The Case for a Creator (23 page)

“What do you mean?”

“It would really be amazing if this Grand Unified Theory—out of the incredible range of possibilities—managed to force all the fine-tuning dials to where they just happened to create a life-sustaining universe,” he said. “It would be like some predetermined law at the outset of the universe caused everything to fall into place so that when I came to the mountain, I saw a pattern of rocks spelling out
welcome to the mountains robin collins
.”

“So,” I said, “this wouldn’t destroy the argument for intelligent design?”

“Quite the opposite,” he replied. “It would amplify it, because it would show that the designer was even more ingenious than we first thought. As difficult as it would be to fine-tune the universe by adjusting all of the individual dials, it would be even more difficult to create an underlying law of nature that then forced all the dials into those specific positions. All that would do would be to make me even more in awe of the Creator.”

Some skeptics have attacked the fine-tuning argument from another direction, raising what has become known as the Weak Anthropic Principle. According to this idea, if the universe were not fine-tuned for life, then human beings wouldn’t be around to observe it. Consequently, they contend that the fine-tuning requires no explanation.

“You have to admit, there’s a certain intuitive appeal to that,” I said to Collins.

“I think John Leslie had the best answer to that,” he replied. “Suppose you were standing before a firing squad of fifty highly trained marksmen who were all aiming directly at your chest from a short distance away. You heard the order, ‘Ready! Aim! Fire!’ But you didn’t feel anything. You remove your blindfold and see you’re still very much alive. Not one bullet hit you.

“Now, you wouldn’t allow the skeptic to simply dismiss the situation by saying, ‘Oh well, if they had shot you, you wouldn’t be here to comment on the situation.’ No—the circumstances are still surprising and they would still demand an explanation. Did they conspire together to miss you? Was this a mock execution? And the same thing is true for the fine-tuning of the universe. It still demands an explanation. My assessment is that the best explanation is a designer.”

Despite Collins’s confidence, however, a more serious threat to the fine-tuning argument has been raised by some scientists in recent years. Many scientists would say that the so-called “many-universes hypothesis” looms as the most formidable challenge to the conclusion that the universe was crafted with artful precision by a transcendent designer. That, I decided, would be my next line of questioning.

THE METAPHYSICAL ESCAPE HATCH

Spiritual skeptic Martin Rees, who became a professor of astronomy at Cambridge when he was in his thirties and was named Astronomer Royal by Queen Elizabeth in 1995, could not ignore how the cosmic parameters are so incredibly choreographed to create a life-friendly universe. If the six numbers that underlie the fundamental physical properties of the universe were altered “even to the tiniest degree,” he said, “there would be no stars, no complex elements, no life.”
²⁷

Declared Rees: “The expansion speed, the material content of the universe, and the strengths of the basic forces, seem to have been a prerequisite for the emergence of the hospitable cosmic habitat in which we live.”
²⁸

One author nicely encapsulated this example from Rees:

For the universe to exist as it does requires that hydrogen be converted to helium in a precise but comparatively stately manner—specifically, in a way that converts seven one-thousandths of its mass to energy. Lower that value very slightly—from 0.007 percent to 0.006 percent, say—and no transformation could take place: the universe would consist of hydrogen and nothing else. Raise the value very slightly—to 0.008 percent—and bonding would be so wildly prolific that the hydrogen would long since have been exhausted. In either case, with the slightest tweaking of the numbers the universe as we know and need it would not be here.
²⁹

When the other five numbers that represent “the deep forces that shape the universe” are taken into consideration, said Rees, the universe’s structure becomes “unlikely to an absurd degree.”
³⁰

Still, is Rees surprised by the universe’s exquisitely precarious balancing act?
No.
Does he believe the fine-tuning points to a designer?
Not at all.
Why? He answers by using the illustration of a large off-the-rack clothing store.

“If there is a large stack of clothing, you’re not surprised to find a suit that fits,” he said. “If there are many universes, each governed by a different set of numbers, there will be one where there is a particular set of numbers suitable to life. We are in that one.”
³¹

The argument can be summarized this way: “There could have been millions and millions of different universes, each created with different dial settings of the fundamental ratios and constants, so many in fact that the right set was bound to turn up by sheer chance. We just happened to be the lucky ones.”
³²

In other words, if ours is the only universe in existence, then the fine-tuning is powerful—many would say, conclusive—evidence that an intelligence had tinkered with the dials. There seems to be no other reasonable possibility. But that conclusion evaporates if there are many or an infinite number of universes. With enough random dial spinning, the odds are that at least one—our own—would win the cosmic lottery and be a livable habitat.

Rees is not the only skeptic to escape the theistic implications of the finely tuned universe by speculating about the existence of other worlds. In fact, that’s exactly the approach Weinberg took after expressing amazement at the unexpected precariousness of the cosmological constant.
³³

Many physicists subscribe to some sort of multiple universe, or “multiverse,” theory, although others scoff at the idea, charging that it’s little more than a metaphysical escape hatch to avoid the fine-tuning evidence for a designer. Said one writer:

Originally the many-worlds hypothesis was proposed for strictly scientific reasons as a solution to the so-called quantum-measurement problem in physics. Though its efficacy as an explanation within quantum physics remains controversial among physicists, its use there does have an empirical basis. More recently, however, it has been employed to serve as an alternate non-theistic explanation for the fine-tuning of the physical constants. This use of the [hypothesis] does seem to betray a metaphysical desperation.
³⁴

“It’s purely a concept, an idea, without scientific proof,” William Lane Craig, coauthor of
Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology
, told me in an interview. “Look—this is pure metaphysics.
³⁵
There’s no real reason to believe such parallel worlds exist. The very fact that skeptics have to come up with such an outlandish theory is because the fine-tuning of the universe points powerfully toward an intelligent designer—and some people will hypothesize anything to avoid reaching that conclusion.”
³⁶

Similarly, Cambridge’s Polkinghorne, a former professor of mathematical physics, has called the hypothesis “pseudo-science” and “a metaphysical guess.”
³⁷
He put it this way in his book
Science and Theology
: “The many universes account is sometimes presented as if it were purely scientific, but in fact a sufficient portfolio of different universes could only be generated by speculative processes that go well beyond what sober science can honestly endorse.”
³⁸

Davies has concluded that “the many-universes theory can at best explain only a limited range of features, and then only if one appends some metaphysical assumptions that seem no less extravagant than design.”
³⁹
Observed Clifford Longley: “The sight of scientific atheists clutching at such desperate straws has put new spring in the step of theists.”
⁴⁰

Rees conceded the tenuous nature of the multiverse theory in a 2000 interview with a science journalist. Rees admitted the calculations are “highly arbitrary” (though he suggests someday they might not be), and that the theory itself “hangs on assumptions,” remains speculative, and is not amenable to direct investigation. “The other universes are unavailable to us, just as the interior of a black hole is unavailable,” he said. He added that we cannot even know if the universes are finite or infinite in number. Even so, he said the multiverse theory “genuinely lies within the province of science.”
⁴¹

All of this was swirling in my mind as I prepared to question Collins on the possibility that a multi-universe scenario could extinguish the evidence for a designer of our universe. I was genuinely curious: Can the hypothesis provide a reasonable refuge for skeptics who balk at the idea of God? Or would the anthropic argument withstand the challenge?

THE COSMIC HOCKEY PUCK

I have to admit that I was taken aback by Collins’s initial response when I asked him about the viability of the many-universes hypothesis.

“Well,” he said, taking a sip of tea and putting the mug on the table, “most of these hypotheses are entirely speculative and have little basis in physics. They’re not worth considering. However, the most popular theory, inflationary cosmology, has more credibility. I have to say that I’m at least sympathetic to it. I’m trying to keep an open mind.”

Collins was referring to the “self-reproducing inflationary universe” model proposed by André Linde of Stanford University, which is based on advanced principles of quantum physics. This was the theory that Weinberg cited when he tried to explain away the apparent fine-tuning of the cosmological constant. In a stunning example of understatement, one science writer said that Linde’s concept “defies easy visualization.”
⁴²
However, at the risk of too much simplicity, a basic illustration can be used.

Linde postulates a preexisting superspace that is rapidly expanding. A small part of this superspace is blown up by a theoretical
inflaton
field, sort of like soap bubbles forming in an infinite ocean full of dish detergent. Each bubble becomes a new universe. In what’s known as “chaotic inflation theory,” a huge number of such universes are randomly birthed, thanks to quantum fluctuations, along various points of superspace. Thus, each universe has a beginning and is finite in size, while the much larger superspace is infinite in size and endures forever.

I mentioned to Collins that in an earlier interview on cosmology, William Lane Craig had little use for this kind of theory. “Granted, it’s highly speculative,” Collins said. “There are an awful lot of loose ends with it. But since it’s by far the most popular theory today—and I believe it should be taken seriously—let’s not critique it right now. Let’s just make the assumption that it’s true.”

“All right,” I said, nodding. “That’s fine.”

“Now, here’s my overarching point: even if Linde’s theory could account for the existence of many universes, this would not destroy the case for design. It would just kick the issue up another level. In fact, I believe it would point
toward
design.”

That was an interesting twist! “Why do you believe that?” I asked.

“I’ll use an everyday example,” he said. “My wife and I have a bread-making machine. Actually, it’s defunct now, but we used to use it. To make edible bread, we first needed this well-designed machine that had the right circuitry, the right heating element, the right timer, and so forth. Then we had to put in the right ingredients in the right proportions and in the right order—water, milk, flour, shortening, salt, sugar, yeast. The flour had to have the right amount of a protein substance called gluten, or else it would need to be added.
⁴³
Everything has to be just right to produce a loaf of bread—otherwise, you get what looks like a burnt hockey puck.

“Now, let’s face it: a universe is far more complex than a loaf of bread. My point is that if a bread machine requires certain specific parameters to be set in order to create bread, then there has to be a highly designed mechanism or process to produce functional universes. In other words, regardless of which multiple-universe theory you use, in every case you’d need a ‘many-universes generator’—and it would require the right structure, the right mechanism, and the right ingredients to churn out new universes.

“Otherwise,” he said, stifling a chuckle, “you’d end up with a cosmic hockey puck!”

THE MANY-UNIVERSE MACHINE

Collins pushed back his chair and walked over to a chalkboard on the wall. “My students get a kick out of it when I draw a ‘many universes generator,’ ” he said, sketching a whimsical cartoon of a manufacturing machine, complete with a billowing smokestack and a conveyor belt that brought in raw materials and then carried freshly minted universes out the other side.

“This machine,” he said, putting the finishing touches on his artwork, “can only produce life-sustaining universes if it has the right components and mechanisms.”

I leaned back and scrutinized his drawing. “What would you need, say, under Linde’s theory?” I asked.

“First,” Collins said as he strolled back to his chair, “you’d need a mechanism to supply the energy needed for the bubble universes. That would be the inflaton field that he has hypothesized, which effectively acts like a reservoir of unlimited energy. Second, he would need a mechanism to form the bubbles. This would be Einstein’s equation of general relativity. Because of its peculiar form, this would supposedly cause the bubble universes to form and the ocean to keep expanding.