Do not be afraid ! I will speak in French. (Laughter)
I woke up this morning at 4 o’clock
in Sintra, near Lisbon, to come here.
And I only slept three hours.
So, I am very tired but happy to be here.
Good evening Valenciennes!
(Applause)
Please excuse my French!
This is only my third language and,
I know that I am going to murder your language with my grammatical [errors],
but you will be tolerant, of course.
“Science and Metaphysics” is the subject of my presentation.
Metaphysics, that means, obviously,
what is beyond physics,
beyond knowledge, science.
It is, in a way, a contradiction
between science and metaphysics.
And the great mystery of metaphysics is …
God.
Does God exist? Yes or no ?
Are we here by chance? Yes or no ?
If God does not exist, we are here by chance,
and if we are here by chance, life has no meaning.
But, if there is a reason to be here,
it means that there is a god, some intention.
And that’s a very important but metaphysical quest.
Does God exist? Yes or no ?
Who believes, here, that yes?
Is there anyone ?
Very well … And who thinks no?
A lot of people ! So …
Opinions are divided, that’s normal.
But, of course,
there is a consensus: we will never know the whole truth.
It’s a question of belief, of faith,
and, it’s beyond science.
But no !
As early as the 1970s, a great debate was triggered
in the scientific community, because of some discoveries
that have been done about it.
These discoveries are not well known to the general public
but I would like to talk about it.
Well !
First, we need to start with a definition.
When we talk about God, we talk about what, really?
Because we have an anthropomorphic idea of God.
We imagine an old man, with a big white beard,
to Hubert Reeves, who looks at the world,
who listens to our prayers.
Well…
This entity – this old man with a white beard –
science has never discovered it.
If we look at the sky with a telescope, in a night of stars,
we will not see him.
So when we talk about God, what are we really talking about?
Is there an engineer here?
No engineer?
Well, if we ask the question to an engineer:
what is television?
He will answer you: “Television is …
that thing, with electrical wires,
and electronic links, and a cathode ray tube,
and electrical connections, and all that … “
And that’s true ! It’s television.
But, we know that television is much more than that.
Television is programs, football, news,
movies, talk shows, reality shows.
Television is not just a hardware.
It is also a “software” (program).
In the same way, if we ask the question to a scientist:
what is the universe? He will answer:
“The universe is the force of gravity,
the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force,
electromagnetic force, particles,
the electrons, the protons,
atoms, molecules,
planets, stars, galaxies …
And that’s true,
that the universe is all that! That’s it, its hardware!
But what is his software?
What is the program in the universe?
I am convinced that if we discover the software of the universe,
we will understand the question of God.
So, we have to look for this software.
How can we do it?
Here is the challenge!
We need, first of all, to understand one thing,
and find two things in the universe.
We need to understand that God,
is not a supernatural entity.
God, if he exists, is a natural entity.
It does not change the laws of physics.
It’s a natural thing.
There are a lot of things in nature that we do not understand.
And that would be one more thing, obviously the biggest!
This definition is very important.
Second, we need to find two things in the universe:
intelligence and intention.
intentional intelligence.
Is the universe intelligent?
Of course ! Let’s look around us!
Let’s look, for example, the phenomenon of photosynthesis.
The sun has energy.
He emits this energy.
The plant captures this energy, with photosynthesis.
The energy is, then, in the plant.
Then, an animal eats the plant
and this energy will travel in him.
So when we move, all our movements
are the result of the energy coming from the sun, captured by photosynthesis.
This is very ingenious!
It’s very smart!
Look, for example, the natural selection of Charles Darwin,
the system of evolution of species,
by…
natural selection !
Nature is trying a solution with a genetic change.
Often, it does not work, and sometimes it works and it gives an evolution.
It’s a very ingenious system!
It is a very intelligent system!
And, we find it everywhere in Nature.
Look how the eye is built!
Is the eye smart? Obviously!
When you make a camera, it’s an imitation of a natural thing.
So yes ! Yes !
The universe is smart!
But is this intelligence a coincidence or is it intentional?
Here we come to a big problem:
the problem of intention.
Everyone knows that,
only the author of an act knows his intention.
For example, if there is a crime – someone kills another person –
“Have you done it on purpose? – No, it was an accident.
I did not do it on purpose. I did not intend it. “
So, the judge must …
evaluate, decide whether the person had an intention or not.
It is difficult because it is a subjective experience of the author of the action.
This evaluation is very difficult to do!
So ! How do we arrive at the intention?
By two paths.
First path:
When I arrived here, I saw there were flowers there.
They are very beautiful.
So, I saw that there are flowers, and there are everywhere. Good!
But you know, I took notes with a pen.
And when I look at a pen, I know two things about this pen.
I know that the pen was created by someone,
– a person I do not know, but someone created the pen.
He created it with an intention:
that of writing. Okay ?
But, think about it!
If I can do this reasoning about a pen,
– which is a simple thing,
an intelligent and intentional thing -,
why would not I make the same reasoning
with a flower
– which is a much smarter thing,
much more complex,
and with a function in nature
much more important than that of a simple pen?
Why can I do this reasoning of intentional intelligence
around a pen, and not a flower?
The second way to reach the intention,
it is by mathematics, and probabilities.
Let’s imagine that yesterday,
I played Lotto in Lisbon, Portugal.
and I won.
It’s very unlikely … But someone has to win.
So, congratulations! I am rich ! Thank you !
But let’s imagine that today, I arrived here,
I played Loto here in Valenciennes,
and I won.
Two consecutive times!
But say so ! That’s not normal!
It has never happened that a person wins twice consecutively,
in two different countries. It is not normal.
It is absolutely improbable!
But, we will accept that.
Do we imagine that tomorrow,
I take the train to Lille to go to Brussels.
I play Loto, and I win!
Third time, in three consecutive days!
You know what’s going to happen?
The police will arrest me. (Laughter)
It is not possible for me to win three consecutive times in the Lotto,
in three different countries … even in the same country!
It’s absolutely impossible!
In probability, yes, there is a very, very small …
But, we know there is something, if it happens.
So this is where it touches the discoveries of scientists
of the 70s.
They made a lot of discoveries that show that there is
a super-mega jackpot in the universe for the existence of life.
For example,
you know that the universe has begun, according to scientists,
with the “Big Bang”.
It’s not really an explosion
but, it’s a moment that triggered the whole mechanism
from which the universe has grown.
So,
you imagine the force, the energy
who is in this moment of genesis,
– this initial moment of the universe!
It’s a very powerful thing.
And, of course, controlling that, is impossible.
But, you know, to have life,
it would take a …
expansion
infinitesimal finesse.
If the expansion velocity is not strong enough,
what would happen is that after an initial growth,
the forces of gravity would attract all the matter again.
And that would be the “Big Crunch”, and as a result, no life!
Life would not be possible.
But if the force is too strong,
what would happen is that
the material would spread too fast
and there would be no stars, no planets, galaxies,
not us!
So, for us to exist, we need a precise velocity,
a speed of expansion exactly opposite to the force of gravity,
– precisely the opposite, no more, no less -,
so improbable that, according to the scientists,
it’s the same probability as if I had a laser beam here,
and I was shooting at a target, in the sky, a millimeter,
a millimeter in diameter, which is, not in our galaxy,
but in the neighboring galaxy.
It’s the same probability!
So, you know, we won the Super Jackpot!
This velocity has come true.
They discovered a whole lot of other [evidence] of this finesse.
For example, when the universe was created,
there were particles and anti-particles
which annihilated each other.
But, they discovered that, if there was
for each particle, an anti-particle that came to cancel it,
there would be no universe.
But, what happens is that,
every 10 billion anti-particles,
there are 10 billion and ONE particles.
This particle in addition allowed the existence of the universe
as we know it.
So, they discovered jackpot after jackpot,
after jackpot.
That, you know, gives us the intention.
Because there is a finesse in the universe.
This is a subject that is still debated
by scientists.
In fact, this subject, when I think about it,
makes me think of an ant story.
I’m on a red carpet, a carpet of TEDx,
but, let us imagine that this carpet came from Isfahan in Iran.
So, in truth, a Persian rug, with a very beautiful design.
Imagine that there is an ant walking on the carpet.
And, I speak with the ant.
“So, little girl, how are you?” – Yes, I am fine.
– Uh! … It’s pretty this drawing on the carpet. “
And she said to me: “But, but what drawing? No !
– The drawing, there on the carpet! “
“I do not see any drawing! She will answer me.
So, I have to take the ant,
take the distance so that the ant observes the drawing.
and understand it.
And that’s it, our position.
We must get out of the carpet!
We need to get out of the hardware
to see the program,
to see the software.
We are ants in the universe.
And we need to distance ourselves.
Thank you !
(Applause)
”
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