Can science and religion be reconciled? Astronomy professor Jonathan Lunine offered his thoughts on the subject July 19, 2017 as part of the free summer events series sponsored by the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions.
Lunine, director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, looks at the case of Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian scientist and Catholic priest who conceived the Big Bang model for the origin of the cosmos. As a man of the cloth, Lemaitre faced unique difficulties in defending the theory that he helped to formulate. In his talk, Lunine explores two questions raised by this piece of scientific history: who gets credit for what in scientific discoveries, and can a scientist be religious?