Conclusion

We find ourselves in a bewildering world. We want to make sense of what we see around us and to ask: What
is the nature of the universe? What is our place in it and where did it and we come from? Why is it the way it is?
To try to answer these questions we adopt some “world picture.” Just as an infinite tower of tortoises supporting
the fiat earth is such a picture, so is the theory of superstrings. Both are theories of the universe, though the
latter is much more mathematical and precise than the former. Both theories lack observational evidence: no
one has ever seen a giant tortoise with the earth on its back, but then, no one has seen a superstring either.
However, the tortoise theory fails to be a good scientific theory because it predicts that people should be able to
fall off the edge of the world. This has not been found to agree with experience, unless that turns out to be the
explanation for the people who are supposed to have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle!
The earliest theoretical attempts to describe and explain the universe involved the idea that events and natural
phenomena were controlled by spirits with human emotions who acted in a very humanlike and unpredictable
manner. These spirits inhabited natural objects, like rivers and mountains, including celestial bodies, like the
sun and moon. They had to be placated and their favor sought in order to ensure the fertility of the soil and the
rotation of the seasons. Gradually, however, it must have been noticed that there were certain regularities: the
sun always rose in the east and set in the west, whether or not a sacrifice had been made to the sun god.
Further, the sun, the moon, and the planets followed precise paths across the sky that could be predicted in
advance with considerable accuracy. The sun and the moon might still be gods, but they were gods who
obeyed strict laws, apparently without any exceptions, if one discounts stories like that of the sun stopping for
Joshua.
At first, these regularities and laws were obvious only in astronomy and a few other situations. However, as
civilization developed, and particularly in the last 300 years, more and more regularities and laws were
discovered. The success of these laws led Laplace at the beginning of the nineteenth century to postulate
scientific determinism; that is, he suggested that there would be a set of laws that would determine the
evolution of the universe precisely, given its configuration at one time.
Laplace’s determinism was incomplete in two ways. It did not say how the laws should be chosen and it did not
specify the initial configuration of the universe. These were left to God. God would choose how the universe
began and what laws it obeyed, but he would not intervene in the universe once it had started. In effect, God
was confined to the areas that nineteenth-century science did not understand.
We now know that Laplace’s hopes of determinism cannot be realized, at least in the terms he had in mind.
The uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics implies that certain pairs of quantities, such as the position and
velocity of a particle, cannot both be predicted with complete accuracy. Quantum mechanics deals with this
situation via a class of quantum theories in which particles don’t have well-defined positions and velocities but
are represented by a wave. These quantum theories are deterministic in the sense that they give laws for the
evolution of the wave with time. Thus if one knows the wave at one time, one can calculate it at any other time.
The unpredictable, random element comes in only when we try to interpret the wave in terms of the positions
and velocities of particles. But maybe that is our mistake: maybe there are no particle positions and velocities,
but only waves. It is just that we try to fit the waves to our preconceived ideas of positions and velocities. The
resulting mismatch is the cause of the apparent unpredictability.
In effect, we have redefined the task of science to be the discovery of laws that will enable us to predict events
up to the limits set by the uncertainty principle. The question remains, however: how or why were the laws and
the initial state of the universe chosen?
In this book I have given special prominence to the laws that govern gravity, because it is gravity that shapes
the large-scale structure of the universe, even though it is the weakest of the four categories of forces. The
laws of gravity were incompatible with the view held until quite recently that the universe is unchanging in time:
the fact that gravity is always attractive implies that the universe must be either expanding or contracting.
According to the general theory of relativity, there must have been a state of infinite density in the past, the big
bang, which would have been an effective beginning of time. Similarly, if the whole universe recollapsed, there
must be another state of infinite density in the future, the big crunch, which would be an end of time. Even if the
whole universe did not recollapse, there would be singularities in any localized regions that collapsed to form
black holes. These singularities would be an end of time for anyone who fell into the black hole. At the big bang
and other singularities, all the laws would have broken down, so God would still have had complete freedom to
choose what happened and how the universe began.
When we combine quantum mechanics with general relativity, there seems to be a new possibility that did not
arise before: that space and time together might form a finite, four-dimensional space without singularities or
boundaries, like the surface of the earth but with more dimensions. It seems that this idea could explain many
of the observed features of the universe, such as its large-scale uniformity and also the smaller-scale
departures from homogeneity, like galaxies, stars, and even human beings. It could even account for the arrow
of time that we observe. But if the universe is completely self-contained, with no singularities or boundaries,
and completely described by a unified theory, that has profound implications for the role of God as Creator.
Einstein once asked the question: “How much choice did God have in constructing the universe?” If the no
boundary proposal is correct, he had no freedom at all to choose initial conditions. He would, of course, still
have had the freedom to choose the laws that the universe obeyed. This, however, may not really have been all
that much of a choice; there may well be only one, or a small number, of complete unified theories, such as the
heterotic string theory, that are self-consistent and allow the existence of structures as complicated as human
beings who can investigate the laws of the universe and ask about the nature of God.
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes
fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of
constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the
model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? Is the unified theory so compelling
that it brings about its own existence? Or does it need a creator, and, if so, does he have any other effect on
the universe? And who created him?
Up to now, most scientists have been too occupied with the development of new theories that describe what
the universe is to ask the question why. On the other hand, the people whose business it is to ask why, the
philosophers, have not been able to keep up with the advance of scientific theories. In the eighteenth century,
philosophers considered the whole of human knowledge, including science, to be their field and discussed
questions such as: did the universe have a beginning? However, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
science became too technical and mathematical for the philosophers, or anyone else except a few specialists.
Philosophers reduced the scope of their inquiries so much that Wittgenstein, the most famous philosopher of
this century, said, “The sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of language.” What a comedown from
the great tradition of philosophy from Aristotle to Kant!
However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by
everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able
to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to
that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we would know the mind of God.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
Einstein’s connection with the politics of the nuclear bomb is well known: he signed the famous letter to
President Franklin Roosevelt that persuaded the United States to take the idea seriously, and he engaged in
postwar efforts to prevent nuclear war. But these were not just the isolated actions of a scientist dragged into
the world of politics. Einstein’s life was, in fact, to use his own words, “divided between politics and equations.”
Einstein’s earliest political activity came during the First World War, when he was a professor in Berlin.
Sickened by what he saw as the waste of human lives, he became involved in antiwar demonstrations. His
advocacy of civil disobedience and public encouragement of people to refuse conscription did little to endear
him to his colleagues. Then, following the war, he directed his efforts toward reconciliation and improving
international relations. This too did not make him popular, and soon his politics were making it difficult for him to
visit the United States, even to give lectures.
Einstein’s second great cause was Zionism. Although he was Jewish by descent, Einstein rejected the biblical
idea of God. However, a growing awareness of anti-Semitism, both before and during the First World War, led
him gradually to identify with the Jewish community, and later to become an outspoken supporter of Zionism.
Once more unpopularity did not stop him from speaking his mind. His theories came under attack; an
anti-Einstein organization was even set up. One man was convicted of inciting others to murder Einstein (and
fined a mere six dollars). But Einstein was phlegmatic. When a book was published entitled 100 Authors
Against Einstein, he retorted, “If I were wrong, then one would have been enough!”
In 1933, Hitler came to power. Einstein was in America, and declared he would not return to Germany. Then,
while Nazi militia raided his house and confiscated his bank account, a Berlin newspaper displayed the
headline “Good News from Einstein – He’s Not Coming Back.” In the face of the Nazi threat, Einstein
renounced pacifism, and eventually, fearing that German scientists would build a nuclear bomb, proposed that
the United States should develop its own. But even before the first atomic bomb had been detonated, he was
publicly warning of the dangers of nuclear war and proposing international control of nuclear weaponry.
Throughout his life, Einstein’s efforts toward peace probably achieved little that would last – and certainly won
him few friends. His vocal support of the Zionist cause, however, was duly recognized in 1952, when he was
offered the presidency of Israel. He declined, saying he thought he was too naive in politics. But perhaps his
real reason was different: to quote him again, “Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the
present, but an equation is something for eternity.”
GALILEO GALILEI
Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science. His
renowned conflict with the Catholic Church was central to his philosophy, for Galileo was one of the first to
argue that man could hope to understand how the world works, and, moreover, that we could do this by
observing the real world.
Galileo had believed Copernican theory (that the planets orbited the sun) since early on, but it was only when
he found the evidence needed to support the idea that he started to publicly support it. He wrote about
Copernicus’s theory in Italian (not the usual academic Latin), and soon his views became widely supported
outside the universities. This annoyed the Aristotelian professors, who united against him seeking to persuade
the Catholic Church to ban Copernicanism.
Galileo, worried by this, traveled to Rome to speak to the ecclesiastical authorities. He argued that the Bible
was not intended to tell us anything about scientific theories, and that it was usual to assume that, where the
Bible conflicted with common sense, it was being allegorical. But the Church was afraid of a scandal that might
undermine its fight against Protestantism, and so took repressive measures. It declared Copernicanism “false
and erroneous” in 1616, and commanded Galileo never again to “defend or hold” the doctrine. Galileo
acquiesced.
In 1623, a longtime friend of Galileo’s became the Pope. Immediately Galileo tried to get the 1616 decree
revoked. He failed, but he did manage to get permission to write a book discussing both Aristotelian and
Copernican theories, on two conditions: he would not take sides and would come to the conclusion that man
could in any case not determine how the world worked because God could bring about the same effects in
ways unimagined by man, who could not place restrictions on God’s omnipotence.
The book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was completed and published in 1632, with the
full backing of the censors – and was immediately greeted throughout Europe as a literary and philosophical
masterpiece. Soon the Pope, realizing that people were seeing the book as a convincing argument in favor of
Copernicanism, regretted having allowed its publication. The Pope argued that although the book had the
official blessing of the censors, Galileo had nevertheless contravened the 1616 decree. He brought Galileo
before the Inquisition, who sentenced him to house arrest for life and commanded him to publicly renounce
Copernicanism. For a second time, Galileo acquiesced.
Galileo remained a faithful Catholic, but his belief in the independence of science had not been crushed. Four
years before his death in 1642, while he was still under house arrest, the manuscript of his second major book
was smuggled to a publisher in Holland. It was this work, referred to as Two New Sciences, even more than his
support for Copernicus, that was to be the genesis of modern physics.
ISAAC NEWTON
Isaac Newton was not a pleasant man. His relations with other academics were notorious, with most of his later
life spent embroiled in heated disputes. Following publication of Principia Mathematica – surely the most
influential book ever written in physics – Newton had risen rapidly into public prominence. He was appointed
president of the Royal Society and became the first scientist ever to be knighted.
Newton soon clashed with the Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, who had earlier provided Newton with
much-needed data for Principia, but was now withholding information that Newton wanted. Newton would not
take no for an answer: he had himself appointed to the governing body of the Royal Observatory and then tried
to force immediate publication of the data. Eventually he arranged for Flamsteed’s work to be seized and
prepared for publication by Flamsteed’s mortal enemy, Edmond Halley. But Flamsteed took the case to court
and, in the nick of time, won a court order preventing distribution of the stolen work. Newton was incensed and
sought his revenge by systematically deleting all references to Flamsteed in later editions of Principia.
A more serious dispute arose with the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. Both Leibniz and Newton had
independently developed a branch of mathematics called calculus, which underlies most of modern physics.
Although we now know that Newton discovered calculus years before Leibniz, he published his work much
later. A major row ensued over who had been first, with scientists vigorously defending both contenders. It is
remarkable, however, that most of the articles appearing in defense of Newton were originally written by his
own hand – and only published in the name of friends! As the row grew, Leibniz made the mistake of appealing
to the Royal Society to resolve the dispute. Newton, as president, appointed an “impartial” committee to
investigate, coincidentally consisting entirely of Newton’s friends! But that was not all: Newton then wrote the
committee’s report himself and had the Royal Society publish it, officially accusing Leibniz of plagiarism. Still
unsatisfied, he then wrote an anonymous review of the report in the Royal Society’s own periodical. Following
the death of Leibniz, Newton is reported to have declared that he had taken great satisfaction in “breaking
Leibniz’s heart.”
During the period of these two disputes, Newton had already left Cambridge and academe. He had been active
in anti-Catholic politics at Cambridge, and later in Parliament, and was rewarded eventually with the lucrative
post of Warden of the Royal Mint. Here he used his talents for deviousness and vitriol in a more socially
acceptable way, successfully conducting a major campaign against counterfeiting, even sending several men to
their death on the gallows.