Physicist Professor Brian Keating Talks to Will Witt About Science and Religion | Interviews

hello everyone this is will wit with Prager you today we're joined by Professor Brian Keating PhD astrophysicist how are you doing today very well thanks nice to be with you yeah thank you I'm glad that you're here so you're actually filming a video with us today yeah exciting hmm could you tell us a little bit about what that is yeah well before today pregger universities to tout itself as being able to offer courses and everything except for the hard sciences the physical sciences so today I'm hoping to break that that mold and talk about what I study which is essentially the origin of the universe the Big Bang yeah and how does that tie back into religion well you know it's it's interesting you know the the first few verses of the of the Bible in the Old Testament if you will they describe not some properties of you know fluids flowing through a channel or something like that or waves of energy they talk about the Big Bang so the the the the old testament itself actually begins with the Big Bang which is kind of unusual right because why would you start a book that's mostly about laws and how you should treat people with the creation of the universe with the origin of the universe and I think that's a deep message that's always impelled me to want to learn more both scientifically and religiously spiritually about what the conditions in the early universe were like so I think more than any other science cosmology which is my specialty not in hair and makeup but but the study of the early universe how that really combines my two deepest passions which is understanding if you can the mind of God and what the scientific process is all about which is uncovering evidence and revealing data so that we can better appreciate if you will the works of the mind of God well the hair science that's my I thought it was interesting you're talking about you know doing a video talking about Natural Sciences and things that you know pretty doesn't have a whole lot of videos on that I think that's great you see basically the left is taking over this liberal Sciences you know Social Sciences at universities this is all being taken over do you see that happening now in the Natural Sciences and what the field that you're working on to some extent yeah to unfortunately you know scientists at some level of the professors that are my colleagues are individuals are quite wonderful but I think there's a type of groupthink that happens in academia and that really doesn't matter if you are in the liberal or or in the hard sciences I remember a few days after the election of 2016 my colleagues who were in in physics were saying that they couldn't even talk to their other colleagues and I said why could it be that somebody voted for Trump and it turned out that they were fighting with each other because one had voted for Bernie Sanders and not Hillary Clinton and they felt that cost them the election so this is very common I think that there's there's a misconception that the hard scientists are pure purely think rationally and I think the the biggest misconception of all is that scientists operate without biases that afflict people in any other discipline including the the so-called you know Social Sciences mm-hmm do you think that leftist bias because you see it on the social sciences for sure how that bias affects how the science is actually you know skewed different ways to make people believe certain things do you think it's the same way in the Natural Sciences whether I think unconsciously their scientists are susceptible to to similar types of biases where they'll they'll bring in a slant into their classroom unintentionally I mean I don't think they're they're setting out to teach a political science class but there'll be questions on quizzes that'll poke fun at you know what you would say is conservative values or things like that and and they come up in the most unexpected way but what's a little distressing is that there can't be a regime on campus that is totally isolated from politics right and you know you should be able to the thing that got me into science is that it's a meritocracy so you can rise in science based on the quality of your ideas your hard work your work ethic and your integrity you know who would you want to design your nuclear reactor you know somebody who got there by hard work and energy and earned it or somebody you know perhaps that would that that didn't have that you know pay the same dues so to speak in the scientific circles now there are problems there are people that that have historically been underrepresented and we go to great lengths to maximize the chances of them attending UC San Diego or any other school and so I think the University of all places has become this this very open open-minded society but you know for some reason we like to portray ourselves as lacking in these credentials you know to meet these credentials of diversity and inclusion which you know some would say is an impediment to the scientific method so so some of it has crept into the into the physical sciences but but largely I think we can focus on the science and the curiosity and the questions that impel us to want to understand things like the origin of the universe and many other topics right so there's a lot of diversity of thought around the things that you're doing I think so I mean there's a diversity of people and what's nice about what I do is that I get to work with students from all over the world I've worked with students from Saudi Arabia to Uganda literally and all places in between and to me the that's one of the greatest parts of my job is I get to collaborate with minds that can be rising up through the own curiosity their brilliance their desire to study the greatest mystery of all which in my opinion is the origin of the universe and they get to study it and I get to have the pleasure of working with them and I learn as much from them as they might learn from me is it hard to work with people for atheists in your profession who just won't either take your ideas seriously or listen to you about the things that you talk about I actually enjoy it I like talking to people I think you you convince more people of an idea or at least the value of the idea whether or not they're gonna become church attendees or go to synagogue or mosque or whatever that's not so important to me but that they're willing to have an open dialogue and it's funny because it used to be that your two subjects that were off limits right religion and politics so now I certainly agree you can't talk about politics around campus at least if you don't have you know relatively liberal or left-leaning ideology but religion is still safe in the sense that you can talk about it and you can engender conversation as long as it's good nature and I enjoy that very much because it helps to sharpen my own ideas and my own thought processes do you think I think there's a lot of it I mean there's sort of a very kind of bar bell-shaped approach where there's very very disinterested unaffiliated people and then there's extremely you know interested and active people on campus it turns out you know many of the most active people on campus you know religiously are on the conservative side there are those that aren't though especially in in in certain religious movements so I think you know there's polarization this barbell thing is really a polarization and reflection of society as a whole I don't think that there's something you know that specifically where you will be you know taught to be an atheist I think people come in thinking with it with a notion that they form maybe before in high school and maybe it's not so logically sound but they'll come in with that notion and it is hard to dissuade people otherwise but it's a lot of fun to try that's what I like that only I totally agree with that thank you so much yes I mean I appreciate you being here we all I'm sure look forward to seeing your video video very soon so thank you everyone for watching this is will wit Bryan Keating thank you