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Feynman Destroys the Idea of God — Transcript

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0:01Today's question is
0:03how do religion, the idea of God and the
0:07scientific understanding of the universe
0:10truly relate? Are they compatible ways
0:13of explaining reality or fundamentally
0:16different paths to truth? People come up
0:19to me all the time. They corner me at
0:21universities, at conferences, even in
0:23diners. They say, "Professor Fineman,
0:26you're a physicist. You've looked at the
0:28quantum world. You won the Nobel Prize
0:30for figuring out how light and electrons
0:32interact. You've looked deep into the
0:34mathematical machinery of the universe.
0:36So tell us, is there a god? Did somebody
0:39make all this what is the absolute final
0:41ultimate truth of the universe?
0:44They want a neat little package. They
0:46want me to hand them a mathematical
0:48equation that either proves there is a
0:50grand bearded man in the sky watching
0:54over them or they want an equation that
0:55definitively proves there isn't. so they
0:57can feel very smart and superior. They
0:59want certainty. They are desperate for
1:01certainty. They want a warm blanket to
1:04wrap around their existential terror so
1:06they can sleep peacefully at night.
1:09Well, if you're looking for a warm
1:10blanket,
1:12then go away because I don't have a warm
1:15blanket for you. What I have is a
1:17freezing cold, pitch black, infinitely
1:21vast expanse of a universe that is so
1:23bizarre, so completely alien to human
1:26common sense. and so magnificently
1:28indifferent to your personal neurosis
1:30that it will make your head spin. But if
1:33you have the courage to let go of your
1:34absolute certainty, if you're willing to
1:37stand on the edge of the abyss, look
1:39into the terrifying dark and say, "I
1:41don't know," then stay. Because I
1:45promise you, the actual, observable,
1:48thrilling reality of our magnificent
1:50ignorance is a billion times more
1:51beautiful than any myth, any fairy tale,
1:53or any religious text human beings have
1:55ever invented. Let's start with a very
1:58simple idea, the idea of beauty. I have
2:01a friend who's an artist and he's got a
2:03habit of taking a view, which I
2:04completely disagree with. We'll be
2:07walking along and he'll hold up a flower
2:09and he'll say, "Look how beautiful this
2:11is." and I'll agree it's a pretty flower
2:15but then he'll say I as an artist can
2:18see how beautiful this is but you as a
2:21scientist are you take this all apart
2:23you reduce it to its mathematical pieces
2:26and it becomes a dull mechanical
2:28lifeless thing I think he's completely
2:31nutty first of all the beauty that he
2:34sees is available to me and to everyone
2:37else I am perfectly capable of
2:39appreciating the aesthetics of a flower
2:41the red of the petals, the shape of the
2:44stem, but at the same time, I see so
2:46much more about that flower than he
2:48sees. I can imagine the cells inside. I
2:51can see the complicated microscopic
2:53actions occurring right there in the
2:55leaf. I know that the red color of that
2:56flower is a specific wavelength of
2:59electromagnetic radiation that evolved
3:01over millions of years specifically to
3:03attract a certain type of bee or insect.
3:07Now, think about what that means. That's
3:09fascinating. That means insects can see
3:11color which immediately provokes a
3:13question. Does an insect have an
3:15aesthetic sense? Why does the universe
3:16have this rule where biological
3:19organisms are attracted to specific
3:21frequencies of light? And then I can go
3:24deeper. I can look at the molecules
3:26making up the cells, the carbon atoms,
3:29the electrons buzzing around the nuclei
3:31following the probabilistic rules of
3:33quantum mechanics. There is a beauty at
3:36the scale of 1 cm. Yes. But there is
3:38also a breathtaking dizzying beauty at
3:41the scale of 1/10enth of a millimeter
3:43and at the scale of a nanometer. The
3:46scientific knowledge, the process of
3:48pulling the flower apart does not
3:50subtract from the mystery. It only adds,
3:53it adds excitement. It adds awe. It adds
3:56a deep structural poetry that my artist
3:59friend is completely blind to. I don't
4:01understand how investigating nature
4:03could ever subtract from its beauty.
4:06Now I want you to take that flower and I
4:08want you to expand it. Expand it to the
4:10size of the entire cosm because this is
4:13exactly what happens when we talk about
4:15religion and science. The religious
4:18person looks at the universe, the stars,
4:20the earth, human consciousness and says,
4:22"Look how beautiful it is. God made it.
4:25It's a miracle. Don't take it apart.
4:27Don't question it too deeply. You just
4:30read the holy book, accept the mystery,
4:33and leave it alone or you'll ruin the
4:35divine magic. But the scientist looks at
4:38the universe and says, "Look how
4:40beautiful it is. Let's figure out how it
4:41works." And when we start looking, when
4:44we start pulling the universe apart to
4:47see the gears and the springs, what we
4:50find is so astonishing, so unimaginably
4:53grand that it makes the ancient
4:56religious stories look exactly like what
4:59they are. Stories written by frightened,
5:01ignorant people in the Bronze Age who
5:03didn't even know where the sun went when
5:05it got dark.
5:07When people ask me about God, I always
5:09have to stop them and say, "Wait a
5:11minute. Which God are you talking about?
5:14Because there are two fundamentally
5:16different concepts of God and we mix
5:18them up all the time. So there is the
5:21first God. Let's call him the God of the
5:23physicists or the God of the
5:24philosophers. This is the idea of a
5:27grand architect, the ultimate source of
5:30the laws of physics, the prime mover.
5:34When a physicist looks at the
5:36mathematical rules of nature, when you
5:38look at how perfectly gravity curves
5:40spacetime, or how the strong nuclear
5:43force binds protons together, or the
5:45elegant symmetry of Maxwell's equations
5:47governing electricity and magnetism,
5:50you cannot help but be struck by how
5:52incredible the rules of the game are.
5:55And if you want to look at those
5:56beautiful mathematical rules and say,
5:59"Well, a supreme abstract intelligence
6:03must have written them. I cannot
6:04definitively
6:06prove you wrong." Science cannot
6:08disprove the existence of a grand
6:10geometrician who wound up the cosmic
6:12clock 13.8 billion years ago and simply
6:17let it tick. But nobody actually prays
6:19to the god of the physicist. Nobody
6:22asked the grand geometrician for a
6:23bicycle for Christmas. Which brings us
6:26to the second god, the personal god, the
6:30god of human religions. This is the god
6:32who purportedly parted the Red Sea. The
6:35god who dictates whether you should eat
6:37pork or what day of the week you are
6:39allowed to turn on a light switch. The
6:41god who cares deeply about who you sleep
6:43with and in what position. The god who
6:45listens to the prayers of a mother in
6:47Ohio asking for her son's football team
6:50to win the state championship while
6:53simultaneously ignoring the prayers of a
6:55child starving to death in another part
6:57of the world. This is the god of the
7:00dogma. And this is where as a man of
7:02science I hit a massive impenetrable
7:06wall. Because when you look at the
7:08physical reality of the universe, the
7:10idea of this personal God becomes
7:12completely laughably
7:15disproportionate.
7:16Let me explain what I mean by
7:18disproportionate. I want you to really
7:20truly think about the scale of the
7:22universe just for a moment. Step outside
7:25your daily routine. Forget about your
7:27job, your mortgage, your argument with
7:29your neighbor and look up. You live on a
7:32planet, the Earth, and it seems big to
7:34it. But the Earth is just a tiny wet
7:37piece of rock orbiting a completely
7:39average, unremarkable yellow dwarf star
7:42we call the Sun. The Sun is a million
7:45times bigger than the Earth. You could
7:47fit 1 million Earths inside the Sun. And
7:50our Sun is just one star in our local
7:52neighborhood, a swirling galaxy we call
7:54the Milky Way.
7:57Do you know how many stars are in the
7:59Milky Way? 100 billion 100red billion
8:02suns. Many of them are thousands of
8:05times larger than our own. Burning with
8:08a ferocity we cannot comprehend.
8:10Our entire solar system is just a speck
8:13of dust sitting on the outer spiral arm
8:16of this massive galactic pin wheel. A
8:18pin wheel so large that it takes light
8:22which travels at 186,000 m per second.
8:25Fast enough to go around the Earth seven
8:27times in 1 second. It takes that light a
8:30100,000 years just to cross from one
8:32side of our galaxy to the other. For a
8:35long time, humanity thought the Milky
8:37Way was the entire universe. That was
8:39big enough, wasn't it?
8:41But then in the 1920s, a man named Edwin
8:44Hubble looked through a telescope at
8:46Mount Wilson in California. He looked at
8:49these little fuzzy patches in the night
8:51sky that people thought were just clouds
8:52of gas within our galaxy.
8:55Hubble measured the light coming from
8:57them and he realized the terrifying
8:59truth.
9:01They weren't clouds of gas. They were
9:04other galaxies completely separate from
9:07ours. How many other galaxies are there
9:09in the observable universe based on our
9:11best modern telescopes?
9:13Peering into the deepest, darkest
9:15patches of space, we estimate there are
9:18roughly two trillion galaxies. two
9:21trillion galaxies each containing
9:23hundreds of billions of stars. Each star
9:26potentially hosting its own system of
9:28planets. We are talking about an expanse
9:31of space stretching 93 billion light
9:34years across. It is an ocean of cosmic
9:38fire and freezing vacuum so vast that
9:41the human brain biologically cannot
9:43process the numbers. The math just
9:46becomes a dull ache in your prefrontal
9:48cortex. And then there is the time. Oh,
9:52the sheer depth of time. The universe
9:54has been expanding for 13.8
9:58billion years. For billions of years
10:00before the Earth even existed, giant
10:03stars were born in massive nebulas. They
10:05burned violently for millions of years,
10:07collapsing under their own gravity and
10:09then exploding in magnificent blinding
10:12supernovas.
10:13They forged the heavy elements in the
10:15universe, the carbon, the oxygen, the
10:17silicon, the iron, and scattered them
10:19across the dark void. This silent
10:22violent ballet happened over and over
10:24and over again. Galaxies collided. Black
10:27holes swallowed whole star systems. The
10:30universe was boiling and expanding and
10:33evolving in the dark for 9 billion years
10:36before the cloud of dust that would
10:38become our solar system even began to
10:39coalesce. Now take all of that, the 13.8
10:45billion years, the two trillion
10:47galaxies, the trillions of exploding
10:49suns, the infinite freezing vacuum of
10:52space. And then look at the religious
10:56view of the universe. The religious view
10:58insists that the supreme architect of
11:01all of this, the entity that engineered
11:02the quazars, the black holes, the cosmic
11:05microwave background, the quantum
11:07fields,
11:08created all of that infinite vastness.
11:13Waited 13.8 8 billion years just so we
11:17could watch a particular species of half
11:19hairless bipedal primates on a tiny
11:22insignificant grain of dust orbiting an
11:26average star to see if they would
11:27disobey him and eat a piece of fruit
11:29from a magical tree. And furthermore
11:31that this cosmic architect is deeply
11:34personally offended if you don't chop
11:36off a piece of your foreskin or if you
11:38say his name in the wrong tone of voice.
11:41Do you see the problem? The stage is
11:42simply too big for the drama.
11:45The proportions are completely wrong. It
11:47is like building a theater the size of
11:49the entire solar system with a stage
11:51that stretches from here to Jupiter. All
11:53to put on a oneact play about a single
11:57microscopic amoeba. The scale of the
12:01universe that modern astronomy and
12:03physics have revealed makes the
12:04anthroposentric religious stories look
12:06utterly parochial. They look exactly
12:09like what they are. local tribal myths
12:12written by ancient human beings who
12:14didn't know what a galaxy was, who
12:16believed the earth was a flat disc at
12:19the center of everything, and who
12:21modeled God after their own local
12:22tyrannical kings. A king who gets
12:24jealous, who gets angry, who demands
12:27praise, who needs blood sacrifices, and
12:29then who takes sides in human land
12:31disputes. When you discover the real
12:34universe, the actual universe, the idea
12:36that the creator of all this staggering
12:38vastness is deeply concerned with the
12:41minutiai of human behavior is simply
12:43unbelievable. It's an insult to the
12:45universe. It's too small an idea for
12:47such a grand reality.
12:49But it's not just the physical scale
12:51that causes a friction between science
12:53and religion. There is a fundamental
12:56structural irreconcilable conflict in
12:58the very way these two systems operate.
13:01It's a hardware issue. It's an issue of
13:04epistemology.
13:05How we claim to arrive at the truth.
13:08Let's look at the mechanism of science.
13:11What is science? A lot of people think
13:13science is is a big book of facts you
13:15have to memorize in high school. That's
13:17wrong. Science is not a body of facts.
13:20Science is a method. It is a very
13:22specific way of thinking, a way of
13:24interrogating nature. And the absolute
13:26beating heart of the scientific method,
13:28the most sacred principle we have is
13:31doubt, uncertainty.
13:34In science, we say, "I have an idea
13:35about how the world works. Let's design
13:37an experiment to test it. If the results
13:40of the experiment disagree with your
13:42idea, your idea is wrong. I don't care
13:45how beautiful your idea is. I don't care
13:48how smart you are, what your name is, or
13:51how many degrees you have. If your
13:52theory disagrees with the observable
13:54experiment, it is wrong. Period. That is
13:57the ultimate rule. And because of this
13:59rule, as scientists must always always
14:01leave the door open to doubt. Even our
14:04most cherished successful theories,
14:07Newton's laws of motion, Einstein's
14:09general relativity, the standard model
14:12of particle physics, we don't call them
14:15absolute,
14:17unchangeable, divine truths.
14:21We say these are the best models we have
14:23right now. They work incredibly well,
14:25but they might be incomplete. Tomorrow,
14:28someone might do an experiment in a
14:29particle accelerator that shows a flaw
14:31in the theory, and we will have to
14:33change it. We are comfortable with
14:36uncertainty. In fact, we revel in it.
14:39Ignorance is the engine of scientific
14:41discovery. If we knew the absolute truth
14:43about everything, we'd be out of a job.
14:45When a scientist looks at a phenomenon
14:47they can't explain, they don't panic.
14:49They don't fall to their knees and weep.
14:51They get excited. They say, "I don't
14:53know how wonderful. Let's find out."
14:56Now, contrast that with the mechanism of
14:58religion. It operates on the exact
15:00opposite principle. The core mechanism
15:02of religion is faith. And what
15:04practically speaking is faith. Faith is
15:06the conscious decision to believe in
15:08something despite a complete lack of
15:10evidence or even worse in the face of
15:12actively contradictory evidence. In the
15:15religious framework, certainty is viewed
15:17as a virtue. To doubt is a sin. To
15:20question the word of God or the sacred
15:22text or the prophet is a sign of moral
15:25weakness. You are commanded to believe
15:27without seeing. You are told that the
15:29answers were already written down 2,000
15:32years ago by people who thought
15:34illnesses were caused by demons. And
15:36your only job is to obey. Do you see the
15:39fatal collision here? How can a human
15:42mind function at its highest possible
15:44capacity if it is simultaneously holding
15:46on to absolute
15:48unquestionable certainty and absolute
15:50rigorous doubt. You can't. If you start
15:54an investigation with the premise that
15:56you already know the ultimate answer
15:57because the holy book told you so, you
15:59are not doing science. You're doing
16:01apologetics. You are working backward
16:04from a conclusion, cherrypicking the day
16:06data that fits your comforting story and
16:09ignoring the vast messy reality of the
16:12universe that doesn't fit. When I was a
16:15younger man working on the Manhattan
16:17projects in Los Alamos and later doing
16:19my research at Cornell and Caltech, I
16:22spent my life wrestling with the
16:24invisible world. The world of subatomic
16:27particles, electrons, photons, muons,
16:31quarks.
16:33Let me tell you something about the
16:34quantum world. It is absolutely crazy.
16:37It doesn't make any intuitive sense
16:39whatsoever. down there at the level of
16:42the atom, the laws of classical physics
16:44completely break down. Particles can
16:46exist in a superp position, meaning they
16:49are in multiple states or places at the
16:52exact same time. They behave like waves
16:55of probability until you measure them,
16:57at which point they suddenly snap into
17:00being solid particles. If two particles
17:02can become entangled, meaning no matter
17:04how far apart you separate them, even at
17:06opposite ends of the galaxy, a change to
17:08one instantaneously affects the other,
17:10seemingly violating the speed of light.
17:13It is utterly absurd. It defies all
17:16human logic. Now, imagine if I had
17:18approached the mysteries of quantum
17:20mechanics with the attitude of a
17:22religious fundamentalist. Imagine if I
17:24had said, well, the universe must behave
17:26according to standard human logic
17:29because God made us in his image and God
17:31is rational. Therefore, the quantum
17:33world must follow the rules of a
17:35clockwork universe. If I had done that,
17:38I would have failed completely. I would
17:40never developed quantum electronamics. I
17:44never would have understood how light
17:45and matter interact because nature
17:48doesn't give a damn what you believe.
17:49Nature doesn't care about your human
17:51prejudices, your common sense, or your
17:54religious texts. Nature is going to do
17:56what it's going to do. And your job as
17:58an observer of the universe is to shut
18:00up, listen, look at the data, and accept
18:02it, no matter how profoundly weird and
18:04absurd it seems. Religion demands that
18:08the universe conform to a human
18:11narrative, a cozy narrative of purpose,
18:14of ultimate justice, of cosmic morality,
18:17where the good guys get rewarded in
18:19paradise and the bad guys burn in a lake
18:22of fire. Science looks at the universe
18:25and says there is zero evidence of a
18:28human narrative out there in the stars.
18:31And I know that terrifies people. It
18:33really deeply frightens them. People lo
18:35look at the strict materialistic
18:37scientific worldview and they panic and
18:39they say, "But Professor Fineman, if
18:41there is no God, if there is no grand
18:44creator writing the rules, if the
18:47universe is just a giant blind
18:49mechanical system governed by cold
18:52mathematical equations, then what is the
18:56point of it all? Where do we get our
18:58morals? If there's no heaven and no
18:59hell, why shouldn't I just go out and
19:01murder my neighbor and steal his
19:02television? What prevents human society
19:05from collapsing into total savage chaos?
19:09This is a very serious question and it
19:11deserves a deeply serious answer. I
19:15think there is a profound historical
19:17confusion in our society
19:20between the factual claims of religion
19:22and the moral values of religion. In the
19:25western world, our moral framework,
19:28ideas like love your neighbor, do unto
19:32others as you would have them do unto
19:33you, the concept of charity, the
19:35inherent value of the individual life.
19:38These ethical ideas were delivered to us
19:40historically inside a package, a wrapper
19:43of religious mythology.
19:46The rapper included the burning bushes
19:48and the virgin birth, the resurrection
19:51from the dead, the miracles, and the
19:54threat of divine judgment. For
19:56centuries, people genuinely believed
19:59that you couldn't have the ethical
20:00contents without the mythological
20:02rapper. They believed the morality and
20:05the magic trick were completely
20:06inseparable. If you throw away the
20:09belief that in [snorts] a literal
20:11judging god they argued you throw away
20:14the only reason to be a good person. But
20:17I think human beings are finally growing
20:19up. I think we are reaching a level of
20:22intellectual and emotional maturity
20:25where we can separate the ethical values
20:27of human brotherhood from the dogmatic
20:30facts of ancient theology.
20:33Think about it logically for just a
20:35minute. Do you really need the threat of
20:37eternal agonizing torture in a
20:39supernatural lake of fire to stop you
20:41from killing your neighbor? Do you
20:43really need the promise of a golden harp
20:46and a mansion in paradise to make you
20:47share your bread with a starving child?
20:50If the absolute only reason you are
20:52behaving as a decent moral person is
20:55because you think an invisible omnisient
20:58dictator is watching your every move on
21:01a cosmic security camera ready to punish
21:04you if you step out of line. Then you
21:06aren't actually a good person at all.
21:08You're just a frightened obedient
21:10subordinate
21:12trying to avoid a beating. That's not
21:14morality. That's extortion.
21:17True morality doesn't require the
21:18supernatural. True morality requires
21:20empathy. It requires the rational
21:23observable recognition that we are all
21:25stuck on this tiny fragile rock together
21:29spinning through the freezing hostile
21:30void of space that comes from the
21:33realization that life is incredibly
21:35rare, incredibly fragile, and incredibly
21:38brief. Look at what science tells us
21:40about what we are. Religion says we are
21:43made of clay breathed into by a magical
21:47spirit and given a supernatural soul
21:49that exists completely outside the laws
21:51of physics. It says we are completely
21:53separate from the animals separate from
21:55the earth given dominion over nature by
21:57divine right. Science tells a different
22:00story. And frankly, the scientific story
22:02gives me far, far more reason to treat
22:05my fellow human beings with awe,
22:07reverence, and profound respect than the
22:10religious view ever did.
22:13Science tells us that you and I are
22:15literally physically made of stardust.
22:17Remember those giant stars I talked
22:19about earlier? The ones that burned for
22:21millions of years and exploded in
22:23supernovas. When they exploded, the
22:26extreme heat and pressure fused basic
22:28hydrogen and helium into the heavier
22:31elements. The iron in your blood that
22:33carries oxygen to your brain, the
22:36calcium in your teeth and your bones,
22:38the carbon that forms the structural
22:40backbone of your DNA. Every single atom
22:43of those heavy elements in your body was
22:45forged inside the nuclear furnace of a
22:47dying star billions of years ago. You
22:50are not separate from the universe. You
22:52are not an alien entity dropped onto
22:54this planet by an outside creator. You
22:57are a product of the universe. You are
22:59the universe. You are a way for the
23:01cosmos to know itself. Just sit with
23:04that for a second. Imagine the sheer
23:06staggering improbability of your
23:08existence. Over 13.8 billion years. dead
23:13unconscious matter blindly following the
23:15laws of physics organized itself into
23:18clouds of gas, then into galaxies, then
23:20into stars, then into planets. Then on
23:23at least one of those planets, in a warm
23:26primordial soup of chemicals, carbon
23:29atoms chained together in just the right
23:31way to begin replicating. Evolution took
23:33hold. Over nearly four billion years of
23:36brutal, blind, agonizing trial and
23:39error, single-sellled organisms turned
23:41into multisellular life. Fish crawled
23:45out of the oceans. Amphibians became
23:48reptiles. Reptiles became mammals.
23:51Mammals became primates.
23:53And finally, the atoms organized
23:55themselves into a structure so
23:57phenomenally
23:58complex. The human brain with its 86
24:02billion neurons and trillions of
24:03synaptic connections that the matter
24:06literally woke up. The universe became
24:10conscious. It opened its eyes, looked up
24:14at the very stars from which it was born
24:16and began to wonder. It began to do
24:18mathematics. It began to write poetry.
24:20It began to feel love. We are the
24:23universe experiencing itself. It doesn't
24:26that give you chills? Doesn't that evoke
24:28a sense of deep spiritual awe that is
24:30just as profound, if not vastly more
24:33profound, than walking into a dark
24:35cathedral and listening to a man in a
24:37robe chant in Latin? When I look at the
24:40night sky, I don't see a painted ceiling
24:43constructed by an old man with a beard.
24:45I see my own origin. I see a vast
24:48ancient dynamic terrifyingly beautiful
24:50system of which I am an integral
24:53temporary completely astonishing part.
24:57Ah the religious person says but what
24:59about the soul? What about life after
25:02death? Professor Fineman your science
25:04gives us no hope for eternity. Science
25:07says that when you die your brain stops
25:10functioning. Your consciousness vanishes
25:12and you just rot in the ground. That's
25:14entirely too depressing to accept, is
25:17it? I honestly don't think it's
25:19depressing at all. In fact, I think the
25:21absolute frantic insistence on human
25:23immortality
25:25is a symptom of incredible unwarranted
25:27arrogance. We are so self-important, so
25:29obsessed with our own egos that we
25:32simply cannot fathom a universe that
25:34continues to exist without us to witness
25:37it. We think our individual daily
25:39consciousness is so incredibly vital to
25:41the functioning of the cosmos that it
25:43simply must be preserved forever in some
25:45ethereal spiritual dimension. Why? Why
25:49must it? Think of a symphony. You go to
25:53a concert hall and the orchestra plays
25:56Beethoven's ninth. It is magnificent. It
25:58sweeps you up. It brings you to tears.
26:00It fills the room with complex,
26:02beautiful vibrations.
26:04And then it ends. The musicians pack up
26:06their instruments and go home. Do you
26:08demand that the symphony play forever
26:10infinitely without stopping in order for
26:12it to have had meaning? Of course not.
26:14The fact that the symphony has a
26:16beginning, a middle, and an end is part
26:17of its structure. Its fleeting nature is
26:20exactly what makes it beautiful and
26:22precious. I look at a human life the
26:24exact same way. The fact that it is
26:27temporary is what gives it its immense
26:30value.
26:32We have this tiny, incredibly brief
26:34window of light, maybe 80 or 90 years if
26:37we are very, very lucky, sandwiched
26:39between two impossibly vast eternities
26:41of darkness. You were completely dead,
26:45unconscious, and non-existent for 13.8
26:48billion years before you were born. And
26:51it didn't bother you in the slightest.
26:53You will be dead for billions of years
26:55after you pass away. This one life, this
26:58fleeting spark of biological
27:01consciousness is your one and only
27:03chance. It is your only chance to learn,
27:05to love, uh, to explore, to laugh, to
27:08suffer, to help others, and to figure
27:11out how the universe works. If you
27:13genuinely believe that this physical
27:15life is just a temporary waiting room, a
27:17mere dress rehearsal for an eternal
27:19paradise, you might not take it as
27:22seriously. You might tolerate injustice
27:24or squander your time thinking, "Oh, it
27:26doesn't matter. The real reward comes
27:28after I die." But if you deeply truly
27:32know that this is it, that this is the
27:34one and only show, you are compelled by
27:36the laws of basic decency to make it
27:38magnificent, you are compelled to treat
27:41others well because this is their only
27:43chance at existent too. I want to be
27:46very clear about something. I am not
27:48saying that religious people are stupid.
27:50Far from it. That's a cheap
27:52intellectually lazy argument. Some of
27:54the most brilliant paradigm shifting
27:56minds in the history of human
27:58civilization were deeply obsessively
28:00religious. Take Isaac Newton, arguably
28:03the greatest physicist who ever lived.
28:05He invented calculus, formulated the
28:08laws of motion, and explained universal
28:10gravitation. But Newton spent more time
28:13secretly writing bizarre theological
28:15treatises on biblical prophecy and
28:17alchemy than he did on physics. He was
28:20deeply religious. But here is the
28:23fascinating thing about Newton. He was
28:25brilliant. In spite of his religious
28:27dogma, not because of it. When Newton
28:30was doing his physics, he was observing
28:32nature. He was calculating the orbits of
28:35the planets. He was mathematically
28:36rigorous. But when his math couldn't
28:39explain something, for instance, why the
28:41gravitational pull of the planets on
28:43each other didn't eventually cause the
28:45solar system to collapse into chaos over
28:48a long period of time.
28:50Newton hit the limit of his
28:52understanding. And what did he do? He
28:54invoked God. He literally wrote that God
28:59must occasionally step in and adjust the
29:02orbits of the planets to keep the system
29:05stable. God was the ultimate fallback.
29:08God was the answer for whatever Newton
29:10didn't understand yet. In theology, we
29:12call this the God of the gaps. But look
29:15at what happened next. 100 years later,
29:17French mathematician Pierre Simon Llas
29:20comes along. He takes Newton's
29:22mathematics, refineses them, develops
29:24perturbation theory and proves
29:27mathematically that the solar system is
29:29inherently stable without needing any
29:31divine intervention. When Napoleon asked
29:34Llas why he didn't mention God in his
29:38massive book on celestial mechanics,
29:40Lelass famously replied, "I had no need
29:43of that hypothesis.
29:45This is the inherent danger of the god
29:47of the gaps. As science progresses, the
29:50gaps get smaller. Thousands of years
29:53ago, we didn't know what caused
29:55lightning or thunder. So, we invented
29:57Zeus throwing thunderbolts from Mount
30:00Olympus and Thor smashing his hammer in
30:02the clouds. It was an explanation that
30:04comforted us. But then, we discovered
30:06electromagnetism,
30:08atmospheric pressure, and electrostatic
30:11discharge. Suddenly Zeus and Thor were
30:14completely out of a job. They were
30:16retired to the realm of mythology.
30:19We didn't know how the incredible
30:21staggering diversity of life on Earth
30:23came to be. We couldn't imagine how
30:25something as complex as a human eye
30:27could exist without a watch maker to
30:30design it. So we said God meticulously
30:32designed every single species by hand.
30:34But then Charles Darwin sailed on the
30:36Beagle, looked at the finches, and
30:38discovered evolution by natural
30:40selection. We suddenly realized that
30:42nature didn't need a top- down designer.
30:44It just needed massive amounts of time,
30:47genetic mutation, and environmental
30:49pressure. The complexity was built from
30:51the bottom up. Every single time science
30:54makes a new discovery, the domain of God
30:58shrinks.
31:00If you base your religious faith on the
31:02things we do not yet understand, your
31:04God is in a state of constant retreat,
31:07constantly being pushed further and
31:09further into the shadows by the
31:11relentless light of scientific inquiry.
31:15That is a very very insecure foundation
31:17for belief. Some people try to adapt.
31:20They say, "Okay, fine. God doesn't throw
31:22the lightning and God didn't manually
31:24design the finch, but God created the
31:26big bang. God is the spark that started
31:28it all.
31:30Maybe, but that is retreating to the
31:32very edge of the universe. It's putting
31:34God in the ultimate final gap, the
31:37origin of the cosmos itself.
31:40And while cosmologists and theoretic
31:42physicists haven't completely figured
31:44out the exact mechanism of the Big Bang
31:46yet, we are working on it. We are
31:48looking into quantum gravity, string
31:51theory, the multiverse. What happens
31:53when we close that gap too? Where does
31:55God go then? So where does that leave us
31:59as modern rational human beings? If we
32:02strip away the myths that the comforting
32:04stories, the eternal rewards
32:07and the divine watchers. Are we just
32:10complex biological machines running on a
32:13wet computer made of meat floating
32:15blindly in a universe devoid of absolute
32:17purpose? Maybe. And my question to you
32:21is, what if we are? Why is that so
32:25terrible? People ask me, "Professor
32:28Fineman, if the universe has no grand
32:30design, no ultimate objective purpose
32:33given to it by a creator, then what is
32:35the meaning of life? Why go on?" This is
32:38the great secret. This is the beautiful
32:41liberating realization that comes with
32:43finally letting go of the ancient myths.
32:45The universe doesn't have an intrinsic
32:48objective meaning written in giant
32:49glowing letters across the sky. The
32:52universe just is. It exists. It follows
32:55its rules. It expands. It cools. It
32:58burns. It dies. Meaning is not something
33:01you find hidden under a rock or written
33:04in a cosmic scroll. Meaning is something
33:06you create. We, the conscious apes, are
33:10meaning making machines. We give our
33:12lives meaning. We give it meaning
33:14through our relationships with others,
33:16through the children we raise, through
33:18the art we create, the music we compose,
33:20the kindness we show to strangers. And
33:23for me at least, we give it meaning
33:26through the relentless, passionate
33:27pursuit of understanding how nature
33:30works. The universe doesn't care about
33:33us at all, but we care about each other,
33:36and that is enough. It has to be enough.
33:38I have a very, very different attitude
33:41toward the great questions of existence
33:43than the theologians do. The theologian
33:45is completely terrified of doubt. The
33:47theologian desperately needs an absolute
33:49answer even if the answer is completely
33:51invented because they cannot bear the
33:54psychological weight of not knowing.
33:57They want the safety net. But me, I can
34:01live with doubt. I can live with
34:03uncertainty. I can live with not
34:05knowing. I think it is vastly more
34:08interesting, vastly more exciting to
34:10live not knowing than to have answers
34:12which might be dead wrong. I have
34:14approximate answers and possible beliefs
34:18and different degrees of certainty about
34:20different things. I am fairly certain
34:22about quantum electronamics because the
34:24math matches the experiments to 10
34:26decimal places. I am less certain about
34:30string theory, but I am not absolutely
34:32100% sure of anything. And there are
34:35many, many things I don't know anything
34:37about at all, such as whether it even
34:40means anything to ask why we are here.
34:43The question why implies intent.
34:47How did we get here is a scientific
34:50question.
34:51Why are we here? Might just be a
34:54linguistic mistake, a relic of our human
34:56tendency to project intention onto a
34:58blind universe. I don't have to know an
35:02answer. I don't feel frightened by not
35:04knowing things, by being lost in a
35:07completely mysterious,
35:09mathematically savage universe without
35:12any clear purpose, which is the way it
35:14really truly appears to be as far as I
35:16can tell. It doesn't frighten me. In
35:20fact, it entirely liberates me. Think of
35:23the sheer unadulterated arrogance of a
35:25religious system that claims to possess
35:26the absolute truth. to stand on a tiny
35:30fragile speck of blue dust orbiting a
35:33boring star in the middle of a universe
35:36containing two trillion galaxies and
35:38spanning 93 billion lightyear. And to
35:41confidently say, "I know exactly who
35:44created all of this. I know exactly what
35:46he wants me to eat on Thursday. And I
35:48know exactly what happens to my
35:49consciousness after the electrical
35:51activity in my brain stop." It's
35:54preposterous. It's a laughable insult to
35:57the vastness, the complexity, and the
35:59majesty of nature.
36:01The true scientific attitude is one of
36:03deep, profound, almost overwhelming
36:05humility. We look up at the cosmos. We
36:08look down into the quantum foam and we
36:10say, "We don't know. We have figured out
36:13a few things. Sure, we know about
36:15electromagnetism. We know how to split
36:17the atom. We know about gravity curving
36:19space. We know about the strong and weak
36:21nuclear forces. We have built tools that
36:25allow us to see the cosmic microwave
36:27background radiation from the birth of
36:29the universe. We have unlocked the
36:31sequence of the human genome. We've done
36:32a lot of incredibly good clever work.
36:34Humanity should be proud of itself. But
36:37the total amount of our knowledge, the
36:39sum total of everything we have figured
36:41out in the last 400 years of the
36:42scientific revolution is just a tiny
36:46microscopic drop of water in a vast
36:49endless ocean of total ignorance.
36:51That right there, that is where the real
36:54adventure lies. If religion were
36:57completely true, the adventure would be
36:59entirely over. Everything is already
37:01written in the old book. The rules are
37:04set. The origin is known. The
37:06destination is known. All you have to do
37:09is read the book, blindly, obey the
37:11rules, suppress your curiosity, and wait
37:13to die so you can go to the promised
37:15paradigm.
37:18how incredibly painfully
37:21boring. It's like reading a mystery
37:23novel where someone circled the killer's
37:25name on the first page. But because the
37:28universe is an open mystery, because
37:30there are still massive structural
37:32secrets hiding in the quantum foam, in
37:35the event horizons of black holes and in
37:37the mysterious dark energy that is
37:40actively tearing the cosmos apart, the
37:42adventure is just beginning. We get to
37:45be the detectives of the cosmos. We get
37:47to turn over the cosmic rocks and see
37:49what's scurrying underneath. We get to
37:51build bigger particle accelerators,
37:53bigger space telescopes and push the
37:55boundaries of human understanding
37:56further and further into the dark
37:58unknown. And you know what the most
38:01fascinating, beautifully frustrating
38:02part of it all is? Every single time we
38:05solve a mystery, the answer we find
38:07usually uncovers three more mysteries we
38:09never even knew existed.
38:12We figured out that galaxies are moving
38:14away from each other. Great. We solved
38:16it. The universe is expanding probably
38:18from a big bang. But wait. Then in the
38:211990s, we looked closer. We measured the
38:24light from distant supernovas and we
38:26realized the expansion isn't just
38:28happening. It is accelerating. The
38:30galaxies are flying apart faster and
38:32faster every single day. Why? What
38:35invisible force is pushing the universe
38:38apart? We have absolutely no idea. We
38:40call it dark energy, which sounds very
38:43sophisticated, but is literally just a
38:45fancy placeholder name for we haven't
38:47got a damn clue what this is. It makes
38:50up 68% of the universe, and we don't
38:53know what it is. That is the thrill of
38:56it. The universe is a puzzle that gets
38:59bigger the more pieces you put together.
39:02Now, as we push further and further down
39:04this road, as we drill deeper toward the
39:07ultimate foundational laws of physics, a
39:10very strange and provocative question
39:12arises.
39:14Some of my colleagues in theoretical
39:15physics deeply believe that eventually
39:18if we do enough math and build enough
39:20colliders, we will find a theory of
39:23everything. A single elegant unified
39:25mathematical equation maybe an inch long
39:28that explains all the forces of nature.
39:30Gravity, electromagnetism, the nuclear
39:33forces, all tied up in one neat little
39:35package. They think we will eventually
39:37reach the absolute bottom of the well of
39:39knowledge. If we find that ultimate
39:42theory, will we finally find the God of
39:46the philosophers? Will that 1-in
39:48equation truly be the mind of the
39:50creator? I don't know. But frankly, I
39:53strongly suspect that nature is far more
39:55clever, far more imaginative, and far
39:58more relentless than that. Nature's
40:00imagination always, always outstretches
40:02man's imagination. Every single time
40:04human beings think we have boxed nature
40:06into a neat little corner. Every time we
40:09think we have found the absolute
40:11fundamental indivisible building block
40:13of reality, nature laughs in our faces
40:16and opens a trapdo beneath us. We
40:19thought the atom was indivisible. The
40:22word atom literally means uncutable in
40:25Greek. Then we smashed it and we found
40:28electrons orbiting a dense nucleus.
40:30Okay, we thought the nucleus is the
40:32bottom. Then we smashed the nucleus and
40:34we found protons and neutrons. Aha, the
40:37fundamental particles. But then we
40:39smashed the protons together at nearly
40:41the speed of light. And what did we
40:43find? Quarks. What is inside a quark?
40:46What is a quark actually made of? Is it
40:48a point particle? Is it a vibrating
40:51string of multi-dimensional energy as
40:54the string theorists claim? Are they
40:56loops of quantum spacetime?
40:59We do not know. It's like an endless
41:01infinite set of Russian nesting dolls.
41:05And every time you open one doll, the
41:08doll inside is not just smaller, it's
41:10playing by a completely different set of
41:12physical rules. So, I want to leave you
41:15with a thought. A thought that might
41:17keep you awake tonight. Not with fear,
41:20not with the existential dread of
41:22eternal damnation, but with an
41:24insatiable, burning, irrefible
41:26curiosity.
41:28You came here. You listened to this
41:29screen looking for a definitive answer
41:31about God, about religion, and about the
41:34ultimate nature of the universe. You
41:35wanted to know what is waiting at the
41:37very end of the long road of discovery.
41:40But what if what if the absolute
41:43greatest secret of the cosmos is that
41:46there is no end to the road at all? What
41:49if the universe is not a cross word
41:51puzzle waiting to be finally solved, but
41:53an infinitely deep fractal of
41:56complexity? What if every single answer
41:58we ever find is merely a doorway into a
42:01deeper, vastly more profound mystery?
42:04Imagine a future millions of years from
42:07now. Imagine that human beings somehow
42:09survive our own stupidity. Our
42:11descendants have spread out across the
42:13stars. They are exploring the farthest
42:15reaches of the galactic superclusters.
42:17They are manipulating matter and energy
42:20at scales we literally cannot fathom.
42:22They have built technologies that look
42:24like pure magic to us. What if after
42:28millions of years of scientific
42:30progress, they are standing on the
42:33precipice of existence, still asking the
42:36exact same fundamental questions.
42:39Why is there something rather than
42:41nothing? Imagine reaching out to grasp
42:44the absolute final truth of existence,
42:47expecting to finally pull back the
42:49curtain and see the face of the ultimate
42:51creator or the final elegant 1-in
42:54equation of everything only to pull back
42:56the curtain and find it. Well, wouldn't
42:59you like to find out? Keep looking, keep
43:02asking, keep doubting every single
43:04absolute truth you are ever handed.
43:07Because the exact moment you convince
43:08yourself that you finally know the
43:10answer, that is the exact moment you
43:13stop seeing the magic. Thank you.

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