The following brief essay first appeared as a chapter in the book, God for
the 21st Century, edited by Russell Stannard and published by the Templeton
Foundation Press in 2000.
WHY DOES THE UNIVERSE WORK?
by Howard J. Van Till
Can the "stuff" of the universe do everything that science expects of it?
The world of whirling particles can do a lot, but does it have the abilities
needed for transforming raw energy into atoms, and atoms into elephants, and
us?
As scientists, we think it does. But, also as scientists, we haven't a clue
as to why that should be the case. Why should the universe work well enough
to make the processes of evolution possible? We have no scientific answer.
Science is silent here.
Some people I know take this silence as evidence that divine intrusion was
needed. The "God of special effects" often gets plugged in wherever there
are gaps in today's scientific knowledge. Gaps in what we know are treated
as if they were gaps in what the universe can do. Some people say, for
instance, that God had to intervene from time to time to start new forms of
life.
But what if such interventions are not necessary? That would raise an even
more interesting question, wouldn't it? How did the universe come to possess
the abilities for organizing atoms into elephants? Science crafts clever
theories about how things get formed, but why is the stuff of the universe
able to arrange itself into these forms?
Why, for instance, should protons and neutrons be able to combine into the
nuclei of a hundred different chemical elements? And why should the atoms of
these elements be inclined to gather into moleculesÑfrom simple molecules
like carbon dioxide to complex coils of DNA molecules essential for life? It
would be so easy to imagine a universe with elementary constituents that did
not have these gifts for forming things.
Questions of this sort are seldom asked in a typical science course. Having
taught physics for many years, I know the usual routine. We tell students
about the basic forces of interaction. We write down the "laws of physics"
that provide us with a cause-and-effect story for what happens when things
interact. That should settle it, right?
Perhaps. But it depends on what needs to be settled. If the question were
simply, What happens when things interact? then the standard textbook
approach would be adequate. But I want to ask a more profound question. I
want to know why there are such things as interaction forces in the first
place, and why things are gifted with the ability to respond to these forces
in the particular ways that we observe.
In short, why does the universe work? Where do the universe's "natural"
abilities come from? What is the ultimate source of the properties and
interactions that we take for granted as ordinary? What we call "ordinary"
turns out to be truly awesome when you think about it. I want to know where
the universe gets its awesome character.
Science has no answers to questions like this. We scientists do a bang-up
job of figuring out how things work. We've learned how to connect what
happens to what abilities are being exercised. But when we ask why the
universe should possess these particular abilities, we are forced to think
about the ultimate Source of the universe's being. We must ask why there is
something rather than nothing. And why is the something that exists (this
universe) so well equipped with the abilitiesÑthe giftsÑfor organizing into
new forms?
Ask a dozen people this question. See how differently they respond. Some
will be content with glib appeals to chance, or luck. Others will assert
that the question has no answer and will suggest that you move on to more
practical issues. Most would rather know the closing figures of the stock
market.
But some of us still wonder at the giftedness of the universe. Is a facile
appeal to happenstance enough? Or could it be that the universe is a
creation? Could it be that the universe has been gifted by its Creator with
all of the abilities needed to bring about new forms in time?
Suppose that the universe really is a creation. Then everything that the
universe is and is able to do would have to be seen as a "gift of being"
from the Creator. Furthermore, the more gifted the universe is, the more it
owes to the creativity and generosity of the Creator. This sort of Creator
cannot be confined to gaps carved by human ignorance.
There was a time when there were no living creatures of any sort on our
planet. Oh, there may have been globs of biologically interesting molecules
around, but they were not yet organized into living systems. But now there
are lots of living things walking, swimming, crawling and flying around. How
did that astounding change come about?
If our scientific hunches are on the right trackÑand I do think they
areÑsome of those interesting molecules had the abilities to self-organize
into primitive forms of life. And those primitive organisms must also have
had the gifts for diversifying into a vast array of novel forms in time.
Do these awesome gifts come spontaneously from nothing? I doubt it. Perhaps
the awesome nature of the universe is best seen as evidence for a Mind more
creative than we could imagine. Perhaps the giftedness of the universe is
best seen as evidence for a Giver of being more generous than we humans
could ever envision.
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