The Two Cultures,Humanities and Science,

Making Meaning Together

By Dr. Harold Williams

of Montgomery College Planetariumhttp://montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/planet/

Some Possibilities• Faith in Science?

http://montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/planet/FaithInScience/home.html

• Navigating Uncertainty http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/planet/NavigatingUncertainties/home.html

• Knowledge and Wisdom• Bioethics • Can Northern European Men do Science?

Science and Humanities Questions

• Do atoms exist?

• Does God or Gods exist?

• Does the answer to either question matter to you?

Quantum Mechanical He atom

4He atom with two yellow electrons two, two pink protons,

and two gray neutrons

Helium atom explained

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Explained_Atom.svg

Some indications atoms exist• Science text book says so, not acceptableScience text book says so, not acceptable

• Dalton’s observation of definite ratios in Dalton’s observation of definite ratios in chemical reactionschemical reactions

• William CrookesWilliam Crookes, Cathode ray and Spinthariscope

• 1905 Brownian motion, Albert Einstein

• 1911 Particle scattering, Ernest Rutherford

• Model work to explain so much

• But no human has ever seen an atom

Creation of the Sun and Moon Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo di

Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

God Really

God does not seem to be

• Summons able like atoms

• Lets try

He did not show

• Either She does not exist,• Or is not at my beck-and-call.• Personally I am glad She did not appear.• I would not want you in the audience

declared religious schizophrenias, • and I am not interested in a personality cult

built around my summoning ability.• If She does exist She must be merciful to

me.