Michel Cassé and Joe Silk, two scientists against concordism Michel Cassé and Joe Silk, two scientists against concordism COSMOLOGY AND THEOLOGY NEW-LOOK

The two astrophysicists, the Frenchman Michel Cassé and the Briton Joe Silk, of whom we publish below a forum which rises against "concordism" - the mixture of theology and cosmology magisteriums - are well known to their peers for their scientific work. in-depth and also of the general public. They have indeed published a large number of works (which cannot all be mentioned here) on astronomy and cosmology, which have become classics. In particular “Du vide et de la création” for Michel Cassé in 1993, or “Le big bang” for Joe Silk, in 1980. These two scientists react here, in their scientific, poetic and caustic way, to the publication of he recent book that has already generated a number of comments and criticisms, “God, science, evidence” by Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonnassis. Resolutely opposed to the bias of this work, they recall that "The serious reflection on the border between Cosmology and Theology, from Maimonides to the modern era marked by the historical contribution of Georges Lemaître, goes against the concordism. » Cassé and Silk, neither naïve nor choirboys (scientist), know well, at the same time, that certain terms are not of the register of science (eternity…) and that others are to be handled with great care ( infinity, creation…). But their freedom as authors and their frequentation of friends who are writers, poets, theater men, etc. like Jean-Claude Carrière for example – Michel Cassé and Jean Audouze wrote with him “Conversations on the invisible” – here gives them the opportunity to refine their expression on what they consider to be a bewilderment. While recalling, without being fooled, what is generally considered tolerable or not among the scientific community. Their humor then becomes corrosive: “You, Jason of the Azure, says the philosopher, you love the universe for its tangent with other words that are unpronounceable in good scientific society, infinity, transfiguration, creation, eternity. Do you serve illusion or cosmology? » Above all, they urge mathematicians, physicists and other astrophysicists not to lose heart in the face of a universe that is difficult to rigorously put into equations, and without being trapped... "Astrophysicists & Astrophiles, you love the sky and the sky loves you too, don't fall in error.” The text by Michel Cassé and Joe Silk, which La Recherche has chosen to publish after its receipt at the end of October 2021, may nevertheless seem difficult to access for those unaccustomed to the field of astrophysics. It requires to be read with attention because some metaphors are allusive – thus “the dumpsters of future flesh” coming from the stars are those elements of Mendeleiev’s classification, iron, gold, silver which will one day give rise to planets or sow the galaxies, after the death of said stars… In the same time, the two astrophysicists strive to stick to the most up-to-date fundamental scientific knowledge of the Universe, knowledge constantly reworked and never completed... We explain below some of these crucial notions.Dominique LegluDARK MATTER It is this matter missing from galaxies, up to 90% according to certain theories, to explain their behavior.Other theories, still in the minority and not accepted by many speci cialists, to elegantly eliminate this embarrassing question push to change certain fundamental parameters, for example the constant of gravitation. Dark energy, on the other hand, pushes the galaxies to move away from each other and this, in an increasingly rapid way, the universe thus experiencing an accelerated expansion.

COSMOLOGY OF STRINGS, LOOPS. Theories where particles, for the first time, are seen not as points but as vibrating strings. In the second, certain dimensions of space can loop back on themselves. It should be remembered that these theories were born of some of the most difficult (and unsuccessful) efforts of recent years, intended to unify the two great theories of physics (relativity and quantum). One of their results is that the Universe could experience rebounds, in other words, there would be a "before the big bang" which could be traced. To find out more, read the dossier “Universe and quantum physics” from the quarterly La Recherche n°563, published in November 2020.

THE PLANCK WALL. This is the limit (in time, 10 ^-43 seconds, in space 10 ^-35 m) below which, in the primordial universe, phenomena cannot be explained without using new cosmological models (such as those mentioned above).

GIORDANO BRUNO. This Dominican priest, who advocated the plurality of worlds (like our solar systems or planets revolve around stars like our sun), was considered a heretic by the Inquisition and condemned to the stake in 1600.

By Michel Cassé (astrophysicist) and Joseph Silk (professor of astrophysics emeritus at the University of California and the University of Oxford)

For the purpose of clarifying the debate between science and religion, and against the abuse of language and errors of category, it seemed necessary to us to set limits to contemporary concordism1. If any woman or man of science is free to believe as they please, Science wants to be an agnostic institution and any self-respecting cosmological allegation must in principle assume religious neutrality. Frankly, theology is of no help in calculating the properties of the cosmos, past, present and future and the word God is carefully avoided in astrophysical publications. Conversely, the universe should be left free from any canonical religious imposition or interpretation.

It is advisable from the start, if one wants to avoid severe confusions (1), to make the share between observable universe and total Universe, metaphysical.

The observable universe necessarily offers hospitality to life, since it contains beings conscious and attentive to the sky and the cosmos. This truism, set up as an anthropic principle, has turned out to be strangely fruitful. The finest theories (strings, for example) indicate however that if the mathematical equations of physics, in particular quantum, are necessary, the parameters which they conceal and the starting conditions to which they apply are contingent. The serious reflection on the boundary between Cosmology and Theology, from Maimonides to the modern era marked by the historical contribution of Georges Lemaître, goes against concordism. Abbé Lemaître, father of physical cosmology now known as the big bang (the rowdy onomatopoeia does not come from him, because nothing can make a pre-existing environment resonate since the universe is primary and nothing is exterior), strongly opposed Pope Pius XII who saw the hand of God in the discovery of the creation of the universe (2).

It is unfortunate, in this respect, that an astrophysicist, Nobel prize winner moreover, saw in Fossil Cosmological Radiation the finger of God, he deserves a skullcap. Lemaître, a Catholic priest confesses that “there are two paths to the truth, and I have decided to follow both” After the failure of the ontological and cosmological arguments, no consistent thinker would dare to prove philosophically or scientifically the existence or the non-existence of the biblical God.

The main arguments to oppose to contemporary concordism which are based on the notion of big bang and believe to see in Cosmological Radiation the finger of God, are the following

• Cosmology cannot serve as a pillar or cane for theology because it is not a finished theory, it is a permanent project that evolves from crisis to crisis, the last having to do with the Hubble constant, a measure of the rate expansion of the universe. Two crucial components of cosmology remain misunderstood. Dark matter escapes all detection and dark energy remains mysterious, to the point that some interpret it as a contingent constant of nature, for which it is futile to seek an explanation outside the Anthropic Principle.

• The strange big-bang singularity put forward as proof of ex-nihilo creation against the permanent creation and eternity of the world can be avoided at little cost by slightly modifying the equations of the field of General Relativity. Models of cyclic cosmology with rebound have been proposed by both String Cosmology and Loop Cosmology proponents.

• Processes related to quantum gravity are supposed to be dominant during the very first times. Many theories of the quantum origin of the universe compete, none of which has won conviction. Cosmology is under construction. The beginning never stops building. It is quantum, and quantum is synonymous with fluctuating. Who would want this clumsy God, if not the Gnostics, if need be, who admit 2 gods including one bad?

• In the hypothesis of a Plurivers, with an overabundance of universes, the distribution functions of the influential parameters are unknown, and the statistical estimates have no meaning We are witnessing an extraordinary extension of the notions of matter, dimensions and 'universe. This Universe, which has become comprehensible, is too heavy to bear for cosmologists alone. Especially since he did stupid things. The stars don't know what they're doing, they're pouring dumpsters of future flesh into space.

You, Jason of the azure, says the philosopher, you love the universe for its tangent with other words unpronounceable in good scientific society, infinity, transfiguration, eternity creation. Do you serve illusion or cosmology? Without you being angels, your fidelity to the heavens and your ultimate tenderness for the original makes you receptive to the subtle invisible, neutrinos, gamma rays and gravitational waves. You make the lightning speak of the equations, slender and mischievous beings come out of them. Make them think more than dream. But to think tenderly. Say neutrinos as we say bambino, with the same little affective note because reduced to its own forces, science is doomed to affective failure and loss of love.

Astrophysicists & Astrophiles, you love the sky and the sky loves you too, don't fall into error. And no longer be seized with dread before the eternal silence of infinite spaces. The sporadic din of small skylights is there to delight you. Smile! You risk neither death nor the stake in wanting to pierce the original mystery or in proclaiming the plurality of worlds.

Claim the rehabilitation by the church of Giordano Bruno because the new cosmology puts him at the pinnacle but do not turn your back on theologians, they have a lot to teach us about the unspeakable. This or those that we cannot talk about, or that we cannot pierce, we must say them. Let's sing the neutrino drills and dance on the waves of gravitation!

Let's bet that the Planck wall, 10-33 cm thick, a blind zone, a major epistemological obstacle that prevents us from accessing the mythical time zero will be crossed the day Gravity is married and well married to Quantum.

Already the Cordeliers and the Boucles, followers of the theory of superstrings and Quantum Gravity with Loops, congratulate themselves on having passed the camel of cosmology through the eye of the needle of zero. This is good news.

Astral physicists, pass your skies deciphering the enigmas of dark matter, dark energy, the initial low entropy of the universe, the initial and final singularities (aberrations) of the big bang and the black hole, the manifest absence of antimatter, of the mass of neutrinos and finally of the transition from inert matter to living matter and to consciousness. You were born for infinity.

Courage in the face of time zero which is an instant in a time which does not yet exist!

Courage before the legion of universes which are counted by ten to the power of five hundred and more (4)!

What happened to man that he preceded the conventional big bang with the fabulous Inflation of space and the transmutation of his energy into light, matter and antimatter and that it is the part of eternity in this extraordinary phenomenon? In the new genesis, the creative element is the Quantum Void and the theological dispute of our time is no longer the number of angels dancing on a pinhead but the number of big bangs that enamel the history of the Plurivers, assuming it exists, as well as the number of potential conscious observers (5) and the type of intelligence they have given rise to. The poetic metaphors of heaven and fate have been replaced by measurable quantities of space and time. Heaven, the great Heaven of angels, has given way to a universe of paper and equations. Since then we wonder what we are and seek paradise in the beyond, artifice or on a planet around another star.

Caught up in monism, the complex and fragmented field of knowledge seeks to reunite itself in logos, in cosmologos. How to think of an almost unthinkable unity? Space, Sky and Universe are the words that summon galloping technologies, wandering souls and all-encompassing sciences. To keep the heart of faith and research in bloom, Earth has chosen Heaven. The first equation of astrophysics is Earth = Sky. Through the interplay of a few mechanistic assertions (6) and a conceptually unitary aim, the universe is reduced to being born, to being only a story. Cosmography gives way to History and cosmology to cosmogony which borders on myth and legend. The universe presented as a process forever deprives us of the certainty of its immortality and the dynamic concept of succession replaces that of divine simultaneity. The universe is evolving in all its islands, but the most grandiose evolution is that of its waistline (7). The universe is in time (8). Wouldn't it be better, therefore, to substitute for the word cosmology that of cosmodrama? Which would amount to emphasizing the temporal dimension, where the term “universe” could appear to insist on the spatial, volume dimension of perception (9)? In the new genesis the light is not first. The creative element is the quantum vacuum. From this almost paradoxical being, this flowery nothingness, a veritable Aladdin's lamp from which emerge the particle-antiparticle couples and the universes, physicists go into ecstasy. Theologians, always dapper, are already refining a dogmatics of the Plurivers in which the transcendence of the INFINITE replaces the transcendence of the ONE. They are not choirboys. It is impossible to demonstrate that they are not right. Relativistic cosmologists are in the desert of equations. Men of God are in the desert of faith. What is the meaning of these deserts?

(1) “God, science, evidence” by Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonnassis, widely promoted under the title “When science believes in God” in a file in Figaro Magazine (October 8 and 9, 2021)

(2) Cosmological essays. Preceded by: Invention of the Big Bang, Alexandre Friedmann and Georges Lemaître, Jean-Pierre Luminet Seuil Dominique Lambert, an atom of the universe, the life of Abbé Lemaître.

(3) According to the second principle of thermodynamics, the entropy of the universe cannot decrease, it was therefore particularly low "in the beginning". Thus the universe is anti-mythical since it passes from Cosmos to Chaos, from order to disorder. The ordering of the original chaos is therefore a legend.

(4) The exploration of the “landscape” of the Cordeliers, the equivalent of paradise, and the definition of its border with the “swampland” (swamp), the hell of fallen theories, is on the agenda.

(5) It would still be necessary to correctly define consciousness. The "brains of Boltzmann", veritable zombies born of thermodynamic and quantum hazards, play an ambiguous role in this respect. Read Sean Carroll.

(6) The space expands between the clusters of galaxies, by reversing the movement they converge to merge at time zero.

(7) 289 billion light-years is the circumference of the cosmological horizon

(8) Just like the stars. Stars are mortal/Socrates is mortal/Socrates is a star (9) Certainly not, because volume is time: space has been expanding since the big bang. The distance scale is temporalized.