When Stephen Hawking, the most famous scientist living in the twenty-first century, published The Grand Design, he provoked a lively response in the media. Hawking wrote that the laws of physics make God unnecessary when explaining the origin of the universe and everything in it. In Is God Unnecessary? author Walter Alan Ray presents nine reasons why Hawking's thesis is mistaken. Ray does not use philosophical or theological arguments, but presents the same laws of physics that Hawking says demonstrate his position. Ray examines Hawking's "Apparent Miracle" Hawking's assumption that Charles Darwin explained the origin of human life; the question "Can something come out of nothing" the cosmological constant in Einstein's equations, the factor that Hawking considers the most impressive coincidence; Hawking's solution to the "completely incomprehensible" value of the cosmological constant; and how physics and mathematics join in showing that in the current state of our knowledge, physics and mathematics do have something to say about the origin of the universe. Ray determines that the laws of physics and mathematics show there are two possible answers to the question "How did we come to live in a universe that is as astoundingly fine-tuned as ours" The arguments presented by Ray in Is God Unnecessary? show neither of these two answers is the solution proposed by Hawking.

Is God Unnecessary?

Why Stephen Hawking Is Wrong according to the Laws of PhysicsBy Walter Alan Ray

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Walter Alan Ray
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-5463-0

Contents

Preface....................................................................................................................1Introduction...............................................................................................................51. Hawking's Apparent Miracle..............................................................................................112. A Reference to Darwin by Hawking........................................................................................153. Can Something Come from Nothing?........................................................................................194. The Mother of All Physics Problems......................................................................................415. Would 10500 Universes Be Enough?.............................................................................476. Would an Infinite Number of Universes Be Enough?........................................................................517. The Surprising Result of Applying the Laws of Physics and Mathematics to the Origin of Our Universe.....................59Conclusion.................................................................................................................65Appendix "The God Experiment"..............................................................................................67

Chapter One

Hawking's Apparent Miracle

Hawking believes that according to M-theory, many universes were created out of nothing. Hawking says:

M-theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing. Their creation does not require the intervention of some supernatural being or god. Rather, these multiple universes arise naturally from physical law.

According to Hawking, the natural laws of physics explain the origin of our universe and the origin of life. The earth is amazingly fine-tuned to support life. How is it that our planet earth came to meet the highly improbable combination of initial parameters that are necessary for life to exist on our planet earth? Hawking is so impressed by the fine-tuning of our universe that he calls it the Apparent Miracle. Hawking makes it clear in this book that he does not believe it is a miracle. But his use of the word "miracle" is significant in that he recognizes the challenge of explaining the fine-tuning by logic and the laws of physics.

Hawking's apparent miracle has also been called the Goldilocks Enigma, summarized by the question "How did earth come to have precisely the necessary characteristics for supporting life?" How did all the factors necessary for life to exist come to be "just right?" How do we explain these highly improbable coincidences by the laws of physics?

A simple example of fine-tuning is the existence of water, and the present temperature range on the surface of the earth. Humans need water in order to survive. In order for water to exist in liquid form, the earth must be within a certain range of distances from the sun. There is a fine band of temperatures within which water can exist in liquid form: zero degrees centigrade to 100 degrees centigrade. Below this range we have ice, and above it we have steam, both of which are inconducive to life. The temperature range within which human life can exist (think back to the time before we had heaters!) is even narrower than that for water. The two planets adjacent to Earth are Venus and Mars. Venus has a high temperature of 860 degrees Fahrenheit. Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about -125 degrees Fahrenheit during the polar winters (again, too cold for humans before we had heaters) to highs of up to 23 degrees Fahrenheit in summers.

Another example of fine-tuning is the existence of carbon. Scientists Agree that chemically speaking, carbon is one of the ingredients necessary for life to exist. Up until 1951 scientists were unable to explain how carbon could have come to exist. It was in the early 1950s that Fred Hoyle, then an unknown British astronomer, came up with a theory that was later proven to be right. George Gamow, a famous Russian scientist, composed a tongue in cheek account of Hoyle's discovery:

And so, with the help of God, Hoyle made heavy elements in this way, but it was so complicated that nowadays neither Hoyle, nor God, nor anyone else can figure out exactly how it was done.

Various examples of fine-tuning are given by Hawking in his chapter titled "The Apparent Miracle." Hawking says:

The laws of nature form a system that is extremely fine-tuned, and very little in physical law can be altered without destroying the possibility of the development of life as we know it. Were it not for a series of startling coincidences in the precise details of physical law, it seems, humans and similar life-forms would never have come into being.

Leonard Susskind talks about how we cannot attribute the earth's ability to sustain life to lucky accidents. Susskind says:

Our own universe is an extraordinary place that appears to be fantastically well designed for our own existence. This specialness is not something that we can attribute to lucky accidents, which is far too unlikely. The apparent coincidences cry out for an explanation.

At Least Thirty Knobs Fine-Tune Our Universe

Davies sums up the Goldilocks Enigma (which is Hawking's Apparent Miracle) by referring to the metaphor of a Designer Machine that has knobs that a Cosmic Designer can twirl to alter the various parameters of our universe, such as the masses of particles and the strengths of forces. Davies says:

Returning to my Designer Machine metaphor, the collection of felicitous "coincidences" in physics and cosmology implies that the Great Designer had better set the knobs carefully, or the universe would be a very inhospitable place. How many knobs are there? The Standard Model of particle physics has about twenty undetermined parameters, while cosmology has about ten. All told, there are over thirty "knobs." ... some of the examples I have given demand "knob settings" that must be fine-tuned to an accuracy of less than 1 percent to make a universe fit for life.

Is there any way we can quantify the Goldilocks Enigma? Can we come up with any numbers that give us the statistical odds for earth being conducive to life by chance? Yes, this can be done, as we shall see in chapters 4, 5, and 6. In chapter 2 we look at the second major question regarding Hawking's statement about the laws of physics: How did the origin of life occur?

Chapter Two

A Reference to Darwin by Hawking

Stephen Hawking draws a parallel between Darwin's theory of evolution and the origin of the universe, saying that Darwin showed how the origin of life could have occurred without any intervention by a supreme being. Hawking says:

Just as Darwin and Wallace explained how the apparently miraculous design of living forms could appear without intervention by a supreme being, the multiverse concept can explain the fine-tuning of physical law without the need for a benevolent creator who made the universe for our benefit.

If Darwin did indeed show that the origin of life could have taken place without a supernatural agency, then Hawking has a point in saying that the origin of the universe might also have taken place without any supernatural agency.

But there is a...