Seminar – colloquium of the Science, Reason and Faith Group: Does current cosmology point to a self-sufficient universe? Antonio Aparicio Juan - Francisco José Soler Gil. Pamplona, ​​September 8, 2015. The scientific search for a physical theory that is often called “the theory of everything” raises many questions and quite a few controversies. It seems that addressing these questions requires adopting a multidisciplinary approach due to its implications for Physics, Philosophy and Theology. For this seminar we have the presence of two speakers whose interests move in these areas and with complementary profiles. Both will make a brief intervention outlining their positions. The interventions will be followed by a debate between the speakers and those attending the seminar. Antonio Aparicio Juan has a PhD in Physics from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia and the University of Granada since 1988. He is a visiting researcher at Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, California, USA (1997-98). Professor at the Department of Astrophysics at the University of La Laguna (ULL). Principal investigator of the Stellar Populations in Galaxies Group at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC). Since 2014 he has been director of the astrophysics department at ULL and coordinator of the teaching area of ​​the IAC. He has more than 90 publications in journals of the first quartile of the ISI in the area of ​​Astrophysics. Master in Philosophy. He has written various popular texts on Astrophysics and has also made incursions into the philosophical field with titles such as “Why Science”, “Astronomy and Astrology in Isidoro de Sevilla” or “Realism and Quantum Physics”. Introduction to his presentation: Does current cosmology point to a self-sufficient universe? In other words: is the universe the ultimate reality? Or is there something else? The first thing to say is that the current standard model of cosmology is very successful in representing the observable universe and that it seems capable of providing, in the future, a description of its origin and final destiny based on the laws of physics. However, it is necessary to take into account some important things. The first is that it is not the same thing whether the physical representation given by the model is self-sufficient or whether the universe itself is. The second is that there is freedom in the universe and it is not clear that this freedom complies with the laws of physics. The third, and most important, is that, after all, the fundamental question is not whether the universe or, even less, its physical representation, is self-sufficient; the fundamental question, posed by Leibniz three centuries ago, is well known to philosophers: why is there something instead of nothing? Cosmology does not seem to be in a better position now than before to give an answer to this question. Francisco José Soler Gil has studied Physics and Philosophy. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Bremen and is currently a member of the Philosophy of Physics research group at the aforementioned university, as well as a researcher at the University of Seville. He has also been a member of the particle astrophysics research group at the Technical University of Dortmund. A contributor to prestigious scientific and philosophical journals, he has published several books in recent years on the relationship between reason and faith, with a special emphasis on cosmological approaches. “God and modern cosmologies”, “God or matter?”, “The divine and the human in Stephen Hawking’s universe”, “Aristotle in the Quantum World”, “Materialist mythology of science” and “Introduction to the philosophy of cosmology” are some of the titles of his many texts in the area of ​​​​philosophy of science. Introduction to his presentation: Recent results of research in physics and cosmology could point in the direction that the universe is not an ultimate reality, but a penultimate one, in two different ways: [1] physical reality may not be exhausted in the domain that we currently know as the universe and, also, [2] what we have learned about the universe could be pointing towards aspects of reality that go beyond physics. Examples of the first are found in physical models that suggest a multiverse, or a physical reality prior to the big bang. Examples of the second are found when considering the rationality and physical object character of the cosmos described by current cosmology, data that raise questions about the universe that are no longer located on the physical plane. A brief reflection on these two ways of going beyond the universe is proposed.