- Stephen C. on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, January 2025: “Gary Bergera: Of course! Mark Ashurst-McGee: You’re going to have to be a little clearer about what you’re not impressed about.” Jan 30, 10:30
- on Cutting Edge Latter-day Saint Research, January 2025: “These surveys are always helpful. Thanks again, Stephen.” Jan 30, 09:33
- on 20th and 21st Century Physicist Disciple-Scholars: “From autobiographical notes by Jan Burgers: “As I mentioned before, I have been educated without any church connection. It is only in later life that I developed interest in religious matters and obtained some understanding for their importance. I cannot believe in a personal God and I never feel an inclination to pray. What I possess as religious feeling probably comes from my mother,although there is in it a part derived from my father’s idealism and, if I may say so, from his mental courage, reinterpreted in a way which grew up in my own mind. Here in this country (the United States) my wife and I have become members of the Unitarian Church in College Park.”” Jan 29, 07:27
- on 20th and 21st Century Physicist Disciple-Scholars: “Jan Burgers (1895-1981) I attended a symposium in Burgers’ honor May 1995 and heard one of his U. of Maryland colleagues recollect his surprise at learning that Burgers had joined a church. Burgers replied something like, “Well, you know what they say about Unitarians. We believe in at most one God.” This colleague said the Unitarian mix of spirituality ruled by reason fit well with Burgers’ somewhat pantheistic sense of the organization of a world that is not only physical but also intelligent. From his son: “I shall not go further into Jan Burgers’ performance as a scholar of fluid dynamics and applied mathematics, since I am not a scientist myself and, therefore, absolutely incompetent to appraise his merits in that field. But I would like to mention that his scientific interest extended to much more than just his professional field. He was by nature not a specialist but a universalist, and he kept abreast of developments in many fields of modern science. He always had an absorbing interest in its most fundamental problems, such as the structure of the atom and the structure of the universe, quantum physics, relativity, causality, finality, and the origin of life. One problem that fascinated him in particular was that of the relationships and contrasts between the phenomena of life and the phenomena of physics. He felt a need for an encompassing philosophical vision in which ·those two sets of phenomena would be brought together. “In his forties he became familiar of the American scientist and philosopher Alfred Whitehead, and he became convinced that those ideas came closest to solving the mystery that obsessed him. Ever since, his ambition was to develop Whitehead’s ideas into a coherent and comprehensive view of the world. This resulted in several writings and eventually in his book on Experience and Conceptual Activity, which was published in 1965, when he was seventy years old. The lack of response met by these writings must have been one of the gravest disappointments in his life.” [ . . . ] [ Of his move to Maryland from the Netherlands ] “The fact that Jan Burgers succeeded so well in taking root in his new country is something he owed partly to himself and partly to his wife, Anna, who was an excellent complement to his personality by her independent character, her practicality, and her keen personal interest in people. Whereas in the beginning it was, of course, mainly Jan Burgers’ professional contacts that brought them into touch with new friends, she soon brought in friends of her own. It was on her initiative that they entered the Unitarian Church. This proved to be a most valuable step, because there they found themselves members of a community of like-minded people who responded to my father’s needs for intellectual and personal contact. I am deeply grateful for the friendship he experienced in that community. I am particularly thankful for the sense of solidarity displayed by those Unitarian friends who gave tireless help to my parents when their life became clouded by my father’s creeping disease.”” Jan 29, 07:13
- on 20th and 21st Century Physicist Disciple-Scholars: “Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astrophysicist, discover of pulsars, quaker Author of A Quaker Astronomer Reflects: Can a Scientist also be Religious? Synopsis Can a scientist also be religious? How, and with what limitations? World renowned astronomer and Quaker Jocelyn Bell Burnell reflects on the big issues confronting scientists who also have a strong spiritual belief system. How can the principles of science be reconciled with the faith required by religion? Does scientific investigation call into question the givens of religion? While specific to her Quaker beliefs, Burnell’s reflections apply to many other religions as well. In this 2013 James Backhouse Lecture Series, sponsored by the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia, Burnell describes astronomers’ current understanding of the Universe we live in, and shows how she combines her Quakerism and her science.” Jan 29, 06:09
- on 20th and 21st Century Physicist Disciple-Scholars: “Stephen C: Francis Collins spoke at BYU last Tuesday, Jan. 27. He even had the audience sing a song with him as he played his guitar. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/francis-s-collins/the-road-to-wisdom-on-truth-science-faith-and-trust/” Jan 29, 05:37
- on 20th and 21st Century Physicist Disciple-Scholars: “I only minored in physics and that picture made me cringe. :) What makes a laser a laser is that all the light has exactly the same wavelength and is exactly in phase (due to quantum mechanical witchcraft), which is very cool. Heisenberg claimed he ensured the German nuclear effort would fail, but a lot of Germans said a lot of things after the war. Germany didn’t have the resources to get very far anyway, so it’s kind of a non-falsifiable statement. (Thank goodness. V2 rocket production relied heavily on slave labor, and more people died building them than were killed by them. A Nazi uranium enrichment plant would have been an absolute nightmare even if it never led to a bomb.) At any rate, a post demonstrating that being religious is not incompatible with being a scientist (which this post does very well) does not have to address the fact that being religious is also not incompatible with doing evil things. We can deal with that Weinberg quote another day.” Jan 28, 14:48
- on 20th and 21st Century Physicist Disciple-Scholars: “DaveW: I actually didn’t know lasers were inherently chromatic. I guess that makes sense. PWS: Yes, I will definitely include Francis Collins (who I believe is speaking at BYU soon if I’m not mistaken) when I do the biologist disciple-scholars post.” Jan 28, 10:44
- on 20th and 21st Century Physicist Disciple-Scholars: “Francis S. Collins. Director of NIH and the National Human Genome Institute. In The Language of God, he wrote that one of the things he loved about studying the human genome was that he was learning the language God used to create humans. He also said that scientific discoveries were an opportunity to worship.” Jan 28, 09:49
