Science and Beliefs | Lawrence krauss

In Science Every day we challenge our beliefs, That's how Science works.

Lawrence m. krauss is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He continued as a

Professor at ASU until retiring in May 2019. He currently serves as President of The

Origins Project Foundation and as host of The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss.

"In science every day we challenge our beliefs. That is how science works.

Most people think science works the other way around, but in fact, what you want to do when you come into work everyday if you are a scientist, you want to prove all your colleagues are wrong. And in fact, the key thing, as Richard Feynman would say:

What you try to do, if you have an idea, if you are a scientist and you say you have a theory, you try and prove it right but actually you try and prove it wrong. And you spend more time trying to prove it wrong.

The great thing about science is that there are no unshakable truths

Because, first of all, the easiest person to fool is yourself. You know, we all think that things that happens to us are significant, and Feynman used to go around and say:

"You wont believe what happened to me today, you just won't believe what happened."

and people would say: "What?" ....and he would say: "Absolutely Nothing." Because we all believe that when something happens to us is significant, it has some cosmic significance.

You know, you can have 1000 dreams over many nights that are nonsense,

but you dream one night that a friend of yours is going to break their leg, and the next day they break their arm, and you say: "Cosmic!"

We don't realise that accidents happens.

And so we have to challenge our beliefs every single day. That it's what science is all about.

There are no scientific ideologies, and in fact......science,... the reason science has progressed and theology hasn't.

The reason we have video-cameras, and lights, and medicine. And we can feed more people, and live longer healthier lives it's because science changes.

The great thing about science is that there are no unshakable truths. And we don't even believe anything.

We force the way we view reality to depend upon on the evidence of reality.

So if you don't challenge your beliefs you are never learning. You are never questioning yourself. And so, I hope that every student at one point in their life has the opportunity that have something that is at the heart of their being, something so central to their being that if they lose it they won't feel they are human anymore

to be proved wrong.

Because that is the liberation that science provides. The realization that to assume the truth, to assume the answer before you ask the question leads you nowhere. And that's why... that's why science has led to a modern world where in fact we can make progress.

You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe. - Carl Sagan, Contact

And so, I actually feel very strongly that while science per-se may not provide the direct consolation. It can and it should provide a spiritual, not only wonder, but it should provide a spiritual... a consolation.

We are so lucky to be alive today in doubt with a consciousness where we for what ever fortuitous reason on a random star, on a random galaxy in the middle of nowhere we were able to evolve a consciousness, live on our relatively couasent planet and so, I actually think science can provide a real consolation by saying look, once you accept the reality is liberating. Perhaps the most exciting part, I'm sure for both you and I and I hope for those of you that are students in the audience is that

we don't know all the answers."

Lawrence krauss

Spirituality & Science

Spiritual experiences are very subjective . It varies from person to person what they mean by the term 'spiritual'. Which i think mostly means 'Something higher than the physical realm'. And Spiritual experiences are like experiencing something extraordinary, something beyond the normal way of life, something doesn't feel objectively possible. but still its a matter of conscious experience. People do mean different things from the same term. Here is a take on spiritual experiences by the physicist Lawrence krauss

"It depends on the notion of spirituality but I think there's a tremendous amount of spirituality when I look at a Hubble Space Telescope picture I get awe and wonder what what what more of a spiritual experience can I have than that but the spirituality of science is much better than the spirituality of religion because it's real and when we look out at the universe especially in these potentially dark times as we worry about our myopic problems from brexit to Donald Trump the great thing about cosmology and thinking about grand issues is it can take us away from that and realize that this too shall pass that the universe itself is so interesting that pondering it can make our current dismal experience seem perhaps a little less important"