- Home
- Excerpts from the book
Excerpts from the book
Introduction
This book is intended to demonstrate that the universe almost certainly was created by God. The Arabic word for God is Allah, which is used by Muslims around the world to refer to the One, Indivisible and Omnipotent God they believe in. (Page 1)
If, after reading this book, one is convinced that the universe could not have come into existence and organized itself without any divine intervention, one will also be convinced that life, and much more so, intelligent life is not a result of chance as is often asserted by many atheists under the thin veneer of science. Indeed, it appears extremely likely that the universe was created by a Creator in exactly the right way for it to harbor life. The renowned British-American physicist Freeman J. Dyson (1922–2020) once wrote, “As we look out into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.” (Pages 1 – 2)
Allan Sandage (1926–2010), arguably the world’s greatest observational astronomer after Edwin Hubble, was one person who was perhaps able to see with his own eyes and feel with own heart the signs of the existence of God through science. Sandage had grown up as an atheist. After he started believing in God at age fifty, he once said that he did so because of his science. Like Sandage, many respected scientists are convinced that there seems to be more than chance involved in the universe being just right for life. Sandage also said, “I could not live a life full of cynicism. I chose to believe, and a peace of mind came over me.” On another occasion, when Sandage was asked about the core motivation behind his conversion from an atheist to a believer in God, he said, “I wanted to participate in the mystery rather than merely walk through it like a tourist, merely observing.” The effort in writing this book would be far more than worth its while if it can help its readers achieve the peace of mind that Allan Sandage was able to achieve from believing in God. (Page 5)
Chapter 1 – Science and Religion
Regardless of one’s intellect and knowledge, one must remember their limits. In view of honest and humble acknowledgements by many scientists, it may be worth remembering that the pronouncements about the nonexistence of God which are purportedly based on science by some atheist scientists are certainly not based on science. These are just expressions of personal beliefs. (Page 19)
The great American astronomer Robert Jastrow (1925–2008) was the founding Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in 1961 and led it during the time it successfully took up the challenge by President Kennedy to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade of 1960s. Jastrow also believed in God. He wrote in his book, God and the Astronomers, “For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.” (Page 33)
Chapter 2 – The Miracle of Life – The Ultimate Sign of God
It is ironic, even tragic, that while the world’s greatest scientists can see that the theories about life’s origin and evolution into intelligent being are full of apparently insurmountable hurdles, many atheists naively believe that all the complex chemical arrangements in complex organisms occurred randomly unaware of the fact that the probability of it occurring randomly is infinitesimally small. (Page 60)
Chapter 3 – Anomalies of Water That Make Life Possible
Water molecule has many anomalies. U.K.’s London South Bank University lists 75 anomalies of water on its website. The anomalies of water and ice is a subject which, according to one paper, has attracted much scientific attention “pertaining to issues from galaxy to geology, astrophysics, biology, climate and to our daily lives.” Indeed, the anomalous characteristics of water are essential for life to exist. If some these anomalous characteristics were different, that is, if water acted as a “normal” liquid, life as we know it could not exist. (Page 62)
Chapter 4 – Our Special Place and Time in the Universe
The expansion of the universe over the past 13.8 billion years has spread the galaxies apart, increased the space between them, reduced the temperature of the universe, and allowed multiple generations of stars to form and spread heavier elements necessary for life. All this made the universe habitable for life to exist in it. Since the early stars and galaxies were tightly packed together, the universe was too bright and too hot for life to exist….Not only were the stars in the early universe packed much more densely together, they were also much larger, hotter and brighter. The surface temperature of the earliest stars were many times higher than the sun’s surface temperature. …the really massive stars in the early universe would have also burned much faster and, after burning for less than a million years, they would have ended their lives in supernova explosions. Supernovae release a large amount of radiation which is mostly in the form of lethal gamma rays. When the universe was younger and denser, the supernovae were occurring too close to newly formed stars and planetary systems. Life could not have been possible in such a universe. (Page 77)
Chapter 5 – Nothing About Humans is Typical in the Universe
We humans and the planet we live on are made of a form of matter (elements made of atoms) which comprises 0.00035% of the entire universe. This means that 99.99965% of the universe is not made of atoms. It’s either made of plasma, dark matter or dark energy. (Page 85)
The typical place in the universe is almost totally empty. In a typical place in the universe, there is hardly any matter and there is certainly no light. The typical place in the universe is also very cold. The average temperature in the universe is 2.7 degrees Kelvin or just 2.7 degrees above absolute zero. The location of the Earth is very different from a typical place in the universe. (Page 87)
Chapter 6 – Our Milky Way Is Not a Typical Galaxy
Based on the observed luminosity, which is the true intrinsic brightness, of nearby galaxies it is estimated that the Milky Way is among the 1.3% most luminous galaxies. Scientists know that metal-rich stars are more luminous. This means that the Milky Way has higher metallicity. Metallicity refers to how much elements other than hydrogen and helium are present in a star, and by extension, in the planets around it. Hydrogen and helium constitute about 99% of all normal matter in the universe. The other elements (such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, iron, etc.), called heavy elements, are necessary not only for life, but they are also important to form rocky planets where life could exist. The relationship between higher metal content in stars and their greater luminosity is known as luminosity-metallicity relation. Milky Way has more metal-rich stars than 98.7% of the nearby galaxies and less than a quarter (23%) of stars in a typical galaxy are more metal-rich than the average star in the Milky Way. Based on the existence of a correlation between metallicity and luminosity among galaxies of all types, scientists believe that most galaxies are too metal-poor to contain metal rich planets like Earth. (Page 94)
Chapter 7 – Our Solar System is Not Typical
Scientists believe that there is a region in the Milky Way which starts at about seven kiloparsecs (22,830 light years) and extends to about nine kiloparsecs (29,354 light-years) away from the center which is composed of stars which are four to eight billion years old. This region is called galactic habitable zone (GHZ) and it was first proposed by three scientists at University of Washington in the U.S. It is estimated that only 10% of the stars in the Milky Way lie within the galactic habitable zone and the metallicity of stars goes down by 5% for every one thousand light-years away from the center of the Milky Way. Moreover, only a small fraction of the 10% stars which lie within the galactic habitable zone are able to host life. Even fewer stars within the GHZ have rocky planets where intelligent life can exist. Consequently, scientists believe that only 0.7% of all stars in the Milky Way-type galaxies lie within the GHZ as well as host a rocky planet. (Page 105)
Chapter 8 – Our Sun is Not a Typical Star
Scientists believe that the giant flares from young stars can help planetary formation by driving away gas from the accretion disks from which planets would form. The stars’ flares can also trigger the formation of pebbles and other small rocky material from dust which is considered an important stage in planetary formation. However, when these flares occur in the later stages of evolution of young stars, they will likely blow away any atmospheres from the planets within their habitable zone with the emission of powerful X-ray and other forms of radiation. Without atmosphere, life could not exist on these planets. This means that, since Earth does have an atmosphere, the sun in its various evolutionary stages over the past 4.5 billion years likely did not emit flares which were strong enough or frequent enough to blow away Earth’s atmosphere. (Page 144)
Chapter 9 – Earth is a Miraculous Planet
Earth’s thin layer of atmosphere protects life and makes life possible on its surface and in the oceans. It is this thin atmosphere which enables our day to be bright and the temperature so different from the cold harsh space just a few miles above. If this layer of atmosphere was just a little bit thinner, life could not exist on Earth. If the atmosphere was a little thicker, the atmospheric pressure on all lifeforms on Earth’s surface would have been too high. The density and the composition of Earth’s atmosphere is just right for humans and other lifeforms to exist. When we see pictures of Earth taken by astronauts, we can see how remarkably thin Earth’s atmosphere is. It is the thin blue iridescent haze which protects Earth’s biosphere (also known as Earth’s ecosphere) where all the known lifeforms in the entire universe exists. (Page 174)
Chapter 10 – Earth’s Moon is Not a Typical Satellite
Since planets in solar system revolve at different speeds around the sun, there is a complex interplay between all the celestial bodies due to their motion around the sun. At times, the giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn align on the side of the sun which adds to the gravitational attraction Earth faces toward the sun and, at other times, the giant planets align on the side away from the sun which pulls the Earth away from it. The combined and constantly changing gravitational pull acting on Earth of the sun and all the planets should make it wobble unpredictably on its axis like a top. Such a wobbling would wreak havoc on Earth’s weather and climate which would change dramatically and make it very difficult, if not impossible, for humans to exist on its surface…. Fortunately, Earth has a relatively large moon whose gravitational influence, for all practical purposes, negates the combined gravitational influence of all the planets. (Page 194)
Chapter 11 – A Universe Fine-tuned for Life
Atheists find it difficult to reconcile with the fact that the universe appears to be extremely fine-tuned for life to exist. The precision involved in the particles of matter and energy which make up the physical universe is at a level which is simply incomprehensible for humans. Extreme fine-tuning of the laws that govern the universe, the perfection with which the building blocks were created, and the energy required to bring it into existence are, simply put, an epitome of perfection and fine-tuning for life to exist. Everything from the elementary and composite particles that make up atoms to the very fabric of space-time that spans the seemingly limitless empty space for billions of light-years reflect extreme precision. The level of precision is simply, to put it mildly, beyond human comprehension. (Page 202)
Chapter 12 – The Precision Involved in the Big Bang
The rate of expansion of the universe in its very early stages set the rate of expansion in the stages which were to follow for billions of years. The rate of expansion had to be extremely fine-tuned so that structures like galaxies, stars, and planets could form billions of years later. If the rate at which the universe was expanding at the end of the first second were slower by a factor of just one trillionth (10-12), the universe would have collapsed back on itself just fifty million years later as the attractive force of gravity of all the matter in the universe would have overtaken its somewhat slower expansion rate. Moreover, due to the universe’s slower expansion rate, its temperature would have never fallen below 10,000 degrees C and its temperature would only keep on rising if it had collapsed under the force of gravity. On the other hand, if the expansion rate of the universe was just a little faster, the universe would have spread out too thinly and no stars and galaxies would have formed billions of years later. In both cases, life would not exist. (Page 208)
Chapter 13 – The Four Fundamental Forces of Nature
In our everyday life, we are familiar with gravity and electromagnetic force. The two other forces, the strong force and the weak force, have very small ranges of influence so they can only be studied at sub-atomic level. All these forces and their absolute and relative strengths are of critical importance in the kind of universe that can exist and for life to be possible. (Pages 217 – 218)
Chapter 14 – The Fine-tuned Strength of Gravity
If gravity were just a little weaker or a little stronger, no meaningful structures such as stars and galaxies would form due to low density. The fine-tuned strength of gravity also played an important role in the development of galaxies. The density in the early universe varied by one part in one hundred thousand (or 0.00001) between less dense regions and the denser regions. (Page 226)
Martin Rees has written that complex organisms such as humans could not have emerged if the strength of electromagnetism were much less than 1036 times the strength of gravity. In other words, humans will not exist if gravity was much stronger than one trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth the strength of electromagnetism force. (Page 235)
Chapter 15 – The Fine-tuned Strength of Strong Force
Although the strong force is the strongest force known in the universe, we also know from nuclear bombs and nuclear reactors that this bond can be broken. The strength of the residual strong force inside the nucleus which glues together protons and neutrons is only so strong that it is broken during fission reaction. In nuclear fission, a heavy nucleus such as uranium is split into two smaller nuclei. However, the same strong force also binds quarks inside protons and neutrons cannot be broken. Even temperatures and pressures inside the core of the hottest stars do not have sufficient energy to break the glue of strong force between quarks. There are 1080 protons in the observable universe. They were all created at the instant of the Big Bang in a tiny fraction of a second. On top of that, as complex as they are, all the protons and neutrons were all created perfectly. Scientists also believe that not a single proton has decayed since they were created which means that the quarks and gluons bound inside every proton have never been unbound. If the bond between the quarks were not so strong and it could be broken by collisions between protons and neutrons just after they formed after the Big Bang or inside the stars, there would be no nuclear reaction and stars would not shine. Therefore, there would be no life possible. It is just amazing that the strong force that binds protons and neutron is just strong enough to be broken so that stars can shine and life can exist. However, the same strong force binds quarks so strongly that it cannot be broken so that stars can shine and life can exist. (Page 250)
Chapter 16 – The Fine-tuned Strength of Weak Force
Neutrinos normally do not react with matter. They can pass through Earth without obstruction. However, a collapsing star before it explodes as a supernova compresses matter to almost one billion tons per cubic centimeter which is too dense even for neutrinos. When the star collapses, such a large number of neutrinos are created in such a small volume in such a short time (less than a second) that they have to interact with dying star’s dense matter. In the process of escaping from the star’s core, neutrinos repel the dying star’s collapsing envelop with such power that it creates the explosion we know as supernova. If the weak force were slightly weaker, neutrinos would not have the power to repel the star’s collapsing envelop and to create a supernova. On the other hand, if the weak force was slightly stronger, the neutrinos would react with the star’s core and will not escape the core. Again, stars will not explode as supernovae. (Page 254)
Supernovae are the only mechanism for the delivery of heavier elements necessary for life such as iron, calcium, carbon, oxygen, silicon, nitrogen, etc. to all the future stars and planets. Without the delivery of heavier elements necessary for life there would be no high metallicity star like the sun, no terrestrial planet like Earth and, of course, no life. (Pages 254 – 255)
Chapter 17 – The Fine-tuned Strength of Electromagnetic Force
John Leslie has pointed out that the electromagnetic force is constant, but its strength is fine-tuned so that it enables multiple key processes to take place. For example, its fine-tuned strength allows (a) stars to burn steadily for billions of years, (b) enables the synthesis of carbons during fusion reactions inside stars, (c) ensures that leptons do not replace quarks otherwise atoms would not form, (d) ensures that protons do not decay and (e) that protons do not repel each other too strongly otherwise chemistry would not be possible. Why is electromagnetic force set at such a fine-tuned level where it satisfies so many different requirements when it seems natural that different level of strength would be required for each one of these different processes? To the atheists, these are all lucky coincidences but to the believers, these are simply signs of God. (Page 262)
Chapter 18 – The Fine-tuning in Deuterium Production After Big Bang
Within a short period after the Big Bang, neutrons combined with protons to form a stable isotope of hydrogen, known as deuterium (one proton and one neutron). If deuterium had not been produced as an intermediate step toward the production of helium, in less than an hour, more than 98% of neutrons would have decayed into stable protons and less than 2% neutrons would be left. Without large number of neutrons in the universe, production of heavier elements (whose nucleus contains equal number of protons and neutrons) would not be possible. Without heavier elements, there would be no terrestrial planets and no life. (Page 263)
Chapter 19 – The Fine-tuning That Made the Universe Electrically Neutral
Chapter 20 – The Fine-tuned Difference in the Masses of Proton and Neutron
Chapter 21 – The Fine-tuned Nuclear Reaction for Carbon Production
Chapter 22 – Perfection in the Properties of Elementary Particles
Chapter 23 – Perfection in the Properties of Composite Particles
Chapter 24 – Perfection in the Fabric of Space-time
Chapter 25 – Scientific Evidence for an Expanding Universe Suggests It Had a Beginning
Chapter 26 – Scientists Resisted a Universe That Had a Beginning
Chapter 27 – Discovery of CMB Proves That the Universe Had a Beginning
Chapter 28 – Big Bang and Its “Problems”
Chapter 29 – Big Bang’s Singularity Problem
Chapter 30 – Big Bang’s Monopole Problem
Chapter 31 – Big Bang’s Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry Problem
Chapter 32 – Big Bang’s Horizon Problem
Chapter 33 – Big Bang’s Flatness Problem
Chapter 34 – Big Bang’s Structure Problem
Chapter 35 – The Cosmological Constant Problem
Chapter 36 – Are the Solutions to the Big Bang “Problems” Really Solutions?
Chapter 37 – God Is the Only Explanation for Our Existence
Promo
15% off
Experience the Journey order Your Copy Today!
You can order the book directly from Dorrance Publishing Company.