Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI)
Gatchina, Lenningrad Oblast
[website: PNPI.spb.ru]
When I (Hill) visited last year with PNPI in May of 2000, I gave a physics colloquium on my research in x-ray stimulated gamma emission from long-lived nuclear isomers (PhysRevLttrs, 2/1999). Subsequent to that presentation, I met one of the Associate Directors of the Institute who gave me a very nice tour of the facility. PNPI houses Russia’s largest research nuclear reactor and also has a powerful proton accelerator facility. Much world-renowned basic research in high energy physics and nuclear physics is performed there. Because of the reactor and proton accelerator, there is also a large biological and medical research group which uses the machines for irradiation of biological tissues and genetics studies.
When we have Bible studies in Gatchina (where PNPI is located outside of St. Petersbury), many in attendance have either a physics or biology background. This is one reason the particular lessons developed for the “Lord, I Believe” studies are so relevant to this locale. (The entire Lenningrad oblast is a major scientific research center with many major technology institutes. The name of the central subway transfer station in St. Petersburg reflects this prevalence: Tekhnologicheskiy Institute.)
During my tour of PNPI last year it was mentioned that I would be interested in discussing some of the philosophical (religious) aspects of my interest in science. At the time I was then informally invited to return for the PNPI 2001 annual symposium (called Winter School) and present such ideas as part of the evening cultural program. Science lectures are held during the day all week long. During the evenings lighter cultural presentations and performances are provided. So of course I accepted the invitation and made the plans which resulted in this trip reported herein. However, the invitation was informal and by the end of this January I had received no formal invitation. However, trusting in God I went ahead with plans to be in Petersburg for the week of Feb. 19-25 when Winter School was scheduled. Eventually I was given a formal invitation from PNPI administered through the Foreign Affairs Ministry. In other words, this was an “official” invitation and hence justified an official visa, instead of just a tourist visa. (However, I had already obtained a tourist visa and decided to simply use that for the trip. Anyway, by the time I actually received the formal invitation there would not have been enough time to obtain the visa from the Russian Embassy here.) However, I still did not know the actual time and place for my presentations until after we arrived in Russia. Sometimes one just has to trust that God will work things out. He did. This whole event was cause for considerable unrest and concern among both the Americans and my Russian friends associated with PNPI. But actually it transpired without any discernible friction whatsoever. It seemed a very positive event for them. Follows is a note received from Prof. Sarantsev who organized my visit.
Dear Prof.Roberts,
On behalf of the Organizing Committee of our Winter School
I would like to thank you formally for the intresting lecture
which you delivered at our cultural programme. As I listened here from
many participants of the school your talk exicited the definite
interest although the topic of the belief in a God is enough
far from
the majority of our (previous sovietic) physicists. We grateful for
your contribution and your remembering our Institute in your WEB site
and look forward to your association in future.
With best wishes from Luydmila and myself, Victor.
At 11:30 on Friday I was picked up at the Hotel as informed by a Russian administrator from PNPI. I was driven outside the city for about 1.5 hours to Repino. This is a remote location north of Petersburg on the Baltic Sea’s Gulf of Finland. For the last couple of miles of this trip, the road was little more than a frozen “jeep trail” through heavy snow and deserted woods. I was somewhat distracted by the isolation and paid as much attention as possible to how we got to this area. All my worry was for nothing. This turned out to be a highly populated resort-type area with some of the finest dachas (summer homes) I had ever seen in Russia. The conference was being held at a small hotel-like building which, in the summer I was told, is used as a resort by the Russian movie and TV industry. It isn’t what you might be thinking. It was a 1950s-era building with such an appearance indicating that most maintenance stopped soon after it was built. Nonetheless, it was quite adequate for the needs of the conference.
About 200 physicists from all over the world (Russia, Europe, Canada, Japan, America) had converged on this spot on the Baltic Sea for a week of research exchange in high spin muon states and nuclear physics. Of these about 50 attended my evening lecture entitled “Why a Physicist Believes in God”. The room would not have held many more. This lecture topic was prominently posted on the main announcement board along with all the other presentations for the day. Following my talk was a presentation by Yuri Petrov, a protégé of Andrei Sakarov, father of Russia’s atomic program. This limited my time to exactly one hour. I had hoped to have at least an hour and a half, but one takes the opportunities given one. One must be flexible!
Prior to my presentation I met my translator, Valdimir. Though Russian,
he had a beautiful English dialect obtained from 30 years at Castle College
near London. He was somewhat concerned that he would not be able to translate
the theological terms quickly enough, especially if there was spirited
questioning from an audience mostly comprised by atheists. In his words,
“mostly outspoken atheists.” I anticipated the same. However, in
the end, the reception of the material was very cordial, many were seriously
engaged by the ideas, and the questions indicated sincere interest and
a desire for legitimate answers. I gave the presentation in English with
Valdimir only occasionally intervening to clarify some terminology. I briefly
outlined several reasons for belief including:
The evidence of intelligent design
That many other scientists also believe
That belief in Jesus answers the big questions
of life
That the bible is trustworthy concerning creation
That the bible is trustworthy concerning history
Ultimately the reason to believe is because
of the evidence of the resurrection
[The charts for this
presentation are posted at www.lordibelieve.org/pnpi/whyblv
]
For those that know me, you understand that it is probably a small miracle
for me to have covered this outline in exactly one hour, with questions.
The Lord moves in mysterious ways! Some of the questions asked by the audience
were:
Should religion and science be kept separate, or
integrated as one truth?
Who created God?
If the Bible is so great, why is it so wrong about
the age of the earth?
How are the days of Genesis to be understood?
What are the Big questions of life?
Why do you believe in the resurrection?
Why
is a loving God consistent with innocent children suffering?
I would estimate that about half the audience were very deeply interested in the talk, while the other half were uncomfortably amused by it. I made several contacts with whom I hope to have further study by correspondence. Several CDs were distributed (with one being taken by a Japenese physicist who was a Buddist whom I rode back to SPb with on Saturday.) On Saturday morning at breakfast several attendees came by to thank me for the presentation. In particular, before leaving, the administrator who organized my overnight stay in Repino made a special effort to thank me for the presentation, with almost the same emotion as one would thank someone for giving a starving person bread. They are starving for the bread of God’s message. At any rate the experience and reactions were very similar to that described by Luke in Acts 17 concerning Paul’s presentation on Mars Hill to the philosophers of Athens: some listened, some scoffed, but the seed was sown. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many in that audience. Your prayers for the growth of faith in their lives would be much appreciated. Several Russians took a great risk, both personally and professionally, to make this happen. May God bless them richly. I do not know why God made this opportunity available to me at this time in this way, but I offer my deepest appreciation to those who helped me respond. We stand on the shoulders of giants in the faith. I especially thank Tom for helping me with this trip. One should not make such a trip alone. I’ve tried it before. By two’s is definitely best.
With the exception of an unexpected side trip to a Russian Orthodox church during a worship service (see observations below), the return trip was uneventful. It was very comforting to be back in contact with Tom and the others in Petersburg. Click Here to see Tom's report of our trip to Saint Petersburg.