Fr Philip Miller has an article about Faith and Science in this month’s edition of the Pastoral Review, going over some of the basic history, theology and scientific theory.
In the section on cosmology he writes about the anthropic principle: the way the universe is tuned in such a precise way as to allow the possibility of human life. I’m not sure about this. I’m not saying it’s untrue, I just haven’t done enough to think through whether I find the argument convincing or not.
What speaks to me more is the simple argument from order: that an ordered universe requires some transcendent foundation for its own order (i.e., outside space and time); and that scientific explanation presupposes that the universe can, at least in theory, be explained, and it therefore assumes that the ultimate explanation for the universe has a foundation which is outside the universe itself (at the metaphysical level – that the universe cannot contain the foundation of its own laws; and at the epistemological level – that science cannot justify the foundations of its own scientific principles).
This is how Fr Philip puts it:
The fundamental question remains, for a multiverse just as for a single universe: what is the underlying, unifying cause? The answer is that there must be a necessary being, that is, some sort of ‘God.’ Universes, being complex, law-governed entities, are not simple, and so cannot be metaphysically necessary (since ‘something’ must cause/explain the underlying unity of the complex whole).
Some of Professor Stephen Hawking’s work has been on the nature of the Big Bang, the proposed initial moment of the universe. Some of his more recent hypotheses have been to provide solutions to the complex physics of the early universe that avoid any suggestion that the Big Bang is, in effect, a creation ex nihilo. Hawking’s collaborator, physicist Neil Turok, developed the idea of the ‘instanton’ model of the Big Bang, which has, in simple terms, ‘no beginning.’ And yet, it is highly instructive to note Turok’s own words about their modelling of the universe’s initial expansion phase, termed ‘inflation’:
“Think of inflation as being the dynamite that produced the Big Bang. Our instanton is a sort of self-lighting fuse that ignites inflation. To have our ‘instanton’ you have to have gravity, matter, space and time. Take any one ingredient away and the ‘instanton’ doesn’t exist. But if you have an ‘instanton’ it will instantly turn into an inflating infinite universe.” [Turok, N., commenting online on his own work]
In other words, even in their attempt to define a universe with no beginning, they still have to assume that there is a pre-existing framework of physical laws just sitting there, which the material universe must obey. The universe clearly doesn’t invent its own laws: it requires a law-giver, and that law-giver has to be outside the universe of matter, space and time; it must be spirit, God Himself.
Which raises the child’s question, ‘But who made God?’ To which the answer is: God is not the kind of thing that needs to be made. Or, to put it in the positive: God is precisely that one ‘thing’ that is not made by another thing; God is eternal (outside time), spirit (outside space and matter), simple (outside the complexity of secondary explanations), and necessary (outside the chain of secondary causes).
What do you think?
Fr Robert Spitzer has addressed these issues in a very accessible way.
http://www.magisreasonfaith.org/
‘Who made God?’
We see the ultimate reflection of God in Love. Who made/makes Love?.
No one made/ makes love. IT ‘Just’ Is. Instant, undeniable, beginningless and endless but absolutely present. And when we are absolutely present too, it is pure and clear and tangible and absolute, and of spirit and being and Heaven and Earth, simultaneously.
When you know Love in truth and in Spirit, you know that noone makes it. it is Before and Beyond everything and forever will be.
Thank you for your own reflections, Fr Stephen!
Galatians 5:22. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” 0-:O)
“Or, to put it in the positive:……”
I prefer your way of stressing the positive, Fr Stephen. This is certainly a post that has woken me upand started me thinking on my day off!
I think it’s so important to think a lot about Christianity in the context of science:
– reminds us of the absolute genius of God in creating a universe so big, complex and beautiful (scientifically not just aesthetically)
– reminds us that Heaven (and the heavenly) isn’t just beautiful but that everything makes perfect sense – fits perfectly like mathematics – and yet, paradoxically, there is still mystery as many great scientists see in science, in particular, in quantum physics
– reminds us that just as the universe is so beautifully and perfectly callibrated (in the sense we have relative order as opposed to complete chaos) by God, so He pays even more detailed attention to every single one of us – our “hairs on the head really are counted” even though it sometimes / often doesn’t seem like that due to suffering in our lives
– reminds us of the great humility of God – of Jesus – that Jesus the Creator (as God) would humiliate Himself to become a carpenter, and that the Carpenter would then allow Himself to be placed on something made by carpentry – The Cross.
Reminding us of the great humility, sacrifice and love God will go to save us (please God).
Thinking you understand the ineffable by calling it God, “worshipping” it and giving it a gender (“Him”) doesn’t actually get you any closer to really understanding that which is beyond our understanding.
Better to stick to empirical knowledge and to admit ignorance and incomprehension where this is apposite. Dogma is rigid, convergent, static. Science is dynamic, flexible, logical, divergent.
For a long discussion of the facts relating to the anthropic principle
and cosmic fine tuning, with many links to scientific papers and quotes
from scientists, see my recent blog post
Cosmic Fine-Tuning Visualized
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I’d like to raise a couple of issues. Firstly, it appears there are several spam type comments appearing amongst the comments received; I don’t know what can be done about this. Secondly, I’m sure I am not alone in saying that I really miss the posts you used to do on Bridges and Tangents. I have always found them educative and inspiring. Please consider resuming the blog in its original form.
Thanks for the honest thoughts Simon. I seem to have less time to do the more reflective posts now that I am in my new post at University Chaplaincy. I am enjoying trying to share the thoughts of others through Jericho Tree; and I do want to keep trying to make space for the more personal blog-style posts…
Thanks for your reply Father Stephen. I rather thought that your new duties were taking up a larger part of your time but didn’t want to try to read into it too much and appear presumptuous. Keep up the good work!
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