Thirty three years after his death, Richard Feynman still remains a popular name in the world of physics and he is even known to the general public thanks to the popular series The Big Bang Theory. Besides being a brilliant physicist (he won the Nobel prize in 1965) Feynman was a man who lived a full life and did not shy away from expressing his thoughts on a variety of subjects in short stories, lectures and public presentations. The best of them can be found in a small volume titled The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.
The title truly epitomizes Feynman’s love of and commitment to scientific research. He valued scientific inquiry not only as a source of personal intellectual satisfaction but also as our way to discover how the world works and help ourselves to live better lives. Not surprisingly then, he defended the freedom to do research and demanded that the rules of objective and disinterested scientific research should be scrupulously respected.
To Feynman discovery of new things and ideas starts with doubt and society’s tolerance of doubt. Doubt about the correctness or “truth” of old theories and findings is the springboard of inquiry. Science, he argues, does not fully remove uncertainty about the questions it explores. Science can only show that an explanation holds with less uncertainty than its rival alternatives. This leaves the door open to doubt and further research.
In order to preserve the legitimacy of science and its findings, Feynman demanded that the scientist exercises absolute integrity in the collection of data, the judgment of the evidence and the recording of the conclusions. To the members of the scientific community these admonishments may sound self-evident, but one would be naïve to think that Feynman’s prescription for honest science coincides with the public’s perception about the conduct of science. The practice of funding research with grants from various industries and research done to soar up the commercial success of various products are not helping the public’s perception of science in our days. The widespread skepticism if not outright dismissal concerning scientific findings, ranging from climate change to Covid 19 vaccines, shows that science has a serious image problem with society. As a matter of fact, between 1970 and 2020 the percentage of Americans with a great deal of confidence in science has hovered around 50%.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s, when Feynman wrote and talked about good science, he was aware that the public had a tenuous relationship with science despite the frequent declarations that we were already living in the scientific era. He lamented that most of the public knew so little about science and people went on with their daily lives as if they were untouched by scientific applications. We can imagine how disillusioned and anguished he would be if he lived among us today.
As he conducted his research, Feynman remained a conscientiously irresponsible scientist declaring he was not responsible for the world he had found. To him science was silent about its uses, these to be determined by others. Science is there only to discover. Nonetheless, when he was called to help in the Manhattan Project, he did his cost-benefit analysis and made the moral choice to help.
What about the role of science in a world that believes in the supernatural? Feynman found it inconsistent and inexplicable that society requires rigorous evidence to put its faith behind scientific discoveries, and yet it seems to be uninterested in ascertaining the validity of miracles, astrology and other supernatural beliefs.
Before critics of religion, like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, had made a splash, Feynman took up the relationship of science to religion in his usual dispassionate, academic approach trying to do justice to both. He starts by delineating the realms of science and religion. First, he states that, unlike religion which seeks to provide a meaning of life, science has no such purpose. How each treats doubt is another manifestation of their different realms. If science starts with doubt and uncertainty, religion is where both end.
Then he identifies three aspects of religion and how science relates to them. The first is the metaphysical aspect of religion, that is, religious beliefs about the creation and working of the cosmos. Here, Feynman argues it’s only science that can provide answers based on evidence. In the centuries following the Church’s attempt to silence Galileo, the Church discovered that accepting scientific findings did not spell the end of faith. In some cases, the position of the Church changed thanks to voices from within the Church. Thus, the Belgian cosmologist and Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre, father of the Big Bang theory (the real one not its TV comedic version) was instrumental in adjusting the Church’s view toward a universe of finite (not eternal) life. The late Rev. George Coyne, a Vatican astronomer and defender of Darwin, also played a role in Pope John Paul’s II admission that evolution was more than a hypothesis.
The second aspect of religion is the ethical aspect, the one that gives answers to moral questions and establishes a moral and ethical code for the faithful. Feynman says moral questions are outside the realm of science. Nonetheless, to the extent a moral choice depends on how we answer “What happens if I do this?” then science with its empirical methodology can inform our moral choices. That’s not different from the Socratic idea that “virtue is knowledge.” If you know the consequences of your actions on others and you, reason can protect you from committing those actions that are harmful.
Inspirational is the third aspect of religion that Feynman identifies. Religions need to inspire the faithful to keep their faith in the moral commands and the rituals of their religion. It is in relation to this aspect that religion can come into conflict with science. Religions often invoke metaphysical realities (a heaven for the righteous and a hell for the sinful) inadmissible to science which the religious person has to accept by force of faith.
Feynman was aware and concerned that friction between science and religion posed a problem to liberal societies. He proposed that peaceful coexistence rests on the humility of the intellect and the humility of the spirit so that science accommodates faith and religion accommodates doubt and uncertainty.
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