Heino Falcke is respected worldwide for taking the first picture of a black hole. At the same time, he is also open about his conviction: without God, science is absurd.
Philosophers and theologians dare to approach physics more and vice versa, Heino Falcke points out in an interview, Katholisch.de reports. He calls the prevailing idea that science and physics have nothing to do with faith “absurd.” Instead, he believes that “Godless physics is impossible.”
Falcke, who teaches astrophysics at the Radboud University in the south of the Netherlands, says religion was common among great physicists of the past, whose findings built modern physics. Scientists who do not think beyond the material things they are describing are “circumcising” themselves, he says in the interview. Therefore, he argues that scientists should always think about the meaning of their work in a philosophical-theological context.
The academic world should be open to a conversation about “God as the origin of everything in science”, Falcke propagates. He would like to see “philosophers and theologians dare to approach physics more again and vice versa.”
Heino Falco is not just one of the many physicists in the world. For his image of a black hole, which was the first one ever, he received several awards and reached many headlines worldwide.
The 57-year-old German scientist has always been open about his faith. In an interview with the Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad, which was also published by CNE, Falcke marvelled at the wonders of creation that he encountered in his work. He said he was overcome with the feeling “that there is a much greater reality beneath, alongside and above creation than science can know” when looking at the universe. “When you know Who is the Creator of all that and that He looks after us humans, you start to see nature more and more as a love letter from God”, he added.
In addition to his work as a scientist, Heino Falcke is a lay preacher in the Protestant Church in the Rhineland.
