Lecture at the University of Delaware: “The ‘God Particle’ and ‘Self-Creating Universes’”

The Society of Catholic Scholars of Delaware, the Catholic Campus Ministry, and the Department of Philosophy of University of Delaware are sponsoring a public lecture this Thursday titled “The ‘God Particle’ and ‘Self-Creating Universes’” with Stephen Barr. A professor of theoretical physics at the University of Delaware, First Things board member, and long-time contributor  to the journal, Professor Barr will discuss one of the most exciting discoveries in modern physics.

Popular science has become very excited about the discovery of the “God particle” (i.e. Higgs Boson). And some physicists, such as Stephen Hawking, have suggested that science can now explain how the universe “created itself” from nothingness.

What is the Higgs Boson, and does it have anything to do with how the universe began? What is “quantum creation of universes”? Does it have anything to do with what theologians and philosophers have historically meant by “Creation”? Prof. Barr will explain some of the physics in down-to-earth terms and examine some of the inflated claims and rhetoric surrounding these ideas.

Here are the details:

Date: Thursday, October 17, 2013

Time: 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM, followed by Q&A

Place: Room 100 Kirkbride, University of Delaware campus (at southwest corner of South CollegeAvenue and Delaware Avenue, in Newark, DE)