Science and Religion: Do New Discoveries Discard the Idea of God?

By Natalie Wolchover
Posted in Lifes Little Mysteries

Over the past few centuries, it can be said that science has gradually separated itself from the traditional motives for believing in God. Much of what once seemed mysterious - the existence of humanity, the perfection of the Earth, the functioning of the universe - can now be explained by astronomy, biology, physics, and other fields of science.

Although cosmic mysteries remain, Sean Carroll, a theoretical cosmologist at the California Institute of Technology, says there is good reason to think that science will finally come to a full understanding of the universe that leaves no room for God.

Carroll argues that God's sphere of influence has shrunk dramatically in modern times as physics and cosmology have expanded their ability to explain the origin and evolution of the universe. "As we learn more about the universe, there is less and less need to search outside of ourselves for help," he told the small mysteries of life.

He thinks that the sphere of supernatural influence will eventually be reduced to zero. But can science really possibly explain everything?

Beginning of the times

The evidence was collected in favor of the Big Bang model of cosmology, or the notion that the universe expanded from a hot and infinitely dense state to its present cooler and expansive state over 13.7 billion years. Cosmologists can model what happened between 10 ^ -43 seconds after the Big Bang so far, but the fraction of a second before that remains obscure. Some theologians have attempted to equate the moment of the Big Bang with the description of the creation of the world found in the Bible and other religious texts; They argue that something - that is, God - must have started the explosive event.

However, in Carroll's view, progress in cosmology will eventually eliminate any perceived need for a Big Bang trigger-extractor.

As he explained in a recent article in the Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), the main goal of modern physics is to formulate a work theory that describes the entire universe, from subatomic to astronomical scales, within A single frame. Such a theory, called "quantum gravity," will necessarily explain what happened at the time of the Big Bang. Some versions of the theory of quantum gravity proposed by cosmologists predict that the Big Bang, instead of being the starting point, was only "a stage of transition into an eternal universe," in Carroll's words. For example, one model asserts that the universe functions as a balloon that inflates and repeatedly fades under its own vapor. If, in fact, time had no beginning, this ends the book on Genesis.

Other versions of the theory of quantum gravity currently exploited by cosmologists predict that time began in the Big Bang. But these versions of events also do not play a role for God. Not only do they describe the evolution of the universe since the Big Bang, but they also tell how time has come to emerge. As such, these quantum gravity theories still constitute complete and autonomous descriptions of the history of the universe. "Nothing in the fact that there is a first moment of time, in other words, demands that something external be necessary to bring the universe into that moment," Carroll wrote.

Another way of saying is that contemporary physics theories, while still in development and awaiting future experimental testing, are becoming able to explain why the Big Bangs, without the need for a supernatural leap. As Alex Filippenko, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, said at a conference earlier this year, "The Big Bang could have occurred as a result of just the laws of physics being there. With the laws of physics, you can get universes. "

Parallel universes

But there are other potential reasons for God. Physicists have observed that many of the physical constants that define our universe, from the mass of the electron to the density of dark energy, are mysteriously perfect to support life. Change one of these constants through a hair, and the universe becomes unrecognizable. "For example, if the mass of the neutron were a little larger (compared to the mass of the proton) than its actual value, the hydrogen would not be fused to deuterium and the conventional stars would be impossible," Carroll said. And so, as life as we know it.

Theologians often take advantage of the so-called "fine-tuning" of physical constants as evidence that God must have had a hand in them; It seems that he chose the constants just for us. But contemporary physics explains our seemingly supernatural good fortune in a different way.

Some versions of the theory of quantum gravity, including string theory, predict that our life-giving universe is only one in an infinite number of universes that make up the multiverse. Among these infinite universes, the full range of values ​​of all physical constants are represented, and only some of the universes have values ​​for the constants that allow the formation of stars, planets and life as we know it. We find ourselves in one of the lucky universes (why, somewhere else?).

Some theologians say that it is much simpler to invoke God than to postulate the existence of infinite universes to explain the life-giving perfection of our universe. For them, Carroll responds that the multiverse was not postulated as a complicated way of explaining the fine-tuning. On the contrary, it follows as a natural consequence of our best and most elegant theories.

Again, if or when these theories prove correct, "a multiverse occurs, whether you like it or not," he wrote. And God's hand goes in things.

The reason why

Another role for God is a reason for being for the universe. Even if cosmologists could explain how the universe began, and why it seems so perfected for life, the question can remain why there is something contrary to nothing. For many people, the answer to the question is God. According to Carroll, this response is beyond scrutiny. There can be no answer to that question, he says.

"Most scientists ... suspect that the search for final explanations will end up in some final theory of the world, along with the phrase" that's the way it is, "Carroll wrote. People who find this unsatisfied can not treat the entire universe as unique - "something for which a different set of patterns is appropriate." A complete scientific theory that explains everything in the universe does not need an external explanation in it. So specific things within the universe need external explanations. In fact, Carroll argues, involving another layer of explanation (ie, God) around an autonomous theory of everything would just be an unnecessary complication. (Theory already works without God).

Judged by the standards of any other scientific theory, the "God hypothesis" does not do very well, argues Carroll. But he states that "the idea of ​​God has functions other than a scientific hypothesis."

Research in psychology suggests that belief in supernatural acts as corporate glue and motivates people to follow the rules; In addition, belief in the afterlife helps people to suffer sadness and ward off the fears of death.

"We were not designed at the level of theoretical physics," Daniel Kruger, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan, told Live Science last year. What matters to most people is what happens on the human scale, relationships with other people, things we experience all our lives. "