many scientists “regard their work as a religious quest.” Indeed, that quest presupposes an ethics it cannot itself produce: It requires “open-mindedness, detachment, and respect for rational arguments, recognition of our fallibility, and intellectual honesty.”
The best scientists are realists, Hodgson insists, quoting Einstein in 1941: “The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science.” In a chapter on “Einstein’s Religion,” Hodgson explains that he regarded science and religion as “complementary,” and while he was not affiliated with any organized religion, he recognized “a mind behind nature,” though not a personal God.
Realistic Relativity
In an essay subtitled “The Abuse of Einstein’s Theory,” Hodgson explains that even the theory of relativity, often asserted against metaphysical realism, makes clear “the basic rationality and coherence of the physical world” and establishes “the objective and invariant features of the world,” so that “absolute space and time remain at the basis of physics.” Asked in 1935 what effect his theory would have on religion, Einstein replied, “It makes no difference.”
Hodgson also provides a highly readable account of the various interpretations of quantum mechanics, “a formal mathematical theory of great power and beauty” that has been used for 70 years with “outstanding success.” Quantum mechanical calculations refer to the result of measuring a large number of systems as though existing in empty space. As Einstein warned, such calculations do not describe completely “each individual system,” and only when this addition is made can one have a “fully realistic account of the world.”
But, Hodgson argues, according to the influential Copenhagen interpretation (derived from philosophical positivism in the 1920s), quantum mechanics deals not with the real world, but with the way we think about it. This school permitted only statistical statements and excluded “all reference to an underlying reality.” Heisenberg even claimed that quantum mechanics had “disproved” causality and that reality could now be seen as the product of the “act of observation.”
Anne Barbeau Gardiner is Professor Emerita of English at John Jay College of the City University of New York. She has published on Dryden, Milton, and Swift, as well as on Catholics of the 17th century.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on science from the online archives
28.2—March/April 2015
Why Scientism's Cherished Progress Narrative Fails by Jonathan Witt
29.4—July/August 2016
on Noticing That Modern Science Has Rendered Atheism Irrational by Harry Biltz
more from the online archives
29.3—May/June 2016
A Deathbed Reflection on Catholic Social Teaching & Our Future Prospects by Karl D. Stephan
33.4—July/August 2020
on Boethius's Consolation in a Time of Plague by Thomas Albert Howard
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
