Belief in
God and God alone is a personal decision that each and every human being must make on his
own. One can't prove or disprove the
existence of God to the satisfaction of all - and this is surely not due to lack of
evidence. On the contrary, the signs are
everywhere for all to see, but very few people will take the time to reflect on these
signs objectively:
"The Heavens are telling the
glory of God. They are a marvelous display
of His craftsmanship."
(Psalms, 19:1)
"The heavens and the earth are
full of signs for the believers..."
(Quran, 45:3)
We have made
significant progress, especially in the last 100 years, in the understanding of our
physical universe. Yet we have no plausible
explanation for why fundamental constants (i.e. nuclear force, gravity, speed of fight,
etc.) are the way they are, and more importantly, how sensitive - beyond imagination - is
life and the universe as a whole, to these specific constants. If there had been the slightest change in any of
these laws of nature, our universe would not have even existed. Instead it would have flown apart or crashed
together into an unbearable inferno.
As powerful
as this new realization is, it is no more convincing to those who choose not to believe
than the many arguments put forward by previous generations. For example, William Paley (1740-1805) in his Natural Theology gave a very convincing argument
for the existence of a Creator which is as strong today as it was then. If you struck your foot against a stone and then
were asked how the stone came to be there, you might answer, "For all I know, it has
been there forever." No one would question the reasonableness of the answer. But suppose you came across a watch on the ground
and were asked the same question. Certainly it would be absurd to give
the same answer. Surely the intricate
workings of the universe are more a watch than a stone!
The Second
Law of Thermodynamics is one of the most fundamental laws of nature: "Total disorder
always increases." There is no exception to this law. It follows then, that if the universe was simply
an accident, the probability of it being in any appreciable order is absolutely
infinitesimal. Accordingly then, the universe
must have been created in an orderly fashion. We
witness great order in all its facets:
"God's laws are
perfect." (Psalms, 19:7)
"He constructed the universe
and established its laws." (Quran, 55:7)
Thou art the Imperishable, the highest End of knowledge, the support of this vast universe. Thou, the everlasting ruler of the law of righteousness...." (Bhagavad Gita, 11:18)
When the
laws of Gravity are taken into account, the probability of an accidental universe
diminishes even more. In the absence of other
forces, all gravitating systems would completely collapse, creating a black hole as the
end result. Given a random distribution of
gravitating matter, it is overwhelmingly more probable that it will form black holes
rather than stars or clouds of gas. Leading
astrophysicist Roger Penrose has calculated the odds against the Big Bang producing stars
and galaxies as being 10 (raised to the 30th power) to 1!
The large
scale structure of the universe is just as remarkable.
Physicists have just recently discovered how delicate a balance existed
between the explosive power of the Big Bang and the force of gravity. Had the Big Bang been weaker, the cosmos would
have soon fallen back on itself. Had it been
stronger, the cosmic material would have been dispersed so rapidly that no galaxies, and
no stars would have formed. The observed
structure of the universe depends on the extremely precise matching of the explosive power
of the Big Bang to the gravitating power (i.e. the power of gravity). If the explosive power had been different by 1 in
10 (raised to the 60th power), the universe would not have been:
"Everything He created is
precisely measured " (Quran 54.49)
Fundamental
constants play a basic role in physics and have the same numerical values everywhere in
the universe at all times. Consider, for
example, the nuclear force which holds the nuclei of atoms together. If this force were any weaker the atomic nuclei
would become unstable and disintegrate. If it
were stronger, there would have been no hydrogen left after the Big Bang, and consequently
no other elements could have been produced.
It is not
just that the alteration of any of the "constants" would fundamentally affect
our universe, but research shows that only these numbers, precisely fine tuned, are the
exact, necessary numbers for our universe to exist and for life to have evolved. For example, an alteration in the strength of
gravity by as infinitesimal a number as 1 in 10 (raised to the 40th power) would
have caused all the stars to be either blue giants or red dwarfs, with no possibility of
sun-like stars, and consequently no possibility of life as it exists today.
With such
clear evidence of a design within the universe and its laws, how does the scientific world
maintain its rejection of the existence of God? Well,
obviously it doesn't. Scientists, like everyone else are individuals and as such
they have individual systems of belief. But some scientists follow one of these two
trains of thought:
1. The Multiple Universe theories: in one form or another
these theories propose that there are an infulite number of universes, and ours is the
only one that just happens to have all the right characteristics for life.
2. The
Anthropic Principle: this principle proposes that if any of the conditions of our universe
had been different, it could not possibly still exist and we would not be here to ask why,
so it is a meaningless question.
It seems
clear that such thinking, while perhaps satisfying for some, is not adequate for anyone
whose mind has not been totally turned off to the concept of God by traditional religious
dogma. As stated in the first goal of
Universal Unity, we hope to present you with the objective facts which will allow you to
come to the conclusion that God does exist.
"We will show them our signs in the horizons, and within themselves, until they realize that this is the truth."
(Quran, 41:53)
- Hossein Kowsari
Further Reading:
In Search of the Big Bang, by John Gribbin
The Runway Universe, by John Davies
The Big Bang, by Joseph Silk
The Anthropic Principle, by John Barrow and
Frank Tipler
God and the New Physics, by Paul Davies
