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Surprising Science

Cosmology: The New Religion

“Is cosmology a form of theology for a secular age? Cosmology is so popular, not just because of the science, but because it allows us to ask the big questions. It’s metaphysics by other means.”
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“If the Scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages liked to speculate about the number of angels on the heads of pins, we today like to speculate about the number of dimensions wrapped up in string theory. … Many would balk at the suggestion that cosmology is the new alchemy. Jung spent many hours discussing it with the leading quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli. The two eventually published on the matter. So, it’s an association that can be justified, and helps to explain the deep interest that is so evident today. It’s not just the physics. The biggest questions themselves are embedded in the subject too.”

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