Posted at 4:00 p.m.
“For centuries, the progress of science has reinforced the materialist belief that God does not exist, explains Olivier Bonnassies, co-author of the book, in an interview. But for a century, new knowledge shows that not only is it possible that God created the universe, but even that it is necessary. »
Among the “scientific evidence” that Mr. Bonnassies describes, the Big Bang. “What was there before?” There must have been a cause. For a time, physicists argued that there were cycles with the universe expanding from the Big Bang and then contracting leading to a Big Crunch. But the idea of the Big Crunch is now abandoned because it was shown 20 years ago that the universe was still expanding. »
Then there is the “fine tuning” of the astrophysical constants of the Universe, for example gravity. Without these precise constants, life is impossible, which, for believers like Mr. Bonnassies, cannot be due to chance.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY EDITIONS TRÉDANIEL
Olivier Bonnassies
Either there are millions of parallel universes with astrophysical constants that do not allow the appearance of life, or these constants were created by God.
Olivier Bonnassies, co-author of God, Science, Evidence – The Dawn of a Revolution
Genesis
It also deals with Genesis, often cited as the very example of the unscientific nature of faith. “God first creates heaven and earth, then light,” says Mr. Bonnassies. This is the correct order of the Big Bang: first time appears, then matter, then light. »
The enthusiasm of Mr. Bonnassies found an echo in his co-author Michel-Yves Bolloré, engineer and entrepreneur, member of the famous French Bolloré family, which notably owns several written, radio and television media, also reputed to be very religious.
The faith of Mr. Bonnassies, who also published two books on the Virgin Mary, came late. “I started businesses, I made money, then I wondered what all this was for. A guy from a part of my family who is Catholic lent me a book, Is there any truth?by Jean Daujat [philosophe catholique aujourd’hui décédé dont l’ouvrage a paru en 1974]. I said to myself: I will find a fault in five minutes. I ended up doing four years of theology. Then I made a YouTube video because my kids had a teacher who was against religion. Michel-Yves Bolloré contacted me and told me that we could do much better. »
Two Quebec critics…
PHOTO FROM UQAM WEBSITE
Yves Gingras
Yves Gingras, specialist in the history of science at UQAM, believes that the book’s arguments are not new. “It’s concordism,” he says, referring to the many attempts from the 19thand century to reinterpret religious dogma to match scientific advances. “Before the Big Bang, we don’t know what was there, but we don’t need a God to explain it. If science proves religion, you don’t have to have faith anymore. Now, to believe is precisely to have faith. Mr. Gingras further notes that the book is published by Trédaniel, a publishing house specializing in the esoteric.
PHOTO FROM THE QUEBEC SKEPTICS WEBSITE
Michael Belley
Michel Belley, president of the Skeptics of Quebec, underlines that in science one can call theory only an idea which it is possible to test. However, the existence of God is impossible to test. “Besides, the idea of God varies from person to person, it is a very poorly defined concept. When it comes to ‘fine tuning’, it’s the equivalent of ‘God of Holes’. “The physical constants, we measure them, we observe them. Why imagine them different? We look for holes in scientific explanations, then we imagine that these holes show the existence of God. »
… and the regrets of a scientist
PHOTO FROM HARVARD UNIVERSITY WEBSITE
Robert Wilson
“This book is a very good presentation of the development of the Big Bang theory and its impact on our beliefs”, writes in the preface to the book by Mr. Bonnassies, the American Nobel Prize in physics Robert Wilson. But he had not been given the second part of the book to read, which asserts that the Universe was created by God. “I don’t think that’s a logical conclusion,” Wilson said in an interview with The Press. I regret having been involved in this project. »
Proselytizing
The second part of the book, that which Mr. Wilson had not read, is frankly Christian. And even Judeo-Christian, with a long exposition of the fact that the Jews of antiquity had surprising scientific knowledge and that they are the only ancient civilization to have gone through the centuries with the same language and the same beliefs until now. This section even includes a lengthy plea for the veracity of the miracle of Fatima, that series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary to young Portuguese shepherds in 1917, culminating in a “sun dance” before a crowd of thousands. “If it’s a rare weather phenomenon, it’s miraculous to have predicted the exact moment several months in advance,” Bonnassies says. Benjamin Radford, an American journalist who published an analysis of the miracle of Fatima in 2013 on the Livescience site, tempers Mr. Bonnassies’ enthusiasm. “We have dozens of testimonials from people who talk about strange things with the sun,” says Mr. Radford. But what about the thousands of people who did not testify? And the testimonials differ slightly from each other. Some speak of dancing, others of enlarging the sun, of zigzags, of spiral rays. What is certain is that the shepherdess at a certain moment shouted to look at the sun and that several people thought they saw something. »
God, Science, Evidence – The Dawn of a Revolution
Olivier Bonnassies and Michel-Yves Bolloré
Tredaniel
577 pages
Olivier Bonnassies will be at the Maison diocésaine de formation in Quebec on April 30 and at the Librairie Paulines in Montreal on May 2.