Program
God and Science: A Seminar of Contemporary Viewpoints
Room 302 (“Einstein Room”), Frist Campus Center, Princeton University
September 20, 2025
9:00-9:05 Welcome: Robert Kaita
9:05 – 9:10Introduction: Jean Staune
9:15 – 10:00 Astronomy: “Mysterious is the cosmos: How did the Big Bang make conscious people?”
- John Mather: Astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Nobel Prize in Physics, one of the leaders of the James Webb Space Telescope project and the COBE satellite.
10:00 – 10:45 Astronomy: A growing universe of beauty, activity, and complexity
- Jennifer Wiseman: Astronomer; Director Emeritus of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); Senior Astrophysicist; Goddard Space Flight Center
10:45 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 11:45 Science and Religion: Quantum Science, Reality, and Religion: One Physicist’s Viewpoint
- William Philips: Quantum physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics, Professor at the University of Maryland and researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. (remote presentation via Zoom)
11:45 – 12:30 Quantum physics: Modern Physics and Faith in Things Unseen – need to modify because of overlap with Philips’ presentation
Robert Kaita: Physicist, Senior Physicist at Princeton University's Plasma Physics Laboratory
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch
1:30 – 2:15 Neuroscience: For a broader conception of consciousness
- Eben Alexander: Neurosurgeon, former professor at Harvard Medical School
2:15 – 3:00 Biology: A Challenge to Genetic Reductionism: A New View of Evolutionary Theory
- Daniel Kuebler: Professor of Biology, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Vice-President, Society of Catholic Scientists
3:00 – 3:15 Break
3:15 – 4:00 Science and Religion: Why recent scientific discoveries are more favorable to a non-materialist worldview
- Steve Barr: Professor of Physics, University of Delaware, President of the International Association of Catholic Scientists.
4:00 – 4:45 God in Science: Panel Discussion – questions to be determined by final list of participants
- Participants
Robert Kaita, moderator
Andrew Bocarsly, Physical Chemistry, Princeton University
Marcus Gibson, Program in Catholic Thought, Princeton University
Lara Buchak, Philosophy of Religion, Princeton University*
Hans Halvorsen, Philosophy of Science, Princeton University
Juan Maldacena, Theoretical Physics, Institute for Advanced Study*
James Stone, Astrophysics, Institute for Advanced Study
4:45 – 5:20 God and Science: From Adversaries to Allies
- Excerpts from film “God and Science”
- Michel Yves Bolloré, Engineer
- Olivier Bonnassies, Ecole Polytechnique , co-authors of book « God, the Science, the Evidence »
5:20 – 5:30 Concluding remarks: Jean Staune
5:30 Adjourn
Albert Einstein
“Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man”.
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Roger Penrose
"This now tells us how precise the Creator’s aim must have been : namely to an accuracy of one part in 10 to the power of 10 123. This is an extraordinary number."
Christian De Duve
"God plays dice because he is sure to win. I opted for a meaningful universe, not a meaningless one. Not because I wanted it to be that way, but because that’s how I interpret the scientific data we have. The Universe was “pregnant with life” and the biosphere with man"
James Jeans
“The stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a machine.”
Arno Penzias
"The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five Books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole. The Big Bang is a moment of discrete creation from Nothing"
Werner Heisenberg