Rev. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J. Ph.D. (President, Magis Center on Science, Reason, and Faith; Former President, Gonzaga University) “Why Is There Increasing Openness to Transcendent Intelligence in Contemporary Big Bang Cosmology?, 2/8/2024, Gonzaga Faith & Reason Institute, Gonzaga University
Today, scientists are more open to belief in the transcendent than ever before. In the last Pew Survey of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 51% of scientists overall and 66% of young scientists declared themselves to be believers in God or a higher transcendent power. What has produced this sharp increase in theism? Fr Spitzer will consider three major reasons:
• The evidence of the high unlikelihood of eternal inflation and an infinite multiverse (by Stephen Hawking, Thomas Hertog, and others) has reignited the problem of fine-tuning for life in the exceedingly, exceedingly improbable initial conditions and constants of our universe.
• The increasing acknowledgement (even among atheists such as Thomas Nagel) that physical processes and structures alone cannot explain the quantum and mind-like dimensions of our universe.
• The recent peer-reviewed medical studies of near-death experiences and terminal lucidity that present convincing evidence (summarized in the 2022 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences) of a credible possibility of consciousness surviving bodily death. The mysterious nature of our universe and our mind points beyond materialism -- to something like transcendent intelligence.
Rev. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J. Ph.D., is a Jesuit priest, teacher, author, and lecturer on topics ranging from ethics, philosophy, and the relationship between modern physics and Christian faith. Fr. Spitzer has academic degrees from the Gregorian University and the Weston School (Cambridge), and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America and has taught philosophy and business ethics at Georgetown University and Seattle University.
Fr Spitzer led Gonzaga University as President from 1998 to 2009, at which time he significantly increased programs and curricula in faith, ethics, service, and leadership, guided efforts to build 20 new facilities, increased the student population by 75%, raised more than $200 million for scholarships and capital projects, and founded the Gonzaga Faith & Reason Institute.
Fr Spitzer has made many television appearances and currently appears weekly on EWTN in “Father Spitzer’s Universe.” Among Fr. Spitzer’s many works are the books The Soul’s Upward Yearning: Clues to Our Transcendent Nature from Experience and Reason; The Light Shines on in The Darkness: Transforming Suffering through Faith; New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions to Late Twentieth Century Physics and Philosophy; Evidence for God from Contemporary Science and Philosophy, and the recently released Science at the Doorstep to God: Science and Reason in Support of God, the Soul, and Life after Death (Ignatius 2023), on which this talk is based.
Fr Spitzer currently directs the Magis Center on Science, Reason, and Faith, which offers Fr Spitzer’s unique take on the complementarity of faith & reason as found in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and in dialogue with contemporary philosophy and natural science. Information about Fr Spitzer's books, videos, and other resources on faith and science are available on the Center's website (www.magiscente...).
Gonzaga Faith & Reason Institute
Gonzaga University
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