Stephen Hawking: A design sans designer
It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going, says Stephen Hawking.
The purpose of human existence has vexed theologians, philosophers and scientists for centuries. With the progress of science, one would expect the elimination of religious intrusion into serious scientific investigation. However, compared to science, religion has been around for a much longer time and is still more accessible and acceptable to millions of people who find its teachings more reassuring and effective.
Nevertheless, the success of science is indisputable. To get around this problem, religious people have improvised their arguments by resorting to progressive scriptural reinterpretations, Old Earth creationism or theistic evolution. Cult figures like Harun Yahya voice this desperate desire to make science an underling of religion. Such pseudo-science is not only a misrepresentation of scientific facts but a mutilation of religious beliefs too; it is high time we learn to wall out our religious beliefs when it comes to science for Robert Frost was right when he wisely said that good fences make good neighbours.
Stephen Hawking made an allusion to a divine creator in his famous book A Brief History of Time:
For many people it was a confirmation on the part of the renowned physicist of the existence of God. However, those people are going to be displeased with Hawking after reading his latest book The Grand Design. Ironically, the book is not about the discovery of the grand design in the mind of God but a refutation of that possibility. He proclaims that “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”
The grand design that Hawking heralds in this book is one envisioned through the radical M-theory. M-theory is a cutting-edge theory that can be called an extension of string theory. It involves an 11-dimensional universe which harmonises the weak and strong forces with gravity and incorporates all the string theories. Like many contemporary physicists, Hawking sees M-theory as The Theory of Everything: “M-theory is the only candidate for a complete theory of the universe. It is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find. If this theory is confirmed by observation, it will be the successful conclusion of a search going back more than 3,000 years. We will have found the grand design.”
Stephen Hawking, one of the most eminent physicists of our times, has taken the task of explaining the reason behind human existence sans invoking a divine being in The Grand Design. This, according to him, is “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” While A Brief History of Time answers the how part of the existence of universe, his new book concentrates on the why — the big bang being the answer to his previous enquiry and M-theory to the latter.
He establishes a historical context for M-theory to make it less formidable for non-specialist readers, who are certainly the desired targeted audience of the book. To do this, he adopts a roughly chronological approach, beginning with Iona and Greek philosophers who believed in natural laws rather than a personal God, referring to different creation myths at many instances, bringing up Copernicus who robbed man of his superior status by declaring that the earth is not located at the centre of the universe and thus opened the gate for revolutionary developments in physics and cosmology, moving on to Einstein and quantum physics and the way they changed the way we perceive space-time, arriving at string theory and its amazing implications, and finally, proudly introducing the reader to M-theory.
The Grand Design is present-day physics at its most accessible. Unassuming in its tone, its language reflects a deep passion for science and an unusual gift for simplifying dense scientific matters. He draws analogies from common experience, some of which are poetically beautiful. For instance, to explain model-dependent realism he tells the reader about the prohibition of keeping a goldfish in a ball with curved sides in Monza, Italy. The city council said that the fish would have a distorted view of reality because of the curved walls of the ball. Hawking says, how can we know that we are also not trapped inside a giant round ball or how can we be sure that the goldfish’s picture of reality is less real than ours?
Top-down cosmology, says Hawking, can be the best description of reality. Quantum mechanics and classical physics are based on very different conceptions of physical reality. To solve this conflict the book disregards the “apparent” laws of nature, the laws that we observe with our eyes.
The strength of the book resides in its possible implications, the unparalleled translation of higher mathematics and rendering its complex findings into simple language. Unlike Roger Penrose’s A Road to Reality — an indisputable gem in mathematical physics which not many can proclaim to have completely understood — The Grand Design is a popular science book that can find its deserved spot on the shelves of layme, and inspire curious minds, stimulating a new interest in the wondrous possibilities that a Theory of Everything holds.
The Grand Design is one of those books that combine a child’s wonder with a scientist’s impressive intelligence. Already a bestseller, it is proof that science is not just obtrusive jargon. The ingenious wit, lucid logic and pleasant expression, show that Hawking’s knack for brilliant writing has never been more brilliantly displayed.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 31st, 2010.
Nevertheless, the success of science is indisputable. To get around this problem, religious people have improvised their arguments by resorting to progressive scriptural reinterpretations, Old Earth creationism or theistic evolution. Cult figures like Harun Yahya voice this desperate desire to make science an underling of religion. Such pseudo-science is not only a misrepresentation of scientific facts but a mutilation of religious beliefs too; it is high time we learn to wall out our religious beliefs when it comes to science for Robert Frost was right when he wisely said that good fences make good neighbours.
Stephen Hawking made an allusion to a divine creator in his famous book A Brief History of Time:
“However, if we discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable by everyone, not just by a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we should know the mind of God.”
For many people it was a confirmation on the part of the renowned physicist of the existence of God. However, those people are going to be displeased with Hawking after reading his latest book The Grand Design. Ironically, the book is not about the discovery of the grand design in the mind of God but a refutation of that possibility. He proclaims that “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”
The grand design that Hawking heralds in this book is one envisioned through the radical M-theory. M-theory is a cutting-edge theory that can be called an extension of string theory. It involves an 11-dimensional universe which harmonises the weak and strong forces with gravity and incorporates all the string theories. Like many contemporary physicists, Hawking sees M-theory as The Theory of Everything: “M-theory is the only candidate for a complete theory of the universe. It is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find. If this theory is confirmed by observation, it will be the successful conclusion of a search going back more than 3,000 years. We will have found the grand design.”
Stephen Hawking, one of the most eminent physicists of our times, has taken the task of explaining the reason behind human existence sans invoking a divine being in The Grand Design. This, according to him, is “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.” While A Brief History of Time answers the how part of the existence of universe, his new book concentrates on the why — the big bang being the answer to his previous enquiry and M-theory to the latter.
He establishes a historical context for M-theory to make it less formidable for non-specialist readers, who are certainly the desired targeted audience of the book. To do this, he adopts a roughly chronological approach, beginning with Iona and Greek philosophers who believed in natural laws rather than a personal God, referring to different creation myths at many instances, bringing up Copernicus who robbed man of his superior status by declaring that the earth is not located at the centre of the universe and thus opened the gate for revolutionary developments in physics and cosmology, moving on to Einstein and quantum physics and the way they changed the way we perceive space-time, arriving at string theory and its amazing implications, and finally, proudly introducing the reader to M-theory.
The Grand Design is present-day physics at its most accessible. Unassuming in its tone, its language reflects a deep passion for science and an unusual gift for simplifying dense scientific matters. He draws analogies from common experience, some of which are poetically beautiful. For instance, to explain model-dependent realism he tells the reader about the prohibition of keeping a goldfish in a ball with curved sides in Monza, Italy. The city council said that the fish would have a distorted view of reality because of the curved walls of the ball. Hawking says, how can we know that we are also not trapped inside a giant round ball or how can we be sure that the goldfish’s picture of reality is less real than ours?
Top-down cosmology, says Hawking, can be the best description of reality. Quantum mechanics and classical physics are based on very different conceptions of physical reality. To solve this conflict the book disregards the “apparent” laws of nature, the laws that we observe with our eyes.
The strength of the book resides in its possible implications, the unparalleled translation of higher mathematics and rendering its complex findings into simple language. Unlike Roger Penrose’s A Road to Reality — an indisputable gem in mathematical physics which not many can proclaim to have completely understood — The Grand Design is a popular science book that can find its deserved spot on the shelves of layme, and inspire curious minds, stimulating a new interest in the wondrous possibilities that a Theory of Everything holds.
The Grand Design is one of those books that combine a child’s wonder with a scientist’s impressive intelligence. Already a bestseller, it is proof that science is not just obtrusive jargon. The ingenious wit, lucid logic and pleasant expression, show that Hawking’s knack for brilliant writing has never been more brilliantly displayed.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 31st, 2010.