In wrangling dark matter, some scientists find inspiration in the Torah, Krishna and Christ

When an invisible entity making up 85% of the universe's mass stumps the greatest scientific minds of our time, awe is an understandable response.

Physicists call it “ dark matter, ” a substance they describe as the cosmic glue, the scaffolding, a web that uses gravity to corral, shape and hold together stars, planets and galaxies. Yet nobody knows exactly what it is.

Dark matter's existence is only inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter. Together with dark energy — a mysterious force causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate — they are the biggest scientific mysteries of our time.

So it’s no surprise that dark matter and dark energy, which may hold answers to the origins and fate of the universe, have sparked profound religious and philosophical conversations — inspirational to some scientists, cringeworthy to others.

The worlds of science and faith are not as separate as they might seem. Many scientists have expressed how studying the majesty of the cosmos can be complementary rather than conflicting with their faith or spiritual practice.

Vera Rubin, an astronomer whose observations of galaxy rotation curves in the 1970s provided the first robust evidence for dark matter's existence, embraced her Jewish faith as a guide to understanding her role in the universe.

When Chanda Prescod-Weinstein met Rubin as a doctoral student in 2009, the renowned astrophysicist posed an unexpected question: “So how do you think we solve the dark matter problem?”

Prescod-Weinstein, who is an agnostic-atheist and Jewish, cites Rubin’s gracious query as a factor in deciding to study a theoretical particle called the axion, which could potentially solve the dark matter problem. Prescod-Weinstein says she draws on Reconstructionist Jewish teaching and the Torah for scientific inspiration.

“The stories in the Torah are about people who lived in a very intimate relationship with the land and with the night sky, and with a sense of all of that as a part of creation and the creation story,” she said.

It was an obsession with dark matter and dark energy that got Brittany Kamai into astrophysics. She is only the second Native Hawaiian to earn a doctorate in the field. After spending years developing the Fermilab Holometer, an instrument designed to understand what space and time are made of, Kamai returned to her spiritual roots in Hawaii as an apprentice navigator and crew member of a voyaging canoe.

Kamai trains in celestial navigation, using the stars, winds and waves to traverse the ocean without modern instruments. She wonders if the missing link in these mysteries might lie in spirituality — a quality she says many scientists dismiss.

In canoeing, Kamai says she is learning the importance of being “spiritually tuned,” seeking clues her ancestors may have left behind. She wonders if being in the deep ocean could crack the mystery of dark energy.

“When you boil down physics, it’s all a bunch of waves — particles, sound waves,” she said. “Why wouldn’t we need to be in the deepest part of our ocean to have the deepest connection to the entire universe?"

Doug Watson was beset by doubt as a postdoctoral fellow researching dark matter. When he felt burned out, his wife introduced him to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, widely known as the Hare Krishna movement, a branch of Hinduism that glorifies Lord Krishna as the Supreme Being. Watson, who used to be nonreligious, said he embraced a religious tradition that encouraged doubt, curiosity and scientific inquiry.

He studied holy texts like the Srimad Bhagavatam, which describes a scene when Krishna’s transcendental gaze animates the universe. This, to Watson, seems “eerily similar” to the observer effect in quantum mechanics — the phenomenon where the act of measuring or observing a quantum system, such as a proton or electron, changes its state.

Watson has used these stories as inspiration to overcome barriers that prompted his burnout.

“I definitely don’t think drawing direct lines between religious texts and scientific facts is the right approach,” he said. “Rather, I see how these stories could inform and inspire new ways of thinking about the origins of the universe.”

Some scientists, such as astrobiologist Adam Frank, warn that seeking sacredness in topics like dark matter might end in disappointment because science constantly evolves.

“You don’t want to base your faith or spirituality on a graph in a scientific paper that goes up or down,” he said.

For Frank, a Zen Buddhist, the true link between science and spiritual endeavor is the awe they instill.

“Whether it’s the poetry of your scripture that you love or the beauty of the equations you are deriving, they’re both calls toward that feeling,” he said.

For the faithful, acceptance that there is nothing transcendent about this world is simply impossible, said Caner Dagli, an Islamic scholar and religious studies professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

"Transhumanists and other philosophers might think that if we just had enough computing power, we might be able to get the equations to really understand the universe completely,” he said. “But that’s off the table for Muslims because we believe God intervenes in history, he answers prayer.”

Chris Impey, professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, has often visited India to teach Tibetan monks and nuns at the Dalai Lama's invitation. Being awed by a mystifying universe feels like a spiritual experience, he says.

Impey, an agnostic, has found many aspects of Buddhism compatible with modern cosmology.

“They can accommodate in their tradition an ancient universe, billions of years old,” he said. “They can accommodate many worlds, life in other worlds, life more advanced than us.”

Adam Hincks, a Jesuit priest who teaches at the University of Toronto and serves as an adjunct scholar at the Vatican Observatory, believes that for some, contemplating dark matter and dark energy could elevate their minds to God.

“There are also other things in the universe that for some, would be a similar conduit, such as a beautiful waterfall,” he said. “As the creator, God is present in all of creation, and contemplating creation is a portal to contemplating the divine.”

Australian astrophysicist Ken Freeman is considered a “dark matter pioneer” primarily for his landmark 1970 research that provided some of the first modern evidence of invisible mass in spiral galaxies. Freeman is Christian; like many scientists before him, he wonders about the role of intuition in scientific discovery.

“You wake up in the middle of the night with a thought and you have no idea where that came from,” he said. “People of faith might look at it as the action of the Holy Spirit.”

Was his urge to study dark matter the Holy Spirit's work?

“I would not paint it that way, but it’s a nagging possibility,” he said.

Jennifer Wiseman, a Christian astrophysicist, draws on her faith for wisdom as she investigates the big, enigmatic questions of the universe and ponders using scientific progress to serve humanity.

“Studying the deep universe may make us feel insignificant,” Wiseman said. “But it also gives us a sense of unity that we’re all on the same planet. ... The hope is we get a sense of joy, humility and love from these contemplations.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - This image provided by NASA shows two massive galaxy clusters captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory in Jan. 20, 2025, with areas of possible dark matter indicated in blue. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, CXC; Science: James Jee (Yonsei University, UC Davis), Sangjun Cha (Yonsei University), Kyle Finner (Caltech/IPAC) via AP, File)

FILE - This photo provided by NASA shows the Atlantic Ocean as astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper orbits the earth in spaceship Faith 7 on May 16, 1963. (AP Photo/NASA, File)

FILE - A lunar eclipse in the night sky behind a statue of the Buddha in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011. (AP Photo/ Eranga Jayawardena, File)

(AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin)

CEDAR CREST, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s attorney general sued the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday, accusing it of blocking the state from investigating sex crimes at Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling ranch near Santa Fe.

The lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., said the department and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stonewalled New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s criminal investigation into Epstein and others, taking steps that “actively harms victims and undermines the public interest.”

The lawsuit seeking judicial intervention to force the federal government to turn over materials to New Mexico's investigators was filed the same day that the state released a report saying “those directly responsible for protecting New Mexicans relied on others to do their job,” including federal prosecutors in New York.

The federal prosecutors, though, never prioritized New Mexicans, focusing instead on Epstein’s misdeeds in New York, Palm Beach, Florida, and the Virgin Islands, while leaving Epstein’s offenses in New Mexico unexamined," the report said.

Meanwhile, according to the Washington lawsuit, Torrez and his senior prosecutors “have faced sustained resistance” to the kind of information-sharing that had occurred in the past between state and federal investigators.

In a statement, the Justice Department said it was not releasing some information the state requested because federal court orders ban disclosing “victim-identifying information carte blanche, and New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures.”

It said protecting victim privacy remains a top priority, though the Justice Department "remains available to assist New Mexico’s investigation consistent with the law and binding court orders.”

The lawsuit said the Justice Department and Blanche were hiding information about Epstein and his co-conspirators when New Mexico is one of the few jurisdictions that may still be able to hold Epstein's associates accountable or “provide some sense of justice to survivors.”

In a video conference call with reporters, Torrez said his office has made 10 separate requests for key information and has been ignored or denied.

“We have heard repeatedly they will cooperate and what our team has experienced is anything but cooperation,” Torrez said.

“Todd Blanche today with a stroke of a pen could grant us the access that he claimed,” Torrez said. “Instead they have decided to stonewall, to obstruct and to frankly conceal for whatever reason.”

Epstein took his own life in a federal jail in New York City in August 2019 after he was denied bail on sex trafficking charges lodged against him when he was arrested a month earlier.

His former girlfriend and close associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking charges at a trial in Manhattan, where some of the witness testimony alleged that Epstein and Maxwell had sexually abused women at the New Mexico ranch.

Epstein purchased his sprawling estate in Stanley, New Mexico, a sparsely populated ranching community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Santa Fe, in 1993 from former Democratic Gov. Bruce King and built a hilltop mansion with a private airstrip and helipad.

The property was sold by Epstein’s estate in 2023 to the family of Don Huffines, a Republican who was recently appointed state comptroller in Texas. In a February social media post on X, Huffines said the property has been renamed San Rafael Ranch after a saint associated with healing and that his family plans to operate a Christian retreat there.

In December, the Justice Department started releasing investigative records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Complaints quickly arose about shoddy redactions and too many sealed materials from accusers and members of Congress who fought to pass the transparency act. Records that were released, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other documents, were either already public or heavily blacked out, and many lacked necessary context.

AP writer Larry Neumeister in New York and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

FILE — This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein on March 28, 2017. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

FILE - Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference in New York on July 2, 2020. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)