In his best-selling book, "A Brief History of Time", Stephen Hawking
(perhaps the world's most famous cosmologist) refers to the phenomenon as "remarkable."
"The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers (i.e. the constants of physics) seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life". "For example," Hawking writes, "if the electric charge of the electron had been only slightly different, stars would have been unable to burn hydrogen and helium, or else they would not have exploded. It seems clear that there are relatively few ranges of values for the numbers (for the constants) that would allow for development of any form of intelligent life. Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty."
Hawking then goes on to say that he can appreciate taking this as possible evidence of "a divine purpose in Creation and the choice of the laws of science (by God)" (ibid. p. 125).
Dr. Gerald Schroeder, was formerly with the M.I.T. physics department. He
adds the following examples:
>>
>> 1) Professor Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in high
>> energy physics
>> (a field of science that deals with the very early
>> universe), writing
>> in the journal "Scientific American", reflects on
>>how surprising it is that the laws of nature and the
>> initial conditions of the universe should allow for the existence
>> of beings who could observe it. Life as we know it would be
>> impossible if any one of several physical quantities had slightly different values.
>>
>> Although Weinberg is a self-described agnostic, he cannot
>> but be
>> astounded by the extent of the fine-tuning. He goes on to
>> describe how
>> a beryllium isotope having the minuscule half life of
>> 0.0000000000000001 seconds must find and absorb a helium
>> nucleus in
>> that split of time before decaying. This occurs only
>> because of a
>> totally unexpected, exquisitely precise, energy match
>> between the two
>> nuclei. If this did not occur there would be none of the
>> heavier
>> elements. No carbon, no nitrogen, no life. Our universe
>> would be
>> composed of hydrogen and helium. But this is not the end of
>> Professor
>> Weinberg's wonder at our well-tuned universe. He
>> continues:
>>
>> One constant does seem to require an incredible
>> fine-tuning -- The
>> existence of life of any kind seems to require a
>> cancellation between
>> different contributions to the vacuum energy, accurate to
>> about 120
>> decimal places.
>>
>> This means that if the energies of the Big Bang were, in
>> arbitrary units, not:
>>
>>
>> 000000000000000000000000000000
>> 000000000000000000,
>>
>> but instead:
>>
>> 000000000000000000000000000000
>> 000000000000000001,
>>
>> there would be no life of any sort in the entire universe
>> because as
>> Weinberg states:
>>
>> the universe either would go through a complete cycle of
>> expansion
>> and contraction before life could arise, or would expand so
>> rapidly
>> that no galaxies or stars could form.
>>
>> 2) Michael Turner, the widely quoted astrophysicist at the
>> University
>> of Chicago and Fermilab, describes the fine-tuning of the
>> universe
>> with a simile:
>>
>> The precision is as if one could throw a dart across the
>> entire
>> universe and hit a bulls eye one millimeter in diameter on
>> the other
>> side.
>>
>> 3) Roger Penrose, the Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics
>> at the
>> University of Oxford, discovers that the likelihood of the
>> universe
>> having usable energy (low entropy) at the creation is even
>> more
>> astounding,
>>
>> namely, an accuracy of one part out of ten to the power of
>> ten to the
>> power of 123. This is an extraordinary figure. One could
>> not possibly
>> even write the number down in full, in our ordinary denary
>> (power of
>> ten) notation: it would be one followed by ten to the power
>> of 123
>> successive zeros! (That is a million billion billion
>> billion billion
>> billion billion billion billion billion billion billion
>> billion
>> billion zeros.)
>>
>> Penrose continues,
>>
>> Even if we were to write a zero on each separate proton
>> and on each
>> separate neutron in the entire universe -- and we could
>> throw in all
>> the other particles as well for good measure -- we should
>> fall far
>> short of writing down the figure needed. The precision
>> needed to set
>> the universe on its course is to be in no way inferior to
>> all that
>> extraordinary precision that we have already become
>> accustomed to in
>> the superb dynamical equations (Newton's,
>> Maxwell's, Einstein's) which
>> govern the behavior of things from moment to moment.
>>
>> Cosmologists debate whether the space-time continuum is
>> finite or
>> infinite, bounded or unbounded. In all scenarios, the
>> fine-tuning
>> remains the same.
>>
>> It is appropriate to complete this section on "fine
>> tuning" with the
>> eloquent words of Professor John Wheeler:
>>
>> To my mind, there must be at the bottom of it all, not an
>> utterly simple equation, but an utterly simple IDEA. And to me that
>> idea, when we finally discover it, will be so compelling, and so
>> inevitable, so beautiful, we will all say to each other, "How could
>> it have ever been otherwise?"
-Perhaps this "beautiful Idea" Prof. Wheeler wonders about, is G-d's Divine Idea. Chassidic thought explains, that when G-d Created the world, His sole Desire and plan was that we would ultimately make a home for Him on this very earth, by transforming the physical into the spiritual. How? Through fulfilling His Divine Will by performing Mitzvot (for ex., when a man wraps physical 'Tefillin' at the behest of G-d, or a woman lights physical candles to honor Shabbat), he and she are transforming this physical world into 1 big Mitzvah, i.e. a home for Hashem, thereby bringing closer the unity of heaven and earth.
Now let's do our best to do one more good deed and learn a bit more Torah, to bring this Intention of G-d's into its ultimate reality, with the coming of our Righteous Mashiach! May it be speedily in our days, before you even sign out of your e-mail account!
~Shabbat Shalom!~
-Daniel
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