Time&Eternity

Time in the Formulation of Scientific Theory 179
the wake of quantum physics and chaos research, this results in a relatively
strong formation of paradigms that attain significance and influence far beyond
the original field. The prevailing theory at any given time can
influence the hermeneutics of research processes of the most diverse branches
of science; it can attain religious or quasi-religious status; it can become
the pattern for the development of corresponding societal models. Science
can become religion. The factors and processes that become effective in
such developments require critical reflection. For this, natural sciences are
also dependent upon theological expertise.
Wertheim believes that, to date, the agenda of physics has been filled
with religious values. In the relevant literature, it is not unusual to proceed
from parallels between the concept of the laws of nature and a monotheistic
concept of God. In the words of the mathematician and physicist John Barrow:
The fact that such a unification [of all the laws of nature into a simple and single
representation] is even sought tells us something important about our expectations
regarding the Universe. These we must have derived from an amalgam of our previous
experience of the world and our inherited beliefs about its ultimate Nature and
significance. Our monotheistic traditions reinforce the assumption that the Universe
is at root a unity, that it is not governed by different legislation in different
places, neither the residue of some clash of Titans wrestling to impose their arbitrary
wills upon the Nature of things, nor the compromise of some cosmic committee.
334
Similarly, Wertheim recognizes a religious motif in the search for the
TOE, the uniform theory of the natural forces: “The longing for one allencompassing
cosmic law is, I suggest, the scientific legacy of more than
three millennia of faith in one all-encompassing principle known as
God.” 335 It appears to be no accident that the idea of the unification of all
forces was fed by a series of deeply religious men, such as the Jesuit priest
Rudjer Boskovič (1711–1787) and the member of the small Christian Sandemanian
sect, Michael Faraday (1791–1867). In view of the fact that the
dream of the “world formula” preoccupies not only numerous clever minds,
but also requires significant material resources in the form of particle accelerators,
it seems justified to listen to Wertheim’s critical questions concerning
the real driving force behind this research. 336 Is it an essentially hierarchically
fixed image of the world that makes us believe that physics can
explain God to us by discovering a unified theory? Do such high-reaching,
quasi-religious ambitions distract us from more urgent problems, the solutions
of which could actually improve the world? There must also be a discussion
in and with physics about the kind of societal and ethical responsi-