I'm Chris DeTippet, today science and hope with South African Quaker Cosmologist George

Ellis.

He's an author and activist and the recipient of the Templeton Prize for his work at the

intersection of science and religion.

George Ellis has worked on cutting-edge theories about the origins of the universe and the

nature of space and time.

He proposes that there is a moral foundation to the cosmos, just as there are physical

laws that govern it.

We actually haven't got a clue how the laws of physics are embedded in the universe.

We know they're there, we know they're effective, we don't know how they are embedded.

And the same way our own visage ethics is being a universal thing.

It is something we discover and don't invent.

This is speaking of faith, stay with us.

Look for Chris DeTippet's celebrated new book, A Chronicle of Religion in Our Time, Speaking

of Faith, The Book in Bookstores Now.

I'm Chris DeTippet.

My guest today, cosmologist George Ellis, straddles several worlds.

He is a scientist, a Quaker activist in his native South Africa, and a creative thinker

on time, space, and social ethics.

In recent years, he's developed a theory that there are deep, ethical truths built into

the physical universe.

He applies this idea to contemporary history and politics, including the war in Iraq.

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