ROBERT JASTROW AND THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE

English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, Arthur Eddington admitted, “The beginning [of the universe] seems to present insuperable difficulties unless we agree to look on it as frankly supernatural.” https://crossexamined.org/god-and-the-astronomers/

 Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias, Nobel laureate in physics, had initially believed in the “Steady State Theory,” which maintained that the universe had always existed. Consequently, the question, “Who created it,” became unnecessary. However, as the evidence accumulated against it, Penzias admitted:

·       “The Steady State theory turned out to be so ugly that people dismissed it. The easiest way to fit the observations with the least number of parameters was one in which the universe was created out of nothing, in an instant, and continues to expand.” https://crossexamined.org/god-and-the-astronomers/

Now that this theory has been rejected, the question of the origin of the universe has again become a hot issue. Robert Jastrow was the founding director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, a professor at Columbia University, and the director emeritus of the Mt. Wilson Observatory. However, Jastrow remains an agnostic:

·       When a scientist writes about God, his colleagues assume he is either over the hill or going bonkers. In my case it should be understood from the start that I am an agnostic in religious matters. My views on this question are close to those of Darwin, who wrote, "My theology is a simple muddle. I cannot look at the Universe as the result of blind chance, yet I see no evidence of beneficent design in the details." (God and the Astronomers (1978), Ch. 1: In the Beginning)

Yet, he does see scientific evidence for the existence of God.  In one interview, after strongly asserting his agnosticism, Jastrow admitted:

·       …that scientific evidence (including Hubble’s discoveries) pointed quite clearly to the existence of a supernatural Creator. Yet, the materialistic philosophy he had long embraced rebelled at such a conclusion. He ended with an admission I’ll never forget: “I’m in a completely hopeless bind.” https://thejohn1010project.com/blog/2018/05/17/god-and-the-astronomer/

Why the bind? Jastrow remains committed to a naturalistic world view but see the evidence pointing to ID. In God and the Astronomers, Jastrow also acknowledged that the reason-of-naturalism had failed:

·       At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. (116; p. 107 in 1992 edition)

For the scientist committed to naturalism, the findings are a “bad dream,” since the evidence puts him face-to-face with a Creator God.

Many things continue to keep Jastrow locked in his “hopeless bind.” In Red Giants and White Dwarfs: Man's Descent from the Stars, Jastrow acknowledged that even the fossil record could not rescue him from his perplexity:

·       We can assume that in a relatively short time — perhaps within 100 million years — the one celled organism evolved into a colony of cells. With the further passage of time, groups of cells within those colonies assumed specialized functions of food-gathering, digestion, the structural features of an outer skin, and so on; thus began the stage of evolution leading to the complex, many-celled creatures which dominate life today. The fossil record contains no trace of these preliminary stages in the development of many-celled organisms. The first clues to the existence of relatively advanced forms of life consist of a few barely discernible tracks, presumably made in the primeval slime by soft, wriggling wormlike animals. These are found in rocks about one billion years old. These meager remains are the earliest traces of many-celled animal life on the planet. (1971, p. 249)

After he had interviewed Jastrow for the DVD, “The Call of the Cosmos,” Lad Allen concluded:

·       I remember being struck by his honesty. Dr. Jastrow was clearly torn between what he wanted to believe (there is no Creator) and what the scientific evidence had actually revealed. It was one of the most memorable interviews of my career and the basis for a fascinating short film that we’re pleased to premier this month. https://thejohn1010project.com/blog/2018/05/17/god-and-the-astronomer/