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‘We’re not so much abandoning the idea of the gods, we’re just trying to pull them all the way into the Universe.’
From the possibility of infinite universes to the prospect of panpsychism, puzzles have arisen in physics that can take science to some very counterintuitive places. According to Mary-Jane Rubenstein, assistant professor of religion and feminist, gender and sexuality studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, new theories and breakthroughs at the forefront of cosmology need not – and moreover, should not – elbow out theology from the conversation about our place in the cosmos. Instead, as she argues in this wide-ranging interview recorded at the HowTheLightGetsIn Festival from the Institute of Arts and Ideas in 2019, science should encourage us to build more durable myths and theologies to suit our times.
Video by The Institute of Arts and Ideas
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Physics
What does it look like to hunt for dark matter? Scenes from one frontier in the search
7 minutes
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Physics
Imagining spacetime as a visible grid is an extraordinary journey into the unseen
12 minutes
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Cosmology
Tiny, entangled universes that form or fizzle out – a theory of the quantum multiverse
11 minutes
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Cosmology
The Indian astronomer whose innovative work on black holes was mocked at Cambridge
13 minutes
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Astronomy
Seven years later, what can we make of our first confirmed interstellar visitor?
59 minutes
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Gender
When aggression is viewed as brilliance, it hurts women in science, and science itself
5 minutes
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Philosophy of religion
How a devout Catholic philosopher approaches the problem of evil
8 minutes
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Space exploration
What are you really seeing when you see magnificent images of space?
5 minutes
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Thinkers and theories
Bernard Williams on Descartes’s audacious endeavour to prove knowledge is possible
43 minutes