God and Astrophysics
In the 1930s, Sir Arthur Eddington, one of the greatest astrophysicists of the time, was a devout Christian and a Quaker. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, another giant of modern astrophysics, was an atheist.
The two scientists met in Cambridge in 1930. By that time Eddington was already a renowned scientist with many achievements to his credit. Chandra, on the other hand was a brilliant, but callow 20 year old who had just arrived from India on a scholarship. Chandra hero worshipped Eddington.
On the months-long journey by ship from Bombay to Dover, the young Chandra had made a very significant discovery that is now called the Chandrasekhar Limit. But Eddington sabotaged Chandra. He used his influence to discredit Chandra’s discovery. Why did he do it? Could faith have been behind their disagreement? Our play The Square Root of a Sonnet examines the relationship between the two scientists and this controversy.
Eddington’s faith certainly played a significant role in his science. During World War I, Quakers in Britain rejected the war and resisted conscription. Eddington became a conscientious objector even though he was ostracized by English scientists. He also took the lead in bringing the work of Einstein, a German, to scientists in Britain and the world.
Chandra, on the other hand, was an atheist - at least later in life. In Kameshwar Wali’s biography on Chandra, he is quoted as saying, “I am not religious in any sense; in fact, I consider myself an atheist.”
When Chandra first postulated the Chandrasekhar Limit, he wondered about the possibility of something like a black hole (without actually naming it). In his talk at the Royal Astronomical Society in London, he said that if the mass of a dying star was greater than the Chandrasekhar Limit, it would continue to collapse, and "one is left speculating on other possibilities."
A black hole is a singularity - a point of infinite density and gravity so strong that not even light rays can escape its pull (ergo, black holes). The possibility of such a thing intrigued Chandra, because that’s where the mathematics was leading him. But to Eddington, who believed in a higher power that created the universe, or at least its rules, the notion of a black hole-like object could have been abhorrent. Why would god create such an odd, anomalous thing like a black hole?
Science and religion have always had an antagonistic relationship. For centuries, science has pushed back, further and further, the boundary of what in the physical universe can be explained by science, leaving less and less to the necessity of invoking a higher power.
After evolutionary biology, astronomy and astrophysics are probably the worst “offenders” in this respect. Galileo, for example, suffered greatly at the hands of the Catholic Church. Modern day astrophysicists, like those of faith, look longingly at the heavens, though their motivations are quite different. But that doesn’t mean that belief in a god doesn’t still influence their science.
Was it was his faith that led Eddington to undermine Chandra’s work? Possibly. But it isn’t accidental that the two scientists on opposite sides of this controversy disagreed on their science as well as on the existence of a god.