Rod Pyle's Blog - Posts Tagged "big-bang"
"God Does Play Dice"- Stephen Hawking
STEPHEN HAWKING: “GOD REALLY DOES PLAY DICE…”
Why is there something instead of nothing?
Why this particular set of physical laws and not another?
Does God in fact gamble?
A few thousand people lined up to find the answers to these and many other questions a few weeks back as the California Institute of Technology hosted an evening with Stephen Hawking. The fabled physicist and cosmologist has been spending a few months at the institution as he does each year, sequestered with colleagues such as fellow theoretical physicist Kip Thorne as they debate the meaning of the Higgs-boson particle and other great mysteries of the cosmos.
Many had begun the wait for tickets for the 8 PM event twelve hours. By 6 PM the line was about a quarter-mile long. A second auditorium and a Jumbotron on a lawn, which itself was jammed with an estimated 1000 watchers, were needed to handle the overflow crowd. At least one man unsuccessfully offered $1000 for a ticket.
Hawking began the evening reciting an African creation myth, and rapidly moved on to the basic questions: why are we here? Why this set of physical laws and not another?
After outlining the historical theological debate about how the universe was created, he narrated a breezy survey of more scientific cosmological theories, including Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold’s steady-state theory, in which there is no beginning and no end, and galaxies continue to form from spontaneously created matter. This and other discredited ideas were dismissed on the basis of newer observations, now bolstered by orbital observatory data. But he noted that there were still those who sought a divine solution to the problem to counter curious physicists, at one point quipping, “What was God doing before the divine creation? Was he preparing hell for people who asked such questions?”
This was followed by a brief historical background into relativistic physics and cosmology, Hawking discussed the idea of a repeating Big Bang, noting that in his work in the 1980’s with Roger Penrose, they proved that the universe could not “bounce” when it contracted as had been theorized. Therefore, time began at the moment of singularity, and this has occurred only once. The age of the universe fits that model, as the number and maturity of observed galaxies seems to fit in the general scheme.
In another observation of modern religion, Hawking noted that in the 1980’s, just as he had released a paper discussing the moment the universe was born, that Pope John Paul II admonished the scientific establishment against studying the moment of creation, as it was holy. “I was glad not to be thrown into an inquisition,” he quipped.
Hawking continued with an outlining of “M” theory, which hinged off of ideas put forward years ago by another fabled physicist, Caltech’s Richard Feynman. He sees it as the only big idea that really explains what has been observed. In “M”, multiple universes are created out of nothingness, with many possible histories and many possible states of existence. In only a few would life be possible, and in fewer still could something like humanity exist. He mentioned that he felt fortunate to be living in this one.
Hawking closed the evening with a familiar plea for continued exploration of the cosmos: “We must continue to go into space for the future of humanity,” he said, adding, “I don’t think we will survive another thousand years without escaping our fragile planet.”
Why is there something instead of nothing?
Why this particular set of physical laws and not another?
Does God in fact gamble?
A few thousand people lined up to find the answers to these and many other questions a few weeks back as the California Institute of Technology hosted an evening with Stephen Hawking. The fabled physicist and cosmologist has been spending a few months at the institution as he does each year, sequestered with colleagues such as fellow theoretical physicist Kip Thorne as they debate the meaning of the Higgs-boson particle and other great mysteries of the cosmos.
Many had begun the wait for tickets for the 8 PM event twelve hours. By 6 PM the line was about a quarter-mile long. A second auditorium and a Jumbotron on a lawn, which itself was jammed with an estimated 1000 watchers, were needed to handle the overflow crowd. At least one man unsuccessfully offered $1000 for a ticket.
Hawking began the evening reciting an African creation myth, and rapidly moved on to the basic questions: why are we here? Why this set of physical laws and not another?
After outlining the historical theological debate about how the universe was created, he narrated a breezy survey of more scientific cosmological theories, including Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold’s steady-state theory, in which there is no beginning and no end, and galaxies continue to form from spontaneously created matter. This and other discredited ideas were dismissed on the basis of newer observations, now bolstered by orbital observatory data. But he noted that there were still those who sought a divine solution to the problem to counter curious physicists, at one point quipping, “What was God doing before the divine creation? Was he preparing hell for people who asked such questions?”
This was followed by a brief historical background into relativistic physics and cosmology, Hawking discussed the idea of a repeating Big Bang, noting that in his work in the 1980’s with Roger Penrose, they proved that the universe could not “bounce” when it contracted as had been theorized. Therefore, time began at the moment of singularity, and this has occurred only once. The age of the universe fits that model, as the number and maturity of observed galaxies seems to fit in the general scheme.
In another observation of modern religion, Hawking noted that in the 1980’s, just as he had released a paper discussing the moment the universe was born, that Pope John Paul II admonished the scientific establishment against studying the moment of creation, as it was holy. “I was glad not to be thrown into an inquisition,” he quipped.
Hawking continued with an outlining of “M” theory, which hinged off of ideas put forward years ago by another fabled physicist, Caltech’s Richard Feynman. He sees it as the only big idea that really explains what has been observed. In “M”, multiple universes are created out of nothingness, with many possible histories and many possible states of existence. In only a few would life be possible, and in fewer still could something like humanity exist. He mentioned that he felt fortunate to be living in this one.
Hawking closed the evening with a familiar plea for continued exploration of the cosmos: “We must continue to go into space for the future of humanity,” he said, adding, “I don’t think we will survive another thousand years without escaping our fragile planet.”
