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In the long run the struggle between science and religion In the West, the opposite has happened. Initially, it was religious leaders who recognized certainty, who questioned the story of the Bible, who condemned how the Earth was made, and how it was placed within the panoply of heaven (often to death). Scientists were searchers who asked uncomfortable questions. Today, science is the most promising certainty, as so-called new atheists like Richard Dawkins represent weak and stupid religious people who are unable to accept what they seem to see. Believers in organized religion, on the other hand, often see themselves persecuted for failing to follow the line. The top may change, but the fight continues.
Among this landlocked and mobile territory is the priest Pamela Conrad, a NASA geobiologist who studies what life can last, who is also in charge of a bishopric congregation outside Baltimore. Conrad, ordained in 2017, is part of the scientific management team Perseverance Rover Mars mission, where he looks at the big questions that help design experiments to understand Mars’ environment: Is Mars alive? Was it ever there?
He is currently working on two projects or research related to the mission. The first is a set of tools that help us determine what the weather is like on the planet around us, to assess how friendly it can be to organisms. The other uses a special microscope, known as Watson, and a spectrometer to identify and analyze the organic materials on the planet.
In an interview, Conrad described his two occupations as complementary ways of understanding the cosmos and our place in it: “The difference between a telescope or anything external to understanding the environment and the introspection of looking inward,” I am a universe, and I also live within a universe ».
Below is a brief and edited transcript of a conversation about his scientific work and his faith, and how each is challenging and the other how informed.
Noam Cohen: As a scientist you study the chemistry of life. Does this have any mystical or spiritual qualities?
Pamela Conrad: That is not a search. It’s very interesting to me that it’s the same thing. The periodic table of elements is a periodic table that we see everywhere in the universe, both in astronomy and in samples of the universe that end on Earth — meteorites. We can count on that. Really, the point is, because chemistry is the same and physical forces can change, what distinguishes an environment that can sustain life from one that can’t? But it’s not so easy, unfortunately, because we’ve only had one example of life we know, and it’s life on this planet. So I’m wondering, would we know if we saw it?
In both of your areas — science and religion — it seems that most people are looking for answers, not more questions.
Absolutely. And I totally accept that I’m a statistical outlier. I go there because I love questions. We’ve forgotten that science, even if it uses empirical data, is really about building a model for understanding data, and that even the best scientists can squeeze in their favorite model a little at times. They’re really great scientists who say, “What an idiot I was yesterday. Of course not, this is it today. “
The research trip to Antarctica deeply affected you. What happened?
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