Pointless?
Do we live in a pointless universe? A very smart, very famous physicist said, yes, we do.
He’s a physicist, so he knows something about the universe, right? And we have to take him seriously, right? Which means we have to let go of our fantasies of a benevolent, intentional universe that cares about inconsequential us. Right?
A Big Bang Theory
The physicist in question is Steven Weinberg, the Nobel laureate in physics who came up with the break-through Standard Model theory of subatomic physics. (Subatomic physics — think leptons, bosons.)
Weinberg died last Friday at age 88, and he’s been very much in the news.
A New York Times article relates that, after developing the Standard Model, Weinberg went on to think about cosmology and what happened to the universe right after the Big Bang.
The First Three Minutes
Everything of consequence happened in the first three minutes, Weinberg said. Atomic nuclei bonded together and after that, “nothing of any interest would happen in the history of the universe.”
Nothing of interest?
The pyramids? The Great Wall of China? The Buddha, Moses and Jesus? Steven Weinberg? Jon Newhall? Me?
Steven Weinberg is dead now. That’s what happens to people, sooner or later.
But where is he?
Gone? Irrelevant? Pointless?
Weinberg’s Life and Mine
Yes, the universe is pointless, Weinberg would say. And so are we. Human life is pointless, he’d say — Weinberg’s life, Jon’s life, mine.
That’s what Weinberg wrote in his 1972 book, “The First Three Minutes.” The universe is basically hostile. and “the more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.”
A smart guy, Weinberg. He knows — knew — about quantum mechanics. Which, try as I might, I can’t get my mind around. So if Smart Guy, who has gazed upon the intricacies of subatomic particles, says that what he sees is pointless, who am I to assert otherwise?
Who am I to hope that Jon is not really gone, extinguished, evaporated? Who am I to trust that my husband of forty-four years is more than the box of ashes sitting on his dresser in our bedroom?
Where Is Jon?
Where is Jon? Is he somewhere safe?
Or is that very question pointless?
I need to know.
Weinberg, I’ve decided, smart and scientific though he was, is not the person rely on for an answer to the pointlessness question.
A closer look at his life and writing reveals that, yes, Weinberg got a good look at leptons and bosons, and his superb brain gave him a fresh glimmer of understanding of how they work. That glimmer was a powerful part of Weinberg’s life experience, of how he experienced the universe.
But Weinberg’s life experience also included, apparently, some seriously negative exposures to religiosity, not the least of which was the loss of family members in the Holocaust.
Religion Is Awful
“On balance the moral influence of religion has been awful,” Weinberg said in a talk before the Conference on Cosmic Design of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1999.
“Frederick Douglass told in his Narrative how his condition as a slave became worse when his master underwent a religious conversion that allowed him to justify slavery as the punishment of the children of Ham,” Weinberg points out.
“With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.”
In other words, Weinberg had an animus toward religion. Justified and grounded in real events though his bias was, Weinberg’s hostility disqualifies him — for me — as a trustable resource on the “Do we live in a pointless universe?” question.
The Comfort of Certitude
Weinberg’s certitude about the nature of the universe — that it is pointless — echoes the certitude about God that I see in some (but by no means all) religious people.
And I don’t trust certitude.
I don’t have certitude. I wish I did.
I wish I knew for sure where Jon is. I wish I knew for sure if Jon is.
I need to know.
But I don’t.
Not all Nobel laureate physicists are atheists. Read about Charles Townes in my book, “Wrestling with God.” More encounters with the big questions at My Rocky Spiritual Journey.
Dear Barbara… I have studied Buddhism for more than 50 years and I’ve found that it makes the most sense to me in terms of how I think of life and death. Thich Nhat Hanh has been the most interesting when it comes to talking about things like the meaning (ie. point) of life. I say that because he also is fond of bringing Jesus Christ up in some of his meditations. as well as in a talk he had with Oprah Winfrey. I think what I want to say is that when I think of my close friends who have died, despite my Buddhist inclinations and my certain knowledge that there are no points at the end of rainbows, I too want there to have been a point, I talk to these friends, harangue them about where they are and demand to know what could they be thinking, leaving me here on this planet without the love and companionship and wit they offered. We exist and therefore look for meaning in our existence, and I know you, found that meaning with Jon and your family and your friends and still do. When you next talk to Jon, tell him that I’m seriously irritated that he’s left the planet but in the meantime, you take care and be well and keep up the writing, my friend. Best marl
Marlene. So sweet — I’ll pass your greetings on to Jon when I finally get around to accepting that he’s not coming back and I am reduced to conjuring him.
It’s THE big question. And like you, I don’t trust anyone who says that they know the answer with any sort of certainty. Thanks for sharing this, Barbara.
Thank you, Tim. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Excellent article, thank you for your thoughts.
Thank you, Elaine