On a lazy autumn
afternoon I’m drawn to reading (re-reading) sections of The Grand Design by
Hawking. In this book, he argues that a God isn’t
required in the creation of the universe. This is of course in contrast with
his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, where Hawking had seemed to accept the
role of God in the creation of the universe. For example, in 1988 he wrote:
"If we discover a complete theory,
it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the
mind of God."
The
Grand Design, contests Newton's belief that the universe must have been
designed by God as it could not have been created out of chaos. Here, Hawking claims,
"Spontaneous creation" is the reason there is something rather than
nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.
And
a number of theories describe how the universe might pop up from nothing,
even when time does not exist. Quantum fluctuations predict the creation and
decay of particles independent of casual factors. QED describes virtual
particles “borrowing” energy from the future.
I guess Hawking is
arguing that where there isn’t a need for a cause; a creator is no longer
required. Space as well as time might then come into existence spontaneously
(given time is another dimension of space according to General Relativity).
For me, to make
sense of emerging model-dependent realties, it is has been a personal, recurrent
difficulty trying to reconcile the use of conceptual definitions or frameworks
authors adapt in subtle but varying ways. The treatment of time for instance,
viz-a-viz Kant’s distinction between microscopic and a macroscopic time scale
as well as notions of cosmologies.
Rüdiger Vaas’ Time before Time - Classifications of
universes in contemporary cosmology, and how to avoid the antinomy
of the
beginning and eternity of the world is a very valuable contribution. Vaas
provides a pictorial (see attached pic) of spacetime diagrams of different
cosmological models that are elegant in their clarity.
Follow link below
for the entire article.
No comments:
Post a Comment