Is there any scientific way to reveal the answers to the great age-old philosophical dilemma confronting all of the religions of the world as to proof of the existence of God and the creation of the universe?
What class of laws of physics can convert simple states of matter into such complex final states with the efficiency that works in this universe?
What caused the chemical elements that exist as we now know them?
What role does consciousness play in the grand scheme of the universe?
These and other questions confront anyone who attempts to determine whether the Universe came into existence accidently or by intelligent design. In order to clearly understand the facts which are presented here one should begin by gaining an understanding of the dimensions of the known universe and the size and distances separating the Galaxies. What follows begins with an overview of the basics being considered and then the scientific facts, which introduces the distinct possibility of intelligent design of the universe by presenting the odds against the probability for our universe to exist in its present state based upon random combination of the values of the parameters of the Standard Model, which is the accepted scientific theory.
As to Human Beings, we evolved naturally and it is not postulated here that we were created by intelligent design otherwise we would be perfect material beings which we are indisputably not. The creative aspect of human beings is the spiritual endowment bestowed upon us when we finally reached a sufficiently superior level of intelligent mindedness as a species.
Galaxy NGC 4565
This Galaxy is 50,000,000 Light Years distant
In order to comprehend the size of the universe we should understand the relative sizes of large numbers. For example, one billion equals the number of seconds of time in approximately 32 years, and one trillion equals the number of seconds of time in 32,000 years. Knowledge of the velocity of light is also invaluable – it is measured accurately at 186,282 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second).
Now consider sunlight – Light travels at the highest velocity possible for anything able to move through the universe and takes about 500 seconds of time to traverse the 93 million miles to reach the Earth from the sun. In one year* light traverses just over 6 trillion miles (this is equivalent to the number of seconds of time in almost 190,000 years). The spiral galaxy illustrated above is very similar to The Milky Way Galaxy. It is 100,000 light years in diameter and about 50 million light years distant.
At the velocity of light it measures 600,000 trillion miles in diameter and is about 270 million, trillion miles away (this number equals the number of seconds of time in over 8 trillion years).
*This is referred to as 1 Light Year.
In comparison with the size of the universe Galaxies are very small—there are approximately 200 billion Galaxies in the known universe and the distances separating them is on the order of millions of parsecs (see Wikipedia, Parsec), of which each parsec is approximately 19 trillion miles. The diameter of the known universe is 94 billion light years (see Wikipedia, The Observable Universe) and we compute the diameter in miles of the observed universe by multiplying 94 billion years by 6 trillion miles per year, which amounts to 564 billion, trillion miles (this equals the number of seconds of time in 18,000 trillion years). Obviously the dimensions of the universe are much larger than most people would imagine, but utilizing the analogy of comparing the numbers to time allows one to grasp the relative distances involved.
Hubble Telescope ultra deep field image of numerous distant Galaxies.
Some are at vast distances approaching 285 billion, trillion miles away towards the edge of the known universe. The Andromeda Galaxy is our nearest neighbouring Spiral Galaxy, only 2 million light-years (or 12 million, trillion miles) distant and is more than double the width of our own Milky Way Galaxy.
It is quite close in comparison to the average distance separating Galaxies and is thought to be on an eventual collision course with the Milky Way Galaxy in about 3.75 billion years from the present.
Infinity and Eternity are terms utilized to attempt to describe unlimited distance and time but the circumscribed human intellect is incapable of fully comprehending the absolutes of the eternal and the infinite, although comprehension of extremely large numbers enables one to understand the enormities to some marked degree. The universe may actually be infinitely larger than it is possible to observe even with the most sophisticated scientific instrumentation because of the enormity of the time involved for the light from remote celestial objects to reach us from such gigantic distances.
Analysis of Scientific Data 2
Science postulates that the entire universe began smaller than the size of the atom when inflation began during The Big Bang at its theoretical beginning almost 14 Billion years ago, and their COBE1 sensors have detected differences in temperature of 30 millionths of one degree in the cosmic background radiation which is residual from the big bang event. However, when one carefully investigates the composition of the universe the odds against its existence are truly enormous, staggering, and no less unbelievable. According to the standard model of elementary particle physics the masses of the proton, neutron and electron are set by completely independent parameters.
Nuclei can only be stable within a very narrow range of values for the masses of the neutron and electron, and since stars cannot ignite if there are not stable nuclei only those possible universes which contain stable nuclei may contain stars. Furthermore, there are other parameters which must be attuned if there are to be stars. For example, there is the mass of the neutrino – it is unknown whether the neutrino even has mass. If it does have mass it is no more than one hundred thousandth (1×10–5) of the mass of the electron.
While contemplating the physical constants that must be finely tuned for the universe to contain stars we may ask – why is the universe large enough to accommodate all of the stars and why does the universe exist for many billions of years, long enough for stars to form? The parameter which determines this is extremely tiny – the Cosmological Constant, which must be no larger than 10–40 in order for the universe to exist long enough for stars to form. There are more interactions to consider. Besides gravity there is electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Protons, neutrons, electrons and neutrinos have a very large range of masses and each one interacts with a different combination of the four forces. How probable is it that a universe created by random selection of these parameters will contain stars?
2 Please see Table of Scientific Notation below.
To calculate the probability that a universe with randomly combined values of the parameters of the standard model will have stars that exist for billions of years, we begin with the six masses involved with the Plank Mass – the masses of the four stable particles and the masses associated with the Cosmological Constant. We must consider their ratios to find the probability. The Plank mass is the basic unit of mass in the quantum theory of gravity, equal to about 1019 times the mass of the proton. This mass is the largest and this should therefore be held fixed and the others should be expressed in terms of units of that mass. Then each of the masses of the others will be some number between zero and one and these numbers should be chosen randomly. The life of stars depends upon the ratio of the proton to the Plank mass and that they exist for more than a billion years requires that this ratio be less than 10–19.
This means that the probability for this to occur is therefore one part in 1019 (one part in ten million trillion). In order for there to be many nuclei the neutron must have about the same mass as the proton while the electron must have a mass on the order of a thousand times smaller(10–3). The accuracy to which the neutron mass must closely approximate that of the proton is that of a few electron masses. This means that the masses of the electron and neutron must come out to within an accuracy of about 10–22 in Plank units. The same is true for the neutrinos. The probability for this to occur with the three random selections is 10–22 cubed, which equals one chance in 1066. Together with the probability that the proton mass comes out no larger than it is results in a probability of one part in 1085.
In order for the universe to survive at least until the time of the formation of galaxies the Cosmological Constant must be less than 10–60. The probability of randomly achieving this value is one in 1060, and integrating this with the previous results yields a probability of one part in 10145. Next, the ratio of the strong nuclear force interaction and the ratio of the weak and the electromagnetic interactions are each about one part in 100 (102) in comparison. This multiplies the above probability by 104, which yields the cumulative result of 10149. Finally we must consider the ranges of these forces. The largest is that of electricity which is at least equal to the radius of the universe. The ratio of the radius of the nuclei, which is the range of the two nuclear interactions, to the radius of the universe, is at maximum 10–40. The probability to achieve two such tiny ratios randomly is thus one part in 1080.
When we combine this result with the previous results we reach the inevitable conclusion that the probability for the universe to have turned out as ours has with stars lasting billions of years and with nuclear and atomic physics like ours has, were the parameters of the standard model selected randomly, is at most only one part in 10229. To state that gigantic is infinitesimal compared with the enormity of the number 10229 is hardly descriptive of how truly amazing this number is in describing the odds against the universe existing in its present state.
To recall, just by way of comparison, the number one trillion (1×1012) is the number of seconds of time elapsed in 30 thousand (3×104) years, and the number 6 trillion (6×1012) is the number of miles which light travels in one year. So, how did something so remotely unlikely turn out to be the just the case? Luck will most certainly not suffice at those odds. Rational explanation of how something so unlikely occurred is needed. Albert Einstein must have been referring to this when he made his remark “…God does not play dice with the Universe”. It strains credulity that mathematical consistency could be the sole reason for the parameters to have the extraordinarily unlikely combinations of values that resulted in a universe with stars and life. If a theory were found with the hypothesis that there is only a single, unique, mathematically consistent theory of the whole universe – A Theory of Everything – then we would have no other choice but to accept such an explanation, but is that itself not a form of mysticism?
If we turn towards some version of an ‘Anthropic Principle’ and the belief that God created the universe in precisely this way this makes the answers to the scientific questions dependent upon a faith about something outside the realm of rationality which is also mysticism, which science rejects. So, the best hope of science for a complete, rational understanding of the universe that does not rely on faith or mysticism is that the parameters actually changed over time according to some unknown physical process which just happened to occur in the past. Perhaps this is what so frustrated Einstein, in his elusive search for the Unified Theory which will explain the existence of the physical universe, and all of the following generations of scientists who are skeptical of an intelligent and elegant design of the universe.
The number 10229 is almost incomprehensible. However it may be realized by placing it into the following perspective: The distance light travels at the velocity of 186,282 miles/second (300,000 km/second) in one year is 6 trillion (6×1012) miles, or 9.65×1012 kilometers. Each time the power is raised by 1012 the result is increased one trillion-fold. To raise it only once to reach 6×1024 equals 6 trillion, trillion miles, which is the number 6 followed by 24 zeros and is the number of miles light travels in only one trillion years. The word only is stressed here because the number one trillion is truly microscopic when compared with the number 10229. It requires nearly 20 more such trillion-fold increases to even begin to approach the number represented by 10229. In summary, the number 10229 describes the odds against the probability for our universe to exist in its present state based upon random combination of the values of the parameters of the Standard Model. This certainly introduces the distinct possibility of intelligent design of the universe.
1COBE is the NASA satellite launched in 1989 to map the background radiation from space in the search for evidence of the Big Bang. See the following website for additional data:
Please refer to the following table illustrating scientific notation.
Table of Scientific Notation
1018 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 One Million Trillion
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1012 1,000,000,000,000 One Trillion
1011 100,000,000,000
1010 10,000,000,000
109 1,000,000,000 One Billion
108 100,000,000
107 10,000,000
106 1,000,000 One Million
105 100,000
104 10,000
103 1,000
102 100 One Hundred
101 10
100 1
10 -1 0.10
10 -2 0.01 One Hundredth
10 -3 0.001
10 -4 0.0001
10 -5 0.00001
10 -6 0.000001 One Millionth
10 -7 0.0000001
10 -8 0.00000001
10 -9 0.000000001 One Billionth
10 -10 0.0000000001
10 -11 0.00000000001
10 -12 0.000000000001 One Trillionth
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10 -18 0.000000000000000001 One Million-Trillionth
Additional Evidence against the probability for our universe to exist in its present state
If we are to hope to comprehend the origin of our universe and how everything as we know it culminated we must ask questions such as…
What caused the chemical elements that exist as we now know them?
What class of laws can convert simple states of matter into such complex final states with the efficiency that works in this universe?
What role does consciousness play in the grand scheme of the universe?
Originally hydrogen and helium were present in the primordial universe and all of the common elements such as carbon, iron, and oxygen and so on came from the stars which are nuclear fusion furnaces. Starting with hydrogen and helium they processed it into heavy elements like carbon and iron and oxygen and uranium. Carbon is the life-giving element and it gets out of stars by their explosion as supernovas, which is the principal means whereby the carbon and other important elements are disseminated throughout the universe, and the dispersed material eventually accumulates into the next generation of stars and planets.
Given that carbon is the key element for life because of the carbon cycle in living matter in which carbon dioxide is fixed by photosynthesis to form organic nutrients, it is logical to examine the process which produced it. Carbon nuclei form in the cores of stars from the triple encounter of three helium nuclei. The collision of helium nuclei within stars is not unusual but the simultaneous collision of three helium nuclei is extremely rare, so rare in fact that there would be no possibility for significant carbon production at all if it were not for a remarkable coincidence. Nuclear reactions vary considerably as a function of energy. Occasionally there is a sudden increase in the efficiency of a reaction at some particular critical level of energy, a sharp peak in the reaction rate known as a “resonance”. It appears that nature has obligingly provided just such a resonance in the triple-helium reaction at precisely the thermal energy level occurring in the core of stars. As the result of this most fortunate of coincidences carbon is manufactured in much greater profusion than would otherwise occur. The laws of physics and the structure of stars conspire to ensure that the production of carbon, an improbable derivative, is prolific.
However, the resulting enormous amplification of the synthesis of carbon would be negated completely if the carbon became consumed in the ensuing cycle of the nucleo-synthesis sequence, the collision of another helium nucleus with the carbon nucleus to produce oxygen. Since this is a binary instead of a triple encounter it is much more likely to occur so it would appear that the carbon would all be processed into oxygen if there is another resonance.
It just so happens that there is such a resonance but it is shifted ever so slightly away from the critical energy level, just enough so that the carbon atom survives undisturbed. It appears almost as if the structure of the universe and the laws of physics have been deliberately adjusted to enable the emergence of life, and subsequently consciousness. Some of the helium in the universe is primordial since the universe started out with mainly hydrogen and helium and some of it is manufactured by nuclear synthesis inside stars. One possible method for production of helium from the original elementary particles existing in the early primordial universe would be from the collision of protons which could have become bound together by the nuclear force.
Such a resulting “di-proton” had it existed would then have decayed to form a proton and neutron nucleus of deuterium (heavy hydrogen), and when two deuterons collide they readily fuse to form a nucleus of helium much more efficiently than the production of helium in stars. So, if all of the hydrogen had become processed into helium there would now be no hydrogen in the universe if the nuclear force that binds protons together were only very slightly stronger. Fortunately the di-proton does not exist but if the nuclear force were only very slightly stronger the electric force of repulsion between the protons would have lost the competition between forces and the universe would have been altogether different. How delicate the balance is of the forces of nature!
As it is about 90 percent of the nuclei in the universe are hydrogen which is vital for life and consciousness. The sun and all stars like it is a hydrogen nuclear fusion reactor in which a cycle of thermonuclear reactions occurs during which four hydrogen atoms synthesize into a helium atom with the release of nuclear energy, and without hydrogen there would exist no stable stars. Also, hydrogen is one of the basic components of water which is critical for life so without hydrogen life would never have arisen in the universe. Underlying everything are the laws of physics which are able to permit matter to self-organize to the point where life and mind, consciousness, emerges – mind from matter – and the most striking product is the human mind and its development of mathematics. The laws of physics produce systems which then lead to consciousness which then produces mathematics which illustrates the very underlying laws of physics which gave rise to it. Then we are able to analyze precisely those complexities which led to mind and mathematics. Now if we were to ask where mathematics works best it is in areas like astrophysics and particle physics, so that we find that the product of the most complex system we know in nature, the human brain, finds a consonance with the fundamentals that make up the world and the universe.
Consciousness
Consciousness is not a trivial thing. It is a fundamental property of nature and a natural result of the evolutionary process.
The only type of consciousness we know anything about is consciousness in living organisms and of course human beings. Consciousness cannot be an accident since it is part of the natural outworking of the physical laws of the universe. Perhaps it has also emerged elsewhere in the universe and we are all part of a larger process of consciousness. The science of physics concerns itself with two infinities – the extremes of macrocosm and of microcosm – the infinitely large and the infinitesimally small. However, if the totality is to be considered it is going to be necessary to also consider the infinity of complexity from simple to complex as another extreme. Considering the number of elements occurring in combination, the separation between the extreme of simplicity and the extreme of complexity is as great as that existing between subatomic and stellar magnitudes.
We are now living in an age which is one in which we are discovering the fundamental laws of the universe and the greatest wonder of our modern age is that of our own understanding, comprehension, of such universe realities. It would appear that without any measurable quantities and simply by a finite system of simple but elegant thought processes the human mind has advanced to the creation of the purely continuous numbers domain, and by this means it is possible to comprehend space and time without discontinuity.
In other words numbers, the creation of the human mind, serve comprehension of the difference of things and by acquiring the sense of the continuity of numbers we thereby become enabled to accurately investigate our concepts of space and time by bringing them into relation with the numbers domain created in our minds— the series, or chain, of natural numbers, integers, which forms a vital link, an instrument for the human mind to grasp Infinity and Eternity. Our realm of thoughts — the totality of all things which can be objects of our thought – is infinite. Individual items we contemplate are finite, which to the mind of true scientific logic is nothing but a subset of the infinite set of universe realities. And so humanity’s continuing advances towards the highest degree of consciousness ushers in a new era, indicated by our autonomous control over the biological forces of genetics which determine the growth of life in which we are becoming capable of modifying and perhaps even creating newer life forms.
The more intensely that humans become organized and technologically advanced, the more does their upward impulse – their passion for knowledge and discovery –predominate over their basic impulses to establish themselves and survive. Sooner or later we must come to recognize the probability that we are nearing the critical point of development at which we will reach the extreme limit of human mental development, the ultimate emergence of thought on earth. Where will we allow it to lead us? Eventually we must encounter the last frontier on earth that remains for us to explore, the final adventure – ourselves.
Now it seems that the only hope that humanity has is for an even larger proliferation of machines, computers which will calculate better than we can, analyze better than we can, predict better than we can, and maybe finally computers will design themselves to be even better than we are. So, our only real hope is a matter of knowing that we can do better than our machines because that enormous electronic mechanism which stifles us by our dependency upon it could easily collapse just as quickly as it was developed and utilized because it is entirely dependent upon the supply of electricity which is not limitless.
Therefore we must come to recognize that our consciousness is a great power and we should search for the source of it within ourselves and explore our consciousness, because with all our science we have not yet entered into the true science of living or the real mastery of the world and of ourselves. Before us new horizons of existence are opening beside which our wonderful inventions are only like imitations of the real potential designs and developments of which we are capable. Our present age is slowly being prepared to receive the most productive force in the universe, containing within itself the potentials of supreme knowledge which will pervade our most external and material levels of existence.
And so it is that higher levels of existence are to be found on higher levels of consciousness, elevated realms of thinking and living wherein we will become released from the chains of our limited thinking, which will precipitate a paradigm shift, a reversal of consciousness, even successive reversals of consciousness which will bring about greater human creativity which increases from stage to stage.
In comparison with the enormity of the size of the universe we are microscopic in size but endowed with intelligent minds which are able to comprehend such macroscopic magnitudes as the laws which govern the universe. This demonstrates that we actually possess tremendous potential for great intellectual and mental attainments. For us our evolution has not come to an end but instead it is a continuing adventure of developing our great potentials into actualities, the value of which will be measured by their power of being able to transform life.
This all contributes to the likelihood that the universe as it exists cannot simply be the end result of a vast series of complex and intricately sophisticated coincidences.
There is a great continuing struggle between beliefs – Faith – and knowledge which we must overcome because the present authority of science promulgates pure coincidence for the origin of the universe and for the origins of life. Questions about the very existence of God and why there exist so many different religions are of great concern to many people searching for spiritual truth…