From: John W Burgeson (jwburgeson@juno.com)
Date: Fri Aug 01 2003 - 09:46:19 EDT
here is a MetaNexus post on the subject. I thought it was illuminating.
John Burgeson (Burgy)
www.burgy.50megs.com
Metanexus Views. 2003.07.30. 920 Words.
Below is an essay entitled "Which universe do you live in?" by William
Grassie, the executive director of Metanexus Institute. In the essay,
Grassie examines the reasons why cosmologists are attracted to multiverse
theory and why this may be the 21st century equivalent to debating how
many
angels fit on the head of a pin. Comments are invited.
William "Billy" Grassie is founder and executive director of the
Metanexus
Institute on Religion and Science <http://www.metanexus.net>. Grassie
also
serves as executive editor of the Instituteıs online magazine and
discussion
forum with over 60,000 weekly page views and over 6000 regular
subscribers
in 57 different countries. He has taught in a variety of positions at
Temple
University, Swarthmore College, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Grassie
received his doctorate in religion from Temple University in 1994 and his
BA
from Middlebury College in 1979. Prior to graduate school, Grassie
worked
for ten years in religiously-based social service and advocacy
organizations
in Washington, D.C; Jerusalem, Israel; Berlin, Germany; and Philadelphia,
PA. He is the recipient of a number of academic awards and grants from
the
American Friends Service Committee, the Roothbert Fellowship, and the
John
Templeton Foundation. He is a member of the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers).
-- Editor
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Which universe do you live in?
By William Grassie
The success of modern cosmology in understanding the history and
structure
of the universe has led to a profound crisis in the field, which has
significance for the dialogue between science and religion. The
topography
of the universe discovered by astronomers, physicists, and cosmologists
is
extraordinary. Our sun, at a distance of 93 million miles, is but a
small
star in a vast galaxy of some 100 billion stars. This galaxy is but one
of
a hundred billion other galaxies stretching back some 13 billion years at
the speed of light into an infinitely dense and infinitely hot
originating
mystery. One thing this new cosmology teaches us is that whatever
humanity
in the past has believed about God is way too small. Most cosmologists,
astronomers, and physicists, however, are not interested in doing
God-talk;
but those of us who do talk-the-talk should certainly be paying attention
to
the current cosmos conversation.
The situation is such. Imagine that you walk into a classroom and notice
that there is a pencil standing on its point on the table. In all those
years in elementary school, no matter how hard you tried, you could not
make
a pencil stand up on its point. But here one day in graduate school, you
walked into an empty classroom and there is this pencil standing on its
point. So you call in the physics department to help study this strange
occurrence.
One possibility is that there is some strange, invisible force that
causes
this pencil to stand on its point. Gravity aside, physicists are averse
to
postulating strange, invisible forces, so perhaps this strange pencil is
just a weird fluky event, however improbable. Physicists, however, donıt
tend to go for weird fluky improbabilities.
Such is the case in contemporary cosmology in what is referred to as the
fine-tuning problem. There are a dozen such fine-tuning issues that
confound cosmologists. The expansion rate of the universe, the ratio of
matter to antimatter, the specific values of the weak and strong nuclear
forces, the mass ratios between electrons, protons, and neutrons, the
list
goes on. If any of these variables were ever so slightly different, then
none of the complexity we see around or inside us would be possible. In
other words, life and consciousness could not have evolved. Where
biologists see random drift and natural selection in the messy story of
life, physicists see elegant improbabilities in the ordered and
intelligible
nature of the cosmos.
Some extend the weird role of the observer in fixing the uncertainty in
quantum events to apply to the universe as a whole. Perhaps the universe
as
a whole is a kind of quantum event, which requires an observer with
something like human consciousness to observe it. The distinguished
physicist Freeman Dyson reflects ³The more I examine the universe and
study
the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the
universe
in some sense must have known we were coming². This interpretation is
referred to as the anthropic principle. It comes in weak and strong
flavors. This interpretation implies a kind of future necessity of our
just-so universe, such that present day consciousness determines past
actualities. Physicists, however, are also averse to invisible
necessities
in which future possibilities determine past realities.
At this point, the normal graduate student trying to figure out why the
pencil is standing on its point would probably be happy to reconsider the
possibility of an invisible force. Our team of physicists and
cosmologists
are very clever with mathematics which allow them not only to discover
realities, but also imagine possibilities which may not be real at all.
Such is the case with multiverse theory, the big new fad in contemporary
cosmology. The theory goes something like this: we just happen to live
in a
universe in which the pencil stands on point. There are an infinite
number
of parallel universes, in which the pencil realizes every other potential
state by falling down. While there are sophisticated mathematical models
that might predict the existence of multiple universes, as there have
long
been for multiple dimensions, it is not clear that we could ever have
empirical knowledge of these other universes.
Far be I, uninitiated and dimly lit, to weigh in on these complex
cosmological considerations. I do not understand the math or the
physics.
³Since our theories are so far ahead of experimental capabilities, we are
forced to use mathematics as our eyes,² notes Brian Greene, a Columbia
University string theorist and author of a popular text, The Elegant
Universe. Greene continues ³Thatıs why we follow it [mathematics] where
it
takes us even if we canıt see where weıre going.²
In the past, mathematics has brought us to many stunning new insights
about
the universe. There may be compelling reasons to suppose our universe
really is one piece of a vast multiverse (in which case, the theists will
need to infinitely revise the scale of Godıs exuberant creativity ). On
the
other hand, multiverse theory may be the 21st century equivalent of
counting
how many angels will fit on the head of a pin. In the latter case, all
of
these sophisticated mathematical contortions are merely a way of avoiding
postulating an invisible, intelligent, and conscious force underlying the
fine-tuned structures of the universe.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This publication is hosted by Metanexus Online
<http://www.metanexus.net>.
The views expressed here do notnecessarily reflect those of Metanexus or
its sponsors. To comment on this message, go to the browser-based forum
at the bottom of all postings in the magazine section of our web site.
Metanexus welcomes submissions between 1000 to 3000 words of essays
and book reviews that seek to explore and interpret science and religion
in
original and insightful ways for a general educated audience. Previous
columns give a good indication of the topical range and tone for
acceptable
essays. Please send all inquiries and submissions to
<editor@metanexus.net>.
Copyright notice: Columns may be forwarded, quoted, or republished in
full
with attribution to the author of the column and "Metanexus: The Online
Forum
on Religion and Science <http://www.metanexus.net>". Republication for
commercial purposes in print or electronic format requires the permission
of the author. Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 by William
Grassie.
________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Aug 01 2003 - 09:56:36 EDT