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A Brief History of Physics,Book Review,Creation,God,Science,Stephan Hawking,Universe
6 comments
A Brief History of Physics,Book Review,Creation,God,Science,Stephan Hawking,Universe
6 comments
A Brief History of 'Physics' by Stephan Hawking
Stephan Hawking’s
“A Brief History of Time” is exactly the sort of read it promises to be:
Absolutely remarkable! To be fairly honest, Stephan Hawking’s ideas may be
awesome but what is more awesome is the fact that he has converted
this 
The fundamental
question at hand throughout the history of theoretical physics and astrophysics
has always been the same: How to understand the universe we live in? Or What is
the universe we live in? Stephan Hawking attempts to answer this question to
some extent, by showing us the path to the Unification of Physics. He argues
that if we combine all that is known about matter, energy and forces, we will
have one equation that will predict the behavior of the whole universe: its
beginning, its end and the time in between. Of course, this is not as easy as
it sounds. From Laplace to Einstein to Hawking, himself, the idea of
Unification of Physics has remained just that, an idea. However, scientists
will continue their search for this equation, which they believe will answer the
first of the two fundamental queries that plague the sanity of the human race:
1.
What is the universe?
2.
Why was it created?
Another
interesting aspect of “A Brief History of Time” lies within its pursuance of
the subject of time itself. Time is a concept that has eluded man since the
dawn of human civilization. Ideas like eternity were pursued by our ancestors.
However, human beings always believed that where nothing else was constant and
eternal, time itself was. Nevertheless, Einstein proved them all wrong. His
theory of relativity threw the concept of constant eternal time into the trash.
He discovered that time, like space, was relative and that it began with the
beginning of the Universe, like space did. He discovered that Space-Time was a
relative concept and together constructs the 4-dimensional world we thrive in.
What is more
interesting is that while discussing the concept of time Hawking ends up
telling us four things:
1.
The History of Time
2.
The History of the Universe
3.
The History of Physics and
4.
The History of some Physicists (including the most intriguing description of Sir Isaac Newton beginning with: 'Isaac Newton was not a pleasant man.' ;-))
His book is a
condensed encyclopedia concerning the evolution of Theoretical Physics and
also pens a brief story of the evolution of Knowledge itself. Mr. Hawking says:
‘We have certainly come a long way since Aristotle and Ptolemy, when we thought
that the Earth was the center of the Universe!’ and shows the truth of this
statement throughout the course of his narrative (I say it is a narrative, because
this book is more of a story about science rather than a book on science).
It really makes you wonder:
There was one
note in the book that really touched a nerve. I suppose there has always been a
huge clash between creationists and scientists as far as the truth about
everything has been concerned. Of course, the reason being that the Catholic
Church was not very kind to scientists in the past; take poor Galileo as an
example. The man admitted that he was a Catholic himself and that he believed
everything in the Bible which contradicts with science is merely allegorical,
but he was still opposed to the extent of boycott by the Church and confinement
in the form of house arrest. Nevertheless, that does not mean that one should
go explore the universe with idea that there is no God.
For a scientist
to make a proper judgment, it is necessary that they should remain objective
and let the facts dictate their findings.
Interestingly,
Islam has a slightly different perspective on the matter of science. And why
wouldn’t it have? I am sure the original Biblical scripture also held a similar
view. God has created this masterpiece of a Universe and He wants his creation
to marvel at it, to discover its beauty and sing His praises. But for that His
creation would actually have go out and ‘look’ at the Universe, ‘observe’ it.
That is why God commands men and women to seek knowledge, to travel and to do ‘fiqr’
(contemplation) in the Quran. Additionally, God asks us to seek him through His
creations, through the various signs that He is left in the Universe for us to
find. He says: ‘And which of His blessings will you deny?’ in Surah Rahman.
What I believe
is that it is not so wrong to wonder as Einstein did “How much choice did God
have in constructing the universe?” Perhaps, God had infinite number of choices,
perhaps, none at all. But that doesn’t disprove His existence. The week and
strong anthropic principle itself speaks of this duality. If indeed there are
infinite possibilities, why this one? Because, someone somewhere set it to be
so. If this was the only possibility, which resulted in intelligent life forms
like us, then also how come this one was selected? Because, someone somewhere
ordered it to. We will keep on going round and round in this argument no matter
where we begin from.
Therefore, Mr.
Hawking found a way out. He proposed that we can remove singularities by
assuming that the Universe did not really have a beginning and does not have an
end in singularities. He claims that if the Universe was merely self-contained
with no outside force affecting it. This, if proven, makes the concept of
creation invalid. However, Mr. Hawking states that this is merely ‘a proposal’.
Even if we say that yes it is true that the Universe is self-contained and that
it is running according to a particular set of rules, we still cannot escape
the God concept. Why? Because then the question arises, who set it this way?
Who chose the equations? Who made it possible for the Universe to survive in
this particular manner? And we are back to square one.
What struck me
most comprises of two facts:
1.
Mr. Hawking claims that the
Universe could have been created without really disturbing the first law of
thermodynamics. He states that gravity is negative energy and the mass in the Universe
is positive energy. As the amount of mass energy and gravity energy in the
Universe are equal therefore, total energy in the Universe remains zero.
This kind of rings a bell for me. If indeed, it is true (not proven
yet), it would prove that the Universe was created out of literally NOTHING.
That is it came to be from Energy = O!!! (ASTOUNDING!)
2.
Mr. Hawking talks of the Uncertainty
Principle, stating that as everything has a dual nature (wave + particle), its
velocity and position both cannot be determined accurately. This means, there
is a definite limit to the amount of knowledge we can gain about anything. Intriguingly, that also creates a loophole for
the idea of zero intervention by God.
Mr.
Hawking grudgingly admits this by quickly stating that the results are so
random that they are insignificant. However, there is a tiny fundamental
loophole in the idea. So, according to Mr. Hawking himself, if one likes we can
assume that this leaves room for God’s intervention in the running of the
Universe, which He created according to a set of rules, that are so ordered (BTW
the Universe’s order has been spoken off in Surah Ikhlaas long before any of
these discoveries) that it is possible for someone who knows that ONE elusive equation
to predict everything (ultimately making God, who probably knows the equation
He created, All-Knowing and All-Seeing). Again for me this was absolutely
REMARKABLE.
Mr. Hawking has
written a masterpiece of a book about the Universe and its creation. The book
is a must read for any fan of science, theoretical physics or anyone who might
have the tiniest interest in the beginning of the Universe and Time itself! :D
6 comments:
Interesting read, but I don't understand how you compare the allowance for super natural intervention provided by the uncertainty principle
with surah ikhlas?
Erm I think u misunderstand... As far as I know Surah Ikhlaas has nothing to do with the uncertainity principle... Although in various places in the quran, God does allude to limited human perception and knowledge which could be indicative of the uncertainity principle on a fundamental level... :-/
Surah Ikhlaas is about the oneness of Allah and in many commentaries of the Surah various proves are related. The most striking one is that the order in the universe is indicative of ONE God. Commentators argue that if there were more than one gods then there would have been more than one concious efforts behind the universe and perhaps everything would have fallen apart... Order is indicatie of one concious behind the creation and sustenance of the Universe, therefore, there is one God... :-)
"This kind of rings a bell for me. If indeed, it is true (not proven yet), it would prove that the Universe was created out of literally NOTHING. That is it came to be from Energy = O!!! (ASTOUNDING!)"
Actuall, the 'Lamda CDM' model does explain why we have a universe filled with matter; but it's not a creation of everything from "nothing" in the true sense of nothingness. Its quantum fluctuations from virtual particles.
Hawking is equivocating on the word 'nothing' in his book, when its actually meant to be an quantum vacuum state. Then one should ask is, how did the laws of quantum mechanics originated?
"Mr. Hawking found a way out. He proposed that we can remove singularities by assuming that the Universe did not really have a beginning and does not have an end in singularities."
This is also false, the universe does has a beginning according to the recent paper published by Audrey Mithani and Alexander Vilenkin, which can be seen here:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.4658
The paper concludes:
Did the universe have a beginning?
"At this point, it seems that the answer to this question is probably yes. Here we have addressed three scenarios which seemed to offer a way to avoid a beginning, and have found that none of them can actually be eternal in the past. Both eternal inflation and cyclic universe scenarios have Hav > 0, which means that they must be past-geodesically incomplete. We have also examined a simple emergent universe model, and concluded that it cannot escape quantum collapse. Even considering more general emergent universe models, there do not seem to be any matter sources that admit solutions that are immune to collapse."
Since the universe has a beginning, there must be a transcendent cause beyond space and time which created the universe out of nothing.
"Creator of the heavens and the earth from nothingness, He has only to say when He wills a thing, “Be,” and it is."(Quran 2:117)
Supernova432 thank you for your comment and the interesting information on the subject! :)
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