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Community Corner

Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

Zim Putney will lead a forum on this question posed by Gottfied Wilhelm Leibniz, perhaps the most profound in the universe.  Our existence is, in a sense, inconceivable.  While “creation by God” seemed to be the preferred answer for millennia, science has overtaken religion and philosophy in providing the rudiments of a plausible physical explanation for how a universe can emerge from nothing.  In layman’s language we will explore the evolution of such theories over the last two centuries through the work of Stephen Hawking, Lawrence M. Krauss, Paul Halpern and others.

Zim Putney is a physicist who was involved with solid-state microelectronic development at IBM and corporate management in a major photovoltaic company.  He later founded the worlds’ first solar powered vehicle company, and has most recently been involved with a venture capital fund.

This is forum is part of the Sunday Forum: Science, Reason, and Religion at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax.  The forum will be in the Sanctuary (unlike most fora which are in the Chapel).  All are welcome.

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