Is there a god? Maybe, maybe not. But if a god exists, I strongly doubt it is the god of the Christian bible. It would be more like the god that many of America's Founding Fathers believed in two hundred years ago, a prime mover who set the universe in motion.
The universe seems to indicate that there might be a fine tuner, for example if the nuclear forces within atoms were slightly larger it might have led to a universe that couldn't support life. Or, maybe not.
Other computer simulations show that if there were different parameters within the universe, such as the strength of force binding particles within an atomic nucleus, there could still be complex life. So we don't know for sure. Or, there might be a larger multiverse.
Our universe, born from the Big Bang, might be one of trillions or a near or even infinite number of universes. After all, there is nothing in nature that happens only once. There are hundreds of billions of black holes in the universe. The number of stars in the universe is greater than 100,000,000,000,000,000,000.
There are more stars in the universe than grains of sands in all the beaches in the world or words spoken by every human being who ever lived. Something that is natural happens time and time again. Why would we expect there to be only one time ever in the history of anything and everything, just one Big Bang?
Now, I bring this all up for a reason. A religious conservative talk show named Dennis Prager stated that a fine tuned universe proves there must be a god. But again, other scientists state not necessary so, information the host clearly ignored. The host also stated there was no scientific evidence for a multiverse.
Actually, quantum mechanics and string theory point to the possibility of multiverses, but it isn't conclusive at this point. I would not have written this column, with this long drawn out background, if not for the arrogance and condescending attitude of one Dennis Prager. He stated he had zero respect for atheists who don't believe in a god based on science. This is from a man who ignored other scientists who say universes can still exist with different parameters.
I don't know for sure that there isn't a god, some being that set the universe in motion in someway. Being an atheist, contrary to the ignorance of people like this Dennis Prager, does not mean I have some kind of absolute conviction on the subject. I don't know and I also don't know if our universe is part of a larger multiverse. I think the majority of physcists who are atheists would agree with me on this. Being a nonbeliever means you await evidence, not that you are sure of a belief without that evidence, which is what religion does with faith.
Comments