WEBVTT

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[music]

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Looking at the stars has
always made us ask questions.

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Who are we? Why are we here?

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Are we alone?

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[music]

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In the old world and the new, we\'ve looked
for answers in religion and in science.

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But can one inform the other?

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Can priests be scientists?

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[music]

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30 kilometers South of Vatican City
in a village of Castel Gandolfo,

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the Pope has a summer palace. He spends two
months a year here, to escape the worst

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of the heat in Rome. But a wing of a palace

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is a sign to another purpose,
it\'s the headquarters

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of the Vatican Observatory.

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The church\'s relationship with
astronomy is as old as Christianity.

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Free wise men followed a
sign in the heavens to find

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the birth place of Christ.
The present day observatory

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was founded in 1891, as a symbol to show that
the church was not the enemy of science.

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But not everyone in the church
has accepted the implications

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of modern science.

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Father George Coyne is the Director

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of the observatory. He\'s been a
priest for more than 50 years

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and he has a PhD in astrophysics. I
believe that the work of the community

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is very highly regarded by the Vatican.
They\'ve realized that we\'re

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recognized on the international
scene but will they respect it,

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you can\'t expect them to
appreciate in any ways,

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is the wider cultural influence that our
work has for the good of the church.

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[sil.]

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I\'m not a Pope. I\'m not a Pope.

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When Father George was appointed
Director, he began a summer school

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for graduate students in
astronomy and astrophysics.

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Can I see your passports, please.
Passports.

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Although the school is funded by the Vatican, the participants
faith is not an issue. It\'s a school in observational astronomy

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and astrophysics. Students are here in
the people/paper (inaudible) palace,

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our staff are all (inaudible) priest.
And I as Director had desperately

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worked hard to keep the
schools strictly science.

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We had high quality faculty,
you select very good students,

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and instruct them in astrophysics.

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If the schools were gonna be schools in science and
religion, I wouldn\'t run the schools, I\'d start them.

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It\'s a whole other reality.
We can make no contribution,

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now you\'re able to contribution to thinks like the
science, religion dialogue, unless we\'re doing in science.

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So you can enjoy here, you
can enjoy the palace,

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the Pope is not here yet, so you don\'t
have to kneel down at any (inaudible).

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But be back at the palace front door,

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I would say, to assemble at 10:15.
Have a nice time.

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Thank you.

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For some of the visitors, the idea of doing science
in the Vatican provokes them to ask questions.

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I am not catholic, my
father is from a Jew family

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and my mother is from a catholic (inaudible)
family. I don\'t have any religion

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and I\'ve been raised
without believing in God,

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so I don\'t feel it and
for me it\'s big wonder

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how is it that a person can believe in God.

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So, strongly as a (inaudible) can do and
at the same time I\'m standing in smaller G

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or trying to muddle a world that is
supposed to have been muddled by God.

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And I see there a big paradox.

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And I don\'t understand how they
live everyday with this paradox.

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Once an astronomer came to our school and
said, \"Maybe at the end of the three

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will arrive to the same answer, that the
church has already arrived in a short way.

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We arrived to do conclusion then, yes. This
has been created by someone, \"someone\",

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some thing, and organize and settle

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and maybe will arrive to another one.
But that astronomer

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is wondering from the beginning he\'s first
point of the part he\'s saying, \"I don\'t know.\"

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But the point of the part of
it is, it is saying, \"I know.\"

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So what is he looking
for if he already know?

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[sil.]

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Amen.

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We said the judge who\'s embraced education, where
are the judge who\'s embraced the intellectual life?

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And promulgated that through education. It\'s
not the same thing, you can be a teacher

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and do nothing but teach by wrote of facts that are already
been there, but that wasn\'t what the judge would start.

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The study of the physical world is for
us, a way of getting closer to God.

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Brother Guy Consolmagno joined the Jesuit

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after doing post doctorial
work at Harvard and MIT.

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When I knew I was coming to the Vatican Observatory, I
realized there were two things I was gonna have to learn.

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One was quantum physics, cause
people would always ask me about

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Eastern Mysticism and Quantum Physics and
I better know it\'s something about both.

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And the other was Galileo. Cause I knew
people are gonna ask me about Galileo.

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[music]

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Galileo Galilei was born in 1564,

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in a time when people were
certain they understood

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the mechanism of the whole universe.

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It was orderly and protectable
and the earth was at its centre.

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The medieval study of nature confirmed
the religious belief that man

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was the focus of God\'s creation.
When Nicolaus Copernicus proposed

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that the earth moved around the
sun, it defied common sense

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because no one could feel the earth moving.
But Galileo wondered,

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he loved mathematics and he applied it

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to the motion of object.

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When he heard of an instrument that
make distant objects appear closer,

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he made one with lens in a tube.

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And then held it up to his eye
and he looked at the heavens.

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Galileo has the insight

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that Copernican system is a more
elegant system. He has the insight

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that the telescope is a tool that can help you
understand the planets and their motions.

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Now the telescope was an amazing thing because
for the first time a scientist was asked

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to depend on some instrument that
didn\'t necessarily understand

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to give them their data. So when you look at Jupiter,
and you see little dots moving on either side.

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Are those really moons going around Jupiter? Are
those internal reflections in the telescope?

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If you\'ve never used a telescope
before, how you\'re gonna know?

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[music]

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Galileo looked through the telescope and
discovered stars, hidden in the darkness.

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He set his sights on Jupiter and discovered

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four small moons moving around it.
And he knew

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that the earth wasn\'t the
centre of everything.

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Galileo, right from the beginning,
saw the dangers to the church.

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Of the new cosmology as
if were being prescribed

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being forbidden by the church because he saw the
dent, the damage that that would do to the church.

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And for he was concerned, this new
cosmology could be a major sort of

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Christian understanding,
I mean he could see

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no reason why the Bible and the new cosmology, the sun
centered cosmology, why they could not live together.

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But Galileo\'s views conflicted with

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a literal reading of the Bible.
The church declared Copernicanism

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observed in philosophy opposed to scripture

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and instructed Galileo to abandon it.

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Galileo wrote a book in
which three characters

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debated the old system and the
new over a series of days.

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In the end, he said only God could know
the true constitution of the world.

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But he had made the case for Copernicanism
so strongly that no one was fooled.

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The Pope exploded with anger

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and said Galileo had dared to enter where
he should not have, into the most serious

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and dangerous of subjects.

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Galileo was summoned by the inquisition.

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If I had held this in my
hands in the 17th century,

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I\'d be burned at the stake, you see that?

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This is his dialogue on the
two great world systems,

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(inaudible).

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This is the book for which he
was essentially (inaudible).

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Don\'t want to lose all that. (inaudible).

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[sil.]

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Galileo wasn\'t burned, he was silenced.

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Fearing the consequences if he were to declared a heretic,
he denied a theory he passionately believed was true.

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He was condemned on suspicion of heresy

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and he spent the rest of his
life here, under house arrest,

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rapidly going blind.

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[music]

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The Jesuits with the intellectual
order of the Catholic church,

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some more mathematics and astronomers
who confirmed Galileo\'s observations.

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But as an order they
obeyed church teaching.

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As Galileo was tried and punished,

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the Jesuits were building a church
to honor the founder of their order,

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St. Ignatius of Loyola, who taught them
above all to look for God in all things,

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including the discoveries of science.

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The (inaudible) architect, Grassi,

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designed it to be the
tallest church in Rome.

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He decided to have dome, a big dome
and when they built it, they built

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four huge pillars to support the weight
of the dome, but they ran out of money.

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And the first time you step into the church, you look up and see the
dome, there is the dome, it looks perfectly good. It\'s actually painted

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on a flat roof in perspective.
When you go underneath it,

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you can see it looks really strange.
It\'s not a real dome.

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Several hundred years later, in the
1860s, another Jesuit Angelo Secchi

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went to the roof of this church
where the pillar is, had been built

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to support a weight that was never put on them.
And instead he built an astronomical observatory,

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telescopes on each pillar, and
from here he was able to,

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for the first time, measure
the spectra of stories.

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From star like through prism,
measure the chemical composition

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and the temperature of a star.
And at that moment,

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stars no longer were just
points of light in the sky.

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They became places with a
chemistry and with a physics.

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Astronomy stopped being positional astronomy
and suddenly had become astrophysics.

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[music]

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What Secchi discovered in the 1860s

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was that starlight was
encoded with information.

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Astronomers could now tell the age of a
star and the elements it was made of.

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They had the information they needed to being
to discover the evolution of the universe.

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On this church,

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designed by Grassi during the
time of Galileo, Angelo Secchi

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became the Father of Astrophysics.

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It wouldn\'t be the last time Jesuits build
a telescope in a unlikely location.

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[music]

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Father George persuaded the Vatican to
build its new telescope in Arizona.

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[music]

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George has been working at the university

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of Arizona for almost 40 years.

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She\'s circled this, and given back to mediano (inaudible). Look
at that. Cool. Annie, you think I should re look at. Okay.

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He still spends five months of the
year here as a professor of Astronomy.

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Okay, I\'d like to begin, please.

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This is observational, if anything
are observational cosmology is,

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that is we have see objects a huge distances
and try and interpret the origins

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and the evolution of the
universe from what we see.

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How did the universe begin
and how is it itself aging?

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[sil.]

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There are strongly religious people not the Jesuit
astronomer phrase but others with in the catholic church

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for whom having science within their
house is a difficult proposition,

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especially when that science is one that talks
about issues like our place in the universe

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and an origin with quantum events that took place
13 billion years ago, that\'s difficult stuff

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because, you know, the theologians of
the church of the catholic church are,

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are you know, they are liberal minded
enough to almost always talk about

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Biblical documents and religious
records has been stories

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or metaphorical. There are
fundamentalist in that sense,

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a lot of American sect, or
fundamentalist, but it\'s very easy

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and discussions of cosmology to get to a juncture
where, you know, people start getting uncomfortable.

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[sil.]

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The universities mirror lab is making mirrors large
enough to look back almost to the beginning of time.

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This is not every day you see this.

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The two eight meter mirror\'s coming, the one is
polished and the other one is being polished.

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They\'ll be used in the large
binocular telescope on (inaudible).

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The world\'s next largest telescope.

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And to think that the Vatican
telescope was the first one made

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with this technique of mirrors
and a rotating furnace.

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I know my experience as a young Jesuit,

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when they decided that I should go
and do a doctorate in mathematics,

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they decided first that changed later on. A fellow
Jesuit and myself were going to study together

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so we looked around for the best schools
and the fields that we were interested in,

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we came up with such schools
as University of Pennsylvania,

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um, (inaudible) brown, and you know
the superiors of those days thought,

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you know, these young Jesuits that we send
them to one of these State Universities,

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they will lose their faith.
Specially studying the sciences,

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mean there was that kind of
attitude towards it. Well,

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that\'s an absurd attitude, certainly today. My own
experiences been that science have correctly understood,

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you really know which one\'s faith.
(inaudible)

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This is a dying star, at the end of its
life, has no more thermonuclear fuel

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and froze off its outer envelope.

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If it did not happen, you
and I would not be here.

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And that\'s not poetry, that\'s not scripture,
that\'s not theology or philosophy,

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that\'s science. You and I
simply would not be here

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if there had not been three
generations of stars

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being born and dying. So
we\'re all made of stardust.

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I\'ve a colleague at the
University of Arizona

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who says we\'re all made of thermonuclear
waste, and while it\'s the same thing,

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I preferred to call it stardust, okay.

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[music]

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How do we comprehend that
the universe evolved

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through the birth and death of stars,
to produce the elements necessary

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to form a human brain that could
contemplate the universe.

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[music]

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Reality cannot always be
imagined or experienced.

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See our experiences, material, spiritual,

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human beings is always within
a space timeframe work.

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So it\'s very difficult for us
to imagine anything existing

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that does not exist at a certain place
at a certain time, we can\'t imagine it,

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but mathematicians can compute it.

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[music]

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This is a black hole. Our mind
predicted its existence using physics

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and math long before we detected it.

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How do we take this in?

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[music]

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Father Andy Wittmen (inaudible) is retired.

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He\'s been working on the same
math problem for three years.

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I\'ve got something that\'s crept into
these numbers that should not be.

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It\'s gotta be in three places,

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and yet I haven\'t been able to find

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in those three places any error. So they
maybe a conceptual error (inaudible) back.

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Something\'s wrong somewhere.

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But that\'s the way it goes in mathematics,
the 133 pages, I mean, what can you expect.

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Good. Yes. Señor, thank you. Carry on.

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
Okay. Don\'t put up with any more of these journalists.
I know, well… Rolling out. (inaudible). Okay.

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
Thanks, Chris. When Father George
came to the Vatican Observatory,

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
there were no good viewing
sights left in Italy.

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
So he brought the Jesuit astronomers to one of the
leading centers of observational astronomy in the world.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
Our community are of religious priests
who have common spiritual heritage

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
with St Ignatius Loyola, so we share

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
a lot in our spiritual formation and
now we share a lot in our profession,

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
we\'re all scientists that
were in various fields.

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We
were the only group of research scientist sponsored

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
by a catholic church. So
we were an unusual group

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
in that sense. We take our
principle meal together,

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
we celebrate the liturgy, we live
what is called a community life.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
And yet our profession requires that we do a lot
of travel that we cannot spend a lot of time

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
praying together. We\'re active but
we should be reflectively active.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
We should realize our
action, itself is a prayer.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
One, two,

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
three, four, five…

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
We\'re heading on up to Mount
Graham which is at about

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
3,000 meters of 10,500 feet, got to do it
both way cause we got Europeans in the group.

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
And it can get very cold,
they say every 3,000 feet up

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
is like going a thousand
miles up north, very dark,

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
very dry, very remote spot.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
It\'s going to something like Canada this time
of the year, by the time I get up there.

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
[music]

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
The Vatican Advance Technology Telescope
is a four hour drive from Tucson.

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
10,000 feet above sea level.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
[music]

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
I\'m a meteoriticist. I\'m
actually interested in planets,

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
other formed where they come
from, what they\'re made out of.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
In particular with the small guys, whether the moons
of the Jupiter, or moons of the small planets,

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
going (inaudible) objects, or
the asteroids or the meteoroids

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
because, I mean, the Holy Grail is to
figure out how did the solar system form.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
And if we\'re gonna understand that,
you have to start with the small guys

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
because it should be the easiest the understand,
if we can\'t understand the small guys,

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
I have no idea how you can have any faith to understand
the big guys. Open the pod bay door (inaudible).

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
[sil.]

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
And changing focus, we\'re moving.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
We\'re there. Great, let\'s do it. Okay.
Second B? (inaudible). Yeah.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
This is an object that has been reported

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
it changes color as it spins. The guy who did
that (inaudible) very exciting observation

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
if it\'s true. But he had small telescope, he had
a (inaudible) CCD. We\'ve got a bigger telescope,

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
we\'ve got a newer and fresher
CCD, we can see deeper

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
into the blue color than he can.
(inaudible).

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
The Vatican has one of the largest
meteoroid collections in the world

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
and Guy has become its curator.

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
Astronomers claim that they study
stars and they study galaxies,

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
but really all they do is study light. All you
can actually do is study the light from a star,

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
or the light from a galaxy,
except I have in my hands,

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
in my laboratory, the
actual stuff that comes

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
from stars and galaxies and planet.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
These essentially are the primitive meteorites
and these are the processed meteorites.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
Scientifically meteorites are interesting because they\'re actually
pieces of space that comes from that place other than earth.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
They remind us that beautiful blue sky
you see is not an impenetrable shield.

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
That things actually do come from out there

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
and touch us and we can go out
through it and touch them.

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
What we have here are
actual pieces of stardust.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
This is the oldest thing you have ever seen

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
because this rock is
older than planet earth

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
and the white inclusions here are the
oldest bits of the solar system.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
[music]

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
Each of these galaxies contains
about 400 billion stars

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
and there are some 400 billion
galaxies in the universe.

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
[music]

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
Three thousand years ago, we had no
idea of what the universe was like.

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
Our picture of God was a whole lot smaller.
Our picture of God has to be different

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
by understanding the bigger context
that God must be existing here.

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
Face it, most of us stop learning about religion
or science when we\'re about 10 years old

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
and we\'re struck with a 10 year
olds understanding of both.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
There is only so much that a 10 year
old could understand, of course,

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
it\'s gonna look silly when you are 30. But
it\'s your own fault for not realizing

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
there\'s more to it than what
you learned when you were 10.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
Did it happen by chance or
did it happen by necessity?

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
I\'m talking about the life come about by chance
or by necessity. I\'m really sticking my neck out

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
now but I think this is the
point that I want to make.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
The universe is so big with so many
stars, so many sons, so many planets,

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
so much chemistry going on

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
that life to a certain
extent had to come be

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
and yeah, chance is a part of it. Now
what does this say to my religious faith,

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
and what I think it says to faith on
this issue is, my faith on this issue,

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
is that I should begin to think about God

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
more as a parent, as a generator.

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
And a wise parent knows
how to let go, you teach,

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
you give standards too but there comes a
certain time when you have to let loose.

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
So let\'s ask the hard
question, and I\'ll give a

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
answer that I\'m quite
willing to reform, okay.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
If I knew all the physics, three
billion years after the big bang,

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
could I project that life we come to be?
And my answer is no.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
And if I could not, I cannot think of God

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
as having predetermined and necessarily
knowing that life would come be.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
[music]

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
Is it (inaudible) to say

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
that God didn\'t know life would come to be?

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
Is it a heresy to think God
didn\'t control creation?

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
With God of genesis let go?

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
[music]

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
See the classical view and
certainly in catholic doctrine

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
is that when a human being comes
to be, every human being,

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
God directly creates a human soul, right.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
And I don\'t think that\'s totally
adequate to the reality,

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
okay I\'m not denying the doctrine,
okay, I\'m trying to cover my tracks.

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
But there is more to it than
that and the current Pope

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
thinks there is more to it than that,

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
but he can\'t give an answer either, we haven\'t
matured to a point where we can give an answer.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
The idea of God is evaluating,

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
as we are evaluating in understanding our
nature. And we\'re adapting this idea

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
to what we learn

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
step by step, but then

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
that would mean God didn\'t create
us but we create the God we need

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
or the God we can create
with the knowledge we have.

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:18.000
[music]

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
Galileo died under house arrest
in his home outside Florence,

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
nine years after his trail.
For 300 years no Pope

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
mentioned his name in public.

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
There is always this
dominant kind of psychology

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
of save the good name of the church.

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
So I mean you don\'t tell falsehoods,

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
you don\'t twist history into
saying what history doesn\'t say,

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
but you prejudice history so that
the church does not look bad.

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
In my attitude, if the
church has a made a mistake,

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
it\'s not the only church, the only person that
ever made a mistake, to make a mistake is human.

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
And it\'s more than human to admit you
made a mistake and move on from there

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
and the church did not. It
cut off a budding scientist

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
in his career and any time
they do that, they\'re wrong.

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
[sil.]

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
There is three things that you have to remember about
Galileo. He was a devoted catholic to the end of his days,

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
fundamentally he was right and the third thing
to remember is that the church was wrong.

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
Not for one argument or
another argument or coming

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
to a wrong decision on the trail but in
the fact that they went after Galileo

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
with the power of religion over an issue

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
that fundamentally was not religious.
I\'m not afraid. No, I know you are not.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
Yeah. How.. Why not? Because I think
the truth should be put out there

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
and then you contest it, you know, if I\'m
wrong please tell me so, and show me

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
where I\'m wrong in my judgment to the Galileo case. And,
you know, I\'d be happy to accept that if I\'m wrong.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:23.000
[sil.]

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
Look at this. It\'s a Coleotteri.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
We call it chervo. Chervo like a deer,

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
but flying deer, chervovolante.
When I was a boy,

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
I make the collection of
this type of insects,

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
which are called Coleotteri, it\'s
beautiful, some of them are very big

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
and colorful. This is one, very
common here in this region.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
Now I give him freedom.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
[sil.]

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
Look at the moon, it\'s bright (inaudible).
Very beautiful.

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
And the dome,

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
it\'s rotating.

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
[music]

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
Padre Eusebio Mehfil was a physicist,

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
he\'s been a Jesuit since he was 15.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:43.000
[music]

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
Religion could never control the
spirit of scientific discovery,

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
science can inform religion, answering
some questions and raising new ones.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
It deepens the mystery

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
and wonder in even the smallest things.

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:13.000
[music]

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
The Pope has arrived in Castel Gandolfo,

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
while he\'s living here, he blesses the public each
Wednesday in a central courtyard of the palace.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
[sil.]

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:13.000
[non-English narration]

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
The current Pope who is, you know, an
extraordinary character on the world stage

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
and who\'s social policies, I adamantly disagree with,
almost everyone of them. He is a very strong supporter

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
of science, he\'s… he\'s intellectually
open minded and has always fostered

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
science within his church, within his
Jesuit community. He paid the money

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
to get that telescope in Arizona,
he\'s supported, spoken at,

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
and blessed conferences on cosmology,
on all aspect of astronomy.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
He\'s very active and directly connected to the
science and the research that the Jesuits do,

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
so they have an extremely strong advocate.
Um, but not all

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
of the people who will and elect
the next Pope feel that way.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
I came here as Director in 1978.

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
Wow. I was appointed by John Paul 1.
He only lived for one month,

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
never met him but was appointed by him.

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
To expand the work of the observatory beyond the means of
its budget from the Vatican, George created a foundation.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
Donations helped finance the telescope
in Arizona, and research fellowships

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
for astronomers from developing countries.

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
This summer he\'s hosting a visit of
American interested in supporting the work.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
To our left here, where
you seen these ruins,

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
they go all the way down for
two football fields in length.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
That is the (inaudible) villa. It\'s the
first floor, went up two more floors

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
and looked out to sea. Oh, wow. As
you walk down there to your right…

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
Going into the future requires planning, and
it\'s not just me, it\'s the group as a whole,

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
we have to attract younger
Jesuits to work with us

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
and we have to train them, we
have to plan for their future,

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
a telescope that was new is not always new.
So enjoy walking around here,

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
do wear your badge (inaudible) this
time of the year with the Pope coming,

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
they tend to shoot first and ask later. So they
don\'t see your badge. We both forgot our badge.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
You better hang on to
your husband, dear. Okay.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
Scientists are asking ultimate questions.

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
We\'re asking how did the universe begin?

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Now how more ultimate can you get?

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:58.000
[music]

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
At some point possibly within our lifetimes we may
have to face what it means to not be the kingpins

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
of the universe as far life goes.
It\'s quite (inaudible) prospect,

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
most cosmologist speculating about
the vastness of time and space

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
and likely a number of biological experiments would
have played out on planets around other stars

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
in this or other galaxies which
say that it\'s statistically

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
highly probable not only that we\'re not alone in the
universe, that we\'re in a time scale sense inferior

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
to the most advanced creatures because
chemical like similar to our own,

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
carbon based life could have had its start
five, six, seven billion years ago.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
So just imagine a little earth like experiment
taking place that got to the point we are

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
and then went on another billion
years or two, what would you get?

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:58.000
[music]

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
The fate of the universe is very
probably to expand forever.

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
So galaxies will continue to sail apart not because
of (inaudible) but because space itself is expanding

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
and carrying them apart, and then
within galaxies all the lights

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
were gradually turned out, like someone trying
a big dimmer switch over billions of years

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
and eventually the life cycle of star birth
and death will be broken cause all the gas

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
or the hydrogen will (inaudible) stop.
It\'ll just be left with a set of…

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
a set of ambers of stars held together still
by gravity, moving apart through space.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
So it\'s probably a dead
universe in the end.

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
It\'s not a great prospect but, of
course, it\'s a distant prospect so…

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
In about 4 billion years,

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
our sun horadically change,
becoming a red giant

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
and consuming our earth,

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
then it will fade and die.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
The physical universe
is destined to a cold,

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
cold death. That\'s what we know
scientifically about the universe,

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
but that\'s my point, in the
process of this happening,

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
at least in us, it appears something else has
happened, that is the spirit has horizon.

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
And my belief is as a human being now, as a
Christian, that we transcend this process.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
We transcend this physical
process, this chemical process,

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
this biological process, we transcended.

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:58.000
Now I\'m not saying, I\'m not pooh-poohing
what\'s gonna happen to the material universe,

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
it\'s been the cradle for
the spirit emerging.

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
Death, our short life,

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
why to do things if it\'s so short,
why to behave it if it\'s so short.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
It has to be an award at the end, that would
be eternity for instance, through our soul,

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
through many lives in Buddhism, so I
don\'t think it\'s easy to live thinking

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
it\'s 70, 80, 90 years and that\'s it.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
It\'s not easy for me to live
with it but I kind of accept it.

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
Maybe it would be good if I could believe,

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
my education put me in front of this reality
and that\'s it, I cannot switch now.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:53.000
[sil.]

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
Can religion and science be reconciled?

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
Our faith and reason both
responses to the beauty

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
and the mystery that surround us.

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
Can they be held imbalance
on life\'s journey?

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
This is our faith and we rejoice in being able
to (inaudible) it in Christ Jesus and Lord.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
Amen.

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
Sophia, I Baptize you in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirits.

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
Amen.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:43.000
[music]

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Are you saying that God came to
be when the universe came to be?

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No, I\'m not. God has always
been and always will be.

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How do you know that?

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Faith.

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Faith, it\'s not our rational, it
doesn\'t go against anything I know,

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that God always was. You
can\'t come to that reality

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by simply by (inaudible) him and reasoning,
you can come to a philosophical guide.

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The really radical idea of Christianity

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is that this universe, this
physical universe, these bodies

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that we have are so important that
God himself incarnated Himself

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into this universe. Not only does this mean

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that human beings and our
lives are important,

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we\'re not just sitting around here waiting
to die so we can get on with what was…

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what really matters. But it also
means of this physical universe

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is worth spending our life getting to know.

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Take a look.

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And I hope that people who say I don\'t
understand how you reconcile being

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a Jesuit and being a scientist will have that
same attitude saying, \"Oh, but he does do it.

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There must be more to this than I thought.\"
And that\'s a list of place to start.

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Yeah, wait, that\'s amazing.

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It\'s so cool.

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