SPACE.com: In your foreword to 'The Hand of God' you write that it was a book you had been thinking about for awhile since you saw the first Hubble Space Telescope images. Did images like the star clusters of the Eagle Nebula cause a spiritual awakening in your life, or did they just strengthen your pre-existing beliefs?
Michael Reagan: That is a difficult question to answer, kind of a chicken and egg thing. I would have to say they were probably pre-existing, but certainly dormant for many many years.
Science and religion often seem poles apart. Do you believe that the so-called schism between science and religion is an artificial divide and that, as Sharon Begley so eloquently puts it in her introduction to the book "science explains what is, religion offers a sense of what ought to be?"
Yes I do. When you push out to the limits of science, there is usually a mystical element, something that cannot be explained. Richard Preston probably summed it up best in his book First Light: "Science at the cutting edge, conducted by sharp minds probing deep into nature, is not about self-evident facts. It is about mystery and not knowing. It is about taking huge risks. It is about wasting time, getting burned, and failing. It is like trying to crack a monstrous safe that has a complicated lock designed by God." On the other side (religion) the problem lies with ideological zealots who have a literal interpretation of their "religion". The spiritual notion that God is infinite seems to say it all.
What frustrates you most about the secularist scientists or the religious ideologues that refuse to bridge the divide?
The same thing that frustrates me about many things: That the ability of many people to resolve conflicts is severely limited by their ideology. I believe that a rigid belief system whether it is religious, scientific or social is a severe impediment to creative problem solving.
In the realms of science and spirituality, who are your heroes?
In science: Einstein, Freeman Dyson and Galileo. Spiritual: Gandhi
In the course of researching the quotes in the book, was there a common thread you noticed in how humanity viewed the cosmos?
Generally speaking it is with awe and wonder, with a touch of fear of the unknown mixed in for good measure.
What is the most beautiful aspect to space?
Beyond the spectacular imagery, it is the idea of the infinite, because I think it is there that God resides.
Looking at the various images in The Hand of God, which celestial place would you most like to travel?
I think being able to fly around and explore the center of the Milky Way would be an extraordinary experience.
Why should we spend money on space exploration over research into deadly diseases?
I sincerely hope that it never comes down to either /or. We need to do both in significant ways. I think at the core of our being is our intellectual curiosity, we have a need to discover things. In the immortal words of Star Trek, "to go where no man has gone before".
At the advent of the 21st Century what is the most vexing question facing humanity today?
Where are we going?
