Resonance: A Life of Music, Physics, and Faith

[Celebration]

http://www.physorg.com/news9550.html

This is an interesting profile of Vanderbilt physicist Norman Tolk, whose area of interest is where the atom meets the molecule. Certainly I do not agree with everything he says, but is a good example showing that there is a wide umbrella under the discipline of science, and any insistence on a particular religious or secular humanist viewpoint is just plain silly. Plus I love the music angle.....

There is more to this relationship between physics and music, and he feels the necessity to explore it further. “The way that I explain it is that music represents order in some way. Mozart was an extreme example of this. When he wrote something, it was almost immediately familiar to everybody because it was so right, so ordered; so correct. And that is what a physicist tries to do: find the underlying order to what is happening in the universe…it’s just related that way.”

His blending of science and music goes back to his days at Harvard. He would study his physics and mathematics while listening to Bach or Mozart. “Later, when I was taking a test, I could replay the music in my head and it would bring to mind all of the things that I had been studying.” That information storage system served him well throughout his college days. “I still do that in some ways,” he adds.

Tolk is also concerned that people have the wrong idea about science in the sense that they feel that science is cold and not very human. “That’s the furthest from the truth in actuality.” He explains that it may be true that if you’re an engineer you have to be cold and calculated because, if you’re wrong, buildings collapse, bridges fall down. “But if you’re a physicist, you can be very intuitive. You can try things on, you can experiment and theorize. It’s a lot like art, really,” he says. “What we’re trying to do as a part of the universe is to step back and understand what we are and what the universe is and how we’re related. And that is a very human endeavor. That drive to know has something to do with religion.”

Tolk is completely at ease in discussing his science, musical passions, and faith. He is instantly comfortable in talking about things that other university professors, particularly scientists, might tend to keep to themselves. He is not pushy or preachy, but exudes a quiet confidence in all areas of his life, especially his religion. The reason is rooted in his religious approach to science, and his scientific approach to religion.

[Ready4Change]

1. Interesting read.

I know several people with mathematics degrees who are also musicians. Seems to be some kind of synergy there?

[rodeodance]

2. The boundaries between religion and science are porous--this is true

....Tolk explained how the uncertainty and randomness of quantum mechanics fit into his faith. “Part of the whole idea of appreciating order is understanding disorder,’ he says, “and when order applies and when it doesn’t. It’s a lot like religion, actually.” His conversation switches from science to faith as effortlessly as a person raised in a multilingual environment can change languages in mid-sentence. “A religion really defines both goodness and badness,” he explains. “If you go away from a religion, you are already being captured by it because it tells you what you do when you go away from it. And so, order and disorder are sort of good and bad mirrors of things. Without disorder, you can’t appreciate order…and there really is order involved.”

[Richard D]

3. Yup

[bananas]

4. and don't forget

[Richard D]

7. Now that's funny!

[wilsoner]

5. Templeton funding?

I would be interested to know if the Templeton Foundation has done anything to advance Tolk's views. They are willing to spend almost anything to get scientists to say that science is compatible with religion.

[Celebration]

6. No Way

Not unless Templeton endorses Mormons--extremely doubtful. Most fundamentalist type Christians do not consider Mormons as Christian. Remember when that athlete was kicked out of the Fellowship of Christian athletes because he was a Mormon? What we have here is a Mormon scientist.