New York City.
It's changed a lot since I first came here
as a young actor.
The all night diner that we used to go to
after the shows, gone.
Not a single phone booth in sight anywhere.
I came here for the same reason that most people come,
to make it.
But it was a major change for a young boy
from rural Mississippi.
Cities like this separate us from nature.
Most of us spend our days in climate-controlled offices and
looking down at computer screens,
rather than up at the stars.
Our ancestors were always in touch with the
rawer elements of nature,
that's where they saw evidence of god,
blowing in the wind, coming down the warm way
of the sun.
But even in our modern world,
we still share something with our ancestors.
That is the desire to find proof that god exists.
Have we cut god out of our modern lives?
Or are there special moments when god breaks through and
makes his presence known?
I'm on a quest to understand how people find proof of god.
I'll visit a man who heard god on September the 11th.
And I felt god speak to me.
In a very still voice, I felt god saying,
"it's going to be okay."
Discover how Muslims see god in the
words of their holy book.
For Christians, god's word is Jesus come to
earth in the flesh.
For Muslims the Koran is god come to earth in the book.
I will took with a Buddhist master who
feels divine power inside him.
Your inner energy, you can manifest sort of
like the divine?
Correct.
And meet a physicist who has faith that
science will lead him to god.
The more we learn about the world,
it points more towards god, rather than less.
Can we all in our own way find proof of god?
¶ ¶
for believers around the world,
prayer is an act of faith in god.
But how do we find proof of god?
Often, it's in times of crises.
Many people feel certain that god steps in to
save their lives.
I'm on my way to meet a devout Christian who felt god's
presence on the fateful day of September 11, 2001.
His name is Sujo John.
Sujo?
Morgan Freeman.
Great to meet you, sir.
Please.
Thank you.
You were born and raised in India.
How do you happen to be Christian?
You know my parents come from the Southern part of
India where Christianity goes way back over 2,000 years.
Tell me about the day that
changed your life.
It started off as a normal day, a clear,
cloudless day in New York City.
Me and my wife, we both find work in the towers.
I'm on the 81st floor of the north tower,
my wife on the 71st of the south.
My wife is four months pregnant with our first child
and we're looking forward to the birth of that child.
You were in the north tower and what?
8:46 in the morning, American flight 11,
flying at 440 miles an hour, this huge jet plane comes
crashing the north tower and I hear this
incredible explosion.
And fire breaks on our floor, walls start collapsing around
us and I'm saying, "god, if this building is
gonna go down, I'm never gonna see my wife again."
I'm never gonna see that child that my wife is carrying.
Someone from our floor rallies us.
He says "we've got to beat this fire.
We've gotta get out of this place."
So we start crawling and fighting our way
through the fire,
looking for the nearest stairwell.
Thousands of people are joining us on that stairwell.
We get to the 43rd or the 44th floor when I see these
firemen, policemen, going up, as we are going down.
We had no idea then that these men were in a way
walking up to their death.
I can imagine.
Now we hear another explosion.
This is the second plane crashing into the second tower.
And I was going crazy,
realizing for sure my wife is dead.
What's life for me if my wife is not alive?
So you did get out, you got down?
Correct.
So now you're down on the ground floor,
you're in the Plaza.
Correct.
Now what happens?
Walking towards the south tower...
And you thought your wife
was in there?
Yes, I was very sure that she was there
because she has to be at work at 8:40 every day.
Did you get there?
No, actually the grounds are shaking violently.
The glass is shattering.
I thought it was a bomb and this was the south tower
imploding and going down.
As the building is collapsing,
there's people with me and I'm huddled with them.
And I felt god speak to me.
In a very still voice, I felt god saying,
"it's going to be okay."
You heard the voice of god?
He spoke to you?
I did not hear god speak to me in an audible way,
but I felt god's inner voice speak to me and ask
the people to pray with me.
What happened then?
We prayed for a few minutes.
My head is rolling, the ground's shaking,
I feel stuff fall on me.
There's smoke all around me, could not breath.
When the south tower collapsed,
it sort of took you with it.
You were buried in rubble and ash.
I was kind of resigned to my fate that
I was going to die here.
But I realize I'm alive.
I crawl my way around to realize that these people who
had prayed with me, they did not make it.
I see a red light flashing to the soot and the smoke.
It's a flashing light coming out of an ambulance and
part of the ambulance was crushed,
but the light was still flashing.
So I'm on the streets of Manhattan,
I can't even recognize it, it's like a war zone,
the debris and ash and dust.
Now you are a lone survivor so to speak.
I'm thinking about my wife.
It was just the most incredible trauma and
pain to experience.
The fear of the unknown, fear about my wife.
Then my cellphone rings for the very first time that day.
I see my wife's caller ID and I'm thinking this is not her,
it's someone else calling me saying "your wife is dead."
But when I said hello, it's my wife.
And she hears my voice loud and clear.
But her first words were, "babe, are you alive?"
Are you alive?
She thought I was dead and I thought
she was dead.
Alright, so we're looking at a
miracle right here.
Yes, and it was god that preserved and
saved my life.
It's proof to me that there is a god.
It seems like if god was going to spare
one he would spare them all.
That's a great question,
but life on earth is such that no one is guaranteed
a today or tomorrow.
Every human being walking on this earth will face death.
But here's what I know from experience.
When you walk with god and go through the storms of life,
you have this peace and the presence of god.
So if you carry the presence of god,
even though it might be death, it's going to be okay.
Sujo and his wife, Mary,
now have three children.
He left his corporate job and dedicated his life
to helping others.
His current mission in his native India,
is to help save women from human trafficking.
You are using just the power of life...
To give life to others.
Yes, I feel very blessed that god's
called me into this.
I'm always excited about whatever god brings my way.
Well it's wonderful to talk to you.
Thank you sir.
Honor to be with you.
Sujo John's survival is extraordinary.
Some say it's miraculous.
What's most remarkable to me is that Sujo felt the
unmistakable presence of god, even while death and
destruction were all around him.
But what about the rest of us?
Is going through a horrifying experience like that
the only way to feel proof of the divine?
Or can we encounter god through the
experiences of others?
Around the world, the faithful make pilgrimage to
miracle sites, places like Fatima in Portugal.
In 1917, three young Shepherds claimed they were told by the
virgin Mary that a miracle would take place here on
October the 13th.
A crowd gathered and on the appointed day,
thousands said they saw the sun dance back and
forth in the sky.
Millions of pilgrims who flock to Fatima see this
miracle site as undeniable proof of god.
Being there reinforces their belief that god can make
dramatic interventions in our world.
But many believers also feel the divine guiding us
in a far subtler way,
in the ebb and flow of their daily lives.
I'm in New York to learn about an ancient
religion from west Africa.
The Ifa faith of the Yoruba people crossed the Atlantic
with slavery and is still practiced today in Harlem.
Followers of Ifa believe the world is filled with divine
energy and their fates are guided by that energy.
Hello, how are you?
Hello, I am very well.
Such a pleasure to meet you.
Thank you.
Funlayo wood is a Harvard student of African studies and
an Ifa priestess in training.
And Oluwole Ifakunle is a babalawo,
or priest, of Harlem.
How are you?
I'm well sir, how are you?
I'm fine thank you.
Very good.
So Baba, tell me about your religion.
Well we have various deities.
We have deities like Orun.
We have Eledba.
Eledba is the road-opener.
Orun is the road-clearer.
And then we have Oyansa, who is the mother of nine.
We have Yemoja.
There's a variety of different deities.
So we all seek some proof of god.
Do you?
Well the proof comes to our divination,
and our process of being able to connect with our deities.
Divination.
Do you mean like fortune telling?
Divination is about
finding one's purpose.
You see what happens in Yoyoga faith,
most people are trying to connect with gods and
goddesses and that's where we use or do.
The way that a divination is arranged
is in what we call Odu.
And so there are 256 different Odu and each one can contains
different information, both about energy states
that are going on around us,
as well as all different aspects of life.
I can show you.
You can?
Sure, absolutely, yes.
It would be our pleasure.
Babalawo is taking me to his personal
shrine so I can see how it works.
Guys, come on in, welcome.
Yes, welcome.
Thank you.
So this is my shrine over here.
This is the place where we make divination.
So calling on the divine is what we're going to do.
If I'm going to do a divination,
what would I ask?
Divination is performed for most
important things in our lives, naming ceremonies,
perform for weddings, for sicknesses.
So this is the Opon, the Opon of Ifa.
And this represents the four quarters of the universe,
so we bring in the four quadrants of the world
together so we can get a glimpse into the future.
Babalawo starts an Ifa divination
for Funlayo.
16 sacred palm nuts will help him read
how the divine Odu energy is going to shape her future.
Caught all these divinities of Africa,
to see, to glimpse.
The reality of this for Funlayo.
As he passes the palm nuts from one hand to
the other, he counts how many remain in his original hand.
The markings he makes on the board describe the Odu
that's around Funlayo.
It's a binary system,
so you could have ones and twos and so there are 256
possible combinations of ones and twos that can come up.
So this is a very auspicious sign.
Talking about housing and wealth coming to her.
So she's gonna make some money!
Yes, something's about to happen.
Maybe you brought me some blessings today.
You have an issue with housing?
Yes, I've been looking for
an apartment actually.
Just last night I was calling a woman about an
apartment that I was thinking about getting.
And so we give a praise to that
place of.
Now Funlayo, let me ask you,
how does this prove god's existence to you?
Every single time I've received a divination,
the advice has been on point.
And so doing divination is that way of glancing down,
glancing up, glancing side to side and just seeing
what type of energy is around us.
I like to really talk about Ifa
as being destiny.
You know because if we are on our destiny in our paths,
then we are going to be going in a direction that
will help us to prevail and we'll be successful and
victorious in our life.
Thank you for a wonderful time.
Oh it's my pleasure, it's my pleasure.
The tradition of the Yoruba says the gods
show themselves on every roll of a palm nut,
toss of a coin and his ideas come into many things.
If you believe in god, you can see god in every
facet of your life.
It's not evidence that you can present to a scientist,
but it's evidence you feel inside.
In Ethiopia, about 100,000 orthodox Christians gather to
witness god manifest himself in a similar way,
to Usher in the new year.
Historian Dr. Cynthia Khan has traveled to Ethiopia to attend
one of the country's largest religious festivals,
called Meskel.
She's accompanied by Solomon Gezena,
an Ethiopian religious scholar.
Look Cynthia, this place is called
Meskel square and this is called Demera.
This is the center piece of this celebration,
feast of Meskel.
What is it?
Its symbolic value goes to 326 ad
to queen Helena.
Legend has it queen Helena,
the mother of Roman emperor Constantine,
was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem searching for one of
the most important relics in Christianity, Jesus's cross.
According to the Ethiopian legend,
the cross was buried underground and
Helena didn't know where.
So she prayed to god for guidance.
God told her to erect the giant bonfire.
She was told to make exactly that
piece and fire it.
Then after the smoke goes up and down and indicated in...
A big pointer to tell her where to dig.
Exactly, this shows a divine intervention.
It's a proof of god.
Yes.
Queen Helena followed the smoke of her
bonfire to discover the location of Jesus's cross.
The replica of that bonfire, the Demera, is,
to Ethiopian Christians, a symbol of god's intervention.
So they light this on fire?
Yes.
Why do they light it and then what happens
after that?
Yeah, there is an interesting prophecy
after they light it.
When it collapses, the direction where it collapses
also has a meaning.
The direction in which the Demera collapses
signals a good or bad omen for the coming year in Ethiopia.
Every year, people flock to Addis Ababa to take part in
the festival, to witness proof of god.
There is singing, dancing and even a re-enactment
of Helena finding the cross.
But what everyone awaits is the lighting of the Demera and
the revelation of its prophecy for the coming year.
So they're all gathering there now?
Look at them.
Yes, exactly.
He's blessing four sides of the Demera.
They light four sides?
Like four sides of the world?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Look, look, look at that.
Wow, it's a little frightening,
it's so big.
Yes, alright.
All eyes are now on the burning
wooden frame of the Demera.
If it topples to the west,
it will be a bad omen for Ethiopia.
If it falls to the east, the country will prosper.
At east, at east.
North, east.
East.
So what does that mean for the
year in Ethiopia?
Peace, love, Ethiopia will shine.
The burning of the Demera is
no miraculous apparition.
It's not the burning bush that Moses saw.
But each year the people of Ethiopia come together
to witness this moment.
And together they feel the presence of god in
that falling fire.
They sense an invisible hand guiding their destiny.
But other believers don't look for proof of god in
the twists of fate that befall them.
They see evidence of the divine inside their bodies,
giving them god-like powers.
There is an inner spark in all of us.
You can see it in the eyes.
Something that says, "I'm alive."
We can't define what it is, but we all recognize it.
Religions call it the soul, a force,
that connects us to the divine.
And perhaps it is divine...
Is proof of god inside us?
I've come to one of the coldest places in New York City,
a cocktail bar made from ice.
Pop this on for me.
Right.
Ready for the ice bar?
I'm ready.
Alright, perfect.
I'm here to meet a man who claims he can
harness the divine within himself.
This is Tulku Lobsang.
He's a Tibetan Buddhist tantrayana master.
And he's meditating in a room that's kept at just
23 degrees Fahrenheit,
wearing only a thin cotton t-shirt.
Most of us wouldn't last for more than a minute
without wanting to run and put on a jacket.
Tulku Lobsang?
Hello.
I mean it's minus five degrees
Celsius in here.
That's not just cold, that's freezing.
Do you mind telling me...
What you're doing?
Ah I'm doing one of the most sacred
Buddhist tantrayana practice,
what we call inner fire, tummo.
Tummo?
Yeah.
And you're not just ignoring the cold,
you're literally changing your body temperature,
is that right?
Exactly, correct.
With the power of the visualization and then
generate inner heat.
In meditating you make this happen?
Correct.
Alright.
I'm from Mississippi, I hate the cold.
Yes.
My nose is running already.
So I tell you what I'm gonna do...
I'm gonna go outside where it's warmer...
Yes.
And you let me know when you're
ready to come out.
Okay, I will continue practicing.
Thank you.
Tummo, a 900 year old form of
Buddhist meditation, has long fascinated scientists.
Studies have shown that monks practicing tummo can control
their autonomic nervous system and raise
their body temperature.
Buddhists with Lobsang's training can raise their core
temperature to a low fever, about 101 degrees Fahrenheit.
They can also endure extreme cold,
up to 20 degrees below zero for hours,
something that would give most of us hypothermia.
So how do you feel?
It's good.
Good?
Yeah.
This isn't just like a party trick?
That is the method of to discover your
hidden nature or you call a Buddha nature.
The Buddha taught his followers
meditation as one of the tools to obtain enlightenment,
the goal of Buddhism.
During the meditation, followers are supposed to open
their minds and keep their thoughts away from all
material necessity.
Tummo is an advanced form of meditation in which
practitioners try to connect to their real inner power.
¶ ¶
I'm curious to know whether Tulku Lobsang finds proof of
the divine in his practice.
Oh my goodness, golly!
So, you do this...
This part of tummo?
Correct.
This is part of tummo, yes.
But tummo is not only this exercise.
Most important, tummo use the power of mind.
This is how you get into a state where you
isolate your inner energy, your inner power?
Correct.
With the power of exercise, with the holding the breath
and with the concentration and you open all of your channels
and then all energy flowing and then inner fire come in
and then bliss come in and then you experience
non-conceptional state of mind what Buddhists call...
Non-conceptual?
Yeah, non-conceptual state of mind
means mind without any thought.
That's what we call Buddha nature.
The non-conceptual state of mind
reminds of me of pentecostal Christians who surrender
themselves to the holy spirit to speak in an
unintelligible language.
It reminds me of the Masong in Thailand who are possessed
by the Taoist gods during the nine emperor gods festival.
People in both of these faiths find proof of a
higher power in these rituals.
But Buddhists hope to find in their most elevated moments
is not god, but their Buddha nature.
So in Buddhism, you don't use the term or the idea
of the divine.
We don't believe this kind of
traditional, maybe god, or this select god but we believe
we all have a Buddha nature.
We all want to be happy.
Nobody wants suffering.
The Buddha nature,
is that sort of like the divine is inside?
Correct.
That it is where it is.
That's correct, that's correct.
Okay, well now,
see that resonates with me also.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I believe that divine is what's within us.
Correct, that's it.
But what you are saying, I think,
is that through tummo...
Yes.
You can pretty much get in touch with,
you can express your inner energy.
You can manifest sort of like the divine?
Correct.
Ah, thank you very for all this.
It's really, really amazing.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
But do you mind if I go get a cup of
hot chocolate or something?
It's alright with you?
That's perfect to me.
Right, let's go.
That was more than impressive.
That was a Buddhist tantrayana master who has learned through
years of practice to tap into a source of power within
himself and doesn't think of himself as special.
He says it's his Buddha nature,
a divine power that we all have.
We just have to find it.
I like that idea, that there is proof of god in all of us,
if we're willing to look for it.
Buddhists believe tummo can help them harness
a divine inner power.
In southwestern African, there is an ancient people who
believe they find proof of god by harnessing the power of
ancestor spirits and using it to cure the sick.
Namibian academic, Ndapelwei Feni Nakanyete,
has been traveling for days to reach a remote village in
Namibia where this rare healing ceremony is about
to take place.
Hello.
Welcome to the village.
Thank you so much.
Leon Semhow is a member of the San tribe.
The San are one of the oldest communities on earth.
It's estimated that they've been performing their
traditional healing trance dance for 20,000 years.
I understand that San people
have quite a complex religion.
So these people, it's not going to church.
They just know that there's god.
Our people also connect to their ancestors,
people that die a long time ago.
Some of them will come back as a bad spirit and
some of them will come as a good spirit,
that is help them chasing the bad spirit away.
So you mean that there is a
god that protects the San people and then there are
ancestors that heal the people.
Yeah, exactly.
We have people that we call healers.
And those connect to their ancestors who die
a long time ago.
The San see physical pain and illness as
proof that evil spirits have invaded their bodies.
Village healers use a trance dance to summon good spirits
that they believe will cure the sick.
This is the Jarub song and if you're doing
the songs, you have to start with their song.
Where ever you see people doing this,
it's when someone is sick.
Among those hoping for relief on this
night is Busa Klam Kumta.
She's been suffering from leg pains for days.
The singing, clapping and dancing will send the
San healer, a village elder named Kunta boo,
into a trance state.
That's when the good spirits of his ancestors will possess
him so he can heal Busa.
So the more he likes the song,
the quicker he will trance?
Yeah, yeah.
Interesting.
For the San, when the healer enters the
trance, they get a glimpse into the world of the divine.
¶ ¶
He's now in trance and
he's healing people.
A person is the only way you can heal.
Meaning he is connected to
their ancestor and the ancestor live in him and
where to touch.
Yeah.
And where to heal.
And what to do.
Yeah.
This is real.
It's not just singing and doing something else.
He is healing people.
The dance won't end and the healer won't
be himself until he's chased away the evil spirits.
The next morning, Feni has returned to the village to see
if the spirits did in fact help Busa.
I have never ever in my life
seen something like that before.
Busa, you were one of the people that were
healed last night.
How are you doing today?
I was actually suffering from back
pains and my legs.
But this morning when I was doing everything,
it was feeling very good.
Your legs are now fine,
your back pain is gone.
And I hope it doesn't come back any more.
The sans see proof of the divine in the
healing power of their medicine men and perhaps on
some level the healing works because of that belief
in a divine connection.
Which raises an interesting question.
To find proof, do we need faith?
For many religions, channeling the divine is their
proof of god.
But for another faith, the proof is in god's words.
I have always had a thirst for knowledge.
Still read everything I can get my hands on.
This instinct to learn about our world and try to
understand it is universal.
Civilization itself is based on our drive for knowledge.
But does that knowledge bring us closer to proof of god?
The answer to that may depend on whether you believe the
words we write come from our minds or from god.
All of the world's major religions have a sacred text.
The Sikhs have a book called the guru Granth sahib.
The Jewish faith has the torah.
Both offer divine wisdom to their followers.
I'm at the Islamic center in Washington DC to see
how the words of the Koran are more than holy wisdom
for the Muslim faithful.
They are proof of god.
Dr. Amir Hussein is a scholar of the Islamic tradition.
Amir?
Mr. Freeman, honored to see you sir.
How are you?
Thank you.
I'm very well indeed, nice to see you.
This is rather elaborate...
So the first thing that occurred to me when I walked
in here was, "I wonder what that chandelier weighs?"
It's huge.
There's a verse in the Koran about god is the light of the
heavens and the earth.
Now up there, what are we looking at?
What you see are verses from the Koran.
So right here up in the light, this malhar, Al-rahman,
Al-Raheem literally in the name of god, the merciful,
the compassionate.
Al-rahman, merciful.
Al-Raheem, the compassionate.
So those are two of the names of god.
So, then calligraphy has a special
place and meaning?
Absolutely.
To make beauty out of those letters, out of those words,
is really important for Muslims.
You know, through the words that god speaks.
For Christians, god's word is the Bible.
But gods word really is Jesus.
You know, god to come to earth in the flesh.
For Muslims, the Koran is god come to earth in a book.
So the very words of the Koran are the words of god.
Proof of god is the Koran.
Is the Koran.
The fact that it exists.
Absolutely that it exists,
that god reveals god's self to human beings in these words.
And in these words in Arabic,
80% of Muslims don't use Arabic as their
day to day language.
But the words of the Koran are always in Arabic.
In the mosque courtyard,
Amir shows me verses that every Muslim knows,
ones that explain how god shows himself in the Koran.
So these are the very first words of the Koran,
the first versus revealed to the prophet.
Is that right there?
Right there.
Saying Bismillah, Al-rahman, Al-Raheem, in the name of god,
the merciful, the compassionate.
Recite in the name of your lord.
And then here, recite your lord is the most generous who
taught by the pen.
Taught the human being what the human being did not know.
That's the crucial importance here, that god teaches us,
but god teaches us with god's pen and that's why the pen,
the writing, the calligraphy is so important for Muslims.
We have, very fortunately, one of the great calligraphers
in the Islamic world, the best American calligrapher,
Mohamed Zakariya, who's with us here.
Let's come down and meet him.
Brother Mohamed...
I want to introduce you to Mr. Morgan Freeman.
How do you do, sir?
What a delight.
You're an American?
Pale face.
Pale.
California boy.
You won't get paler than me.
But you've taken up this very
interesting art.
Yeah, I was a machinist,
I was a precisionist.
When we're doing calligraphy, we're talking about making a
line by eye that is within half a thousandth of an inch,
deviation from good and bad.
And so I saw these calligraphies and they were
kind of an inspiration to me at the time and I
converted to Islam.
Is it possible to see your studio,
where you work?
Absolutely, I invite you.
It would seem to me that that takes enormous
concentration to make a line and take a breath and continue
that line without showing you where I took the breath.
The thing is, as your pen is moving,
you can actually forget what you're doing.
There's a rhythm, the whole thing flows and
it becomes visual music in a sense.
Okay, so what does that part mean?
What does it say?
Yeah.
"Whoever does a work based on what
he knows from his knowledge,
god causes him to inherit a knowledge
that he didn't know he had" and so that's a famous one.
Ah yes, I love that.
It's one of the few lines that I've
ever written that I really think that has that flow.
Life.
Yeah.
Otherwise, it's just writing.
It just sits there, you know?
It's the difference between, well you know,
a good hot dog and a great hot dog.
That is not just good, Mohamed...
This is awesome.
for Muslims, the Koran is the holy revelation of god's word.
And so the very existence of the words of the Koran
is proof of god.
Drawing these words has become a high form of art,
a way to invoke the presence of god and all who gaze at them.
No matter which language you speak.
For most of reported history,
our knowledge was connected to religion.
But today, religion often seems at odds with
another way of understanding the world, science.
Some even see science as supplanting faith.
Physicists discovered the god particle,
so do we still need god?
I'm meeting with theoretical physicist art Leween at the
New York botanical garden.
He thinks science doesn't replace god, instead,
it leads us to him.
So, you're a theoretical physicist, art.
Why do you want to meet me in this place?
Well, I thought it would help us talk about god.
Huh?
Well, let me show you this...
Wait, wait, wait, wait...
How does plant life and a theoretical physicist
get us to god?
Let me show you this leaf.
Okay, so it's beautiful.
Yeah, it is.
And there's something about looking at
nature that makes us sense awe and wonder,
something beyond ourselves.
Any of us can look at this and we sense something of
the beauty of nature.
And I think that beauty points us towards god.
Well you know there's a widespread sense that as
scientists discover more and more about the natural world,
you're kind of taking away the wonder and
taking away the awe.
Right, if you can explain it...
You don't need god creating it, right?
Yeah, well I think it's the other way around.
So I think the more we learn about the world,
it points more towards god, rather than less.
But as a physicist you deal in
photons and equations.
Where's the god in that?
Well I do think mathematics is as beautiful as
any nature scene that you see around you,
possibly some are even more beautiful.
Let me give you an example.
So this is the Dirac equation.
That's the Dirac equation?
That's right.
And so Paul Dirac, a very famous mathematical physicist
was thinking about what happens when very small things,
described by quantum mechanics, go very fast,
described by Einstein's relativity.
He put these things together and you get this equation.
And what's amazing about this equation is that it
predicted the existence of antimatter well before we
saw it in nature.
So the mathematics, as it were,
forced the natural world to have antimatter and
it was by...
It's amazing and this piece,
this really beautiful little equation,
has discovered antimatter in it, right there.
Dirac's mathematical insight revealed
hidden aspects of the universe...
And helped us understand the big bang,
its moment of creation.
Okay, so Dirac did this?
Yeah.
What did you want to do?
Well I wanted to discover an equation like this
that maybe describes what life is.
So if you do find this equation,
do you think that would be proof of god?
It's important to remember what god is.
God is not a thing out there in the universe
that we look for.
It's the other way around.
God is the reason why there is a universe.
So that means I can't prove god the way I can prove
something scientifically.
But let me give you an example.
When I married my wife, if I say to her,
"look, I don't believe that you love me until you
give me evidence to the contrary."
So instead what I have to do is I have to
take a step of faith and believe that she loves me.
As I get to know my wife better,
our love grows and my confidence that she
loves me grows.
In the same way, as I get to know god better,
my confidence that god exists grows.
That was a fascinating conversation.
Too many people think of science and faith as two
opposing world views, each trying to tear the
other one down.
But nothing can be further from the truth.
Art believes that you can find god in scientific knowledge.
The deeper he goes, the more he sees science of god.
I mean after all the very fact that we were here
asking these questions is miraculous.
Hm?
So why not take that leap of faith?
We've spent thousands of years searching for proof of god.
Some feel his presence guiding them through life.
Others believe they can channel the divine through
their bodies.
Or see him in the intricate wonder of the universe.
So much in our world has changed from the world our
ancestors lived in.
When we first began to think about god and began to look
for proof of him, but how much has changed really?
Yes, we have vast amounts of scientific knowledge and
it's tempting to think that we may one day try to
use that knowledge to prove or disprove god.
But we're still all just sitting here,
surrounded by creation, amazed at its complexity,
its scope, its beauty.
We will always yearn to make sense of the seemingly
chance events that guide the course of our lives and
we will still, I believe, be faced with the gap between
knowledge and doubt.
A place where we will always be able to find god.