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Jason D. BrowningOctober 2014An analysis of the book “A Universe from Nothing” by Lawrence M. Krauss
In August 2008 I joined the faculty atArizona State University asFoundation Professor in the Schoolof Earth and Space Exploration andthe Department of Physics in theCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciences,and Director of the University'sOrigins Initiative.October 2014NJBibleScience.org2
“It can be truly said that we all are here today because ofquantum fluctuations in what is essentially nothing.” “under the right conditions, not only can nothing becomesomething, it is required to.” “I think it is extremely significant that a universe from nothing that arises naturally, and even inevitably, is increasinglyconsistent with everything we have learned about the world.”October 2014NJBibleScience.org3
“I wouldn’t want to live in a universe with a God.” “I would find little purpose living in a world ruled by somedivine Saddam Hussein-like character who not only makesall the rules, but punishes those who disobey them witheternal damnation.” “In this sense, science does not make it impossible tobelieve in God, but rather makes it possible to not believe inGod.”October 2014NJBibleScience.org4
Ideas have consequences.But well-articulated and widelydistributed ideas fromauthority figures can have alarge influence with largeconsequences!October 2014NJBibleScience.org5
“If On the Origin of Species was biology’s deadliest blowto supernaturalism, we may come to see A Universefrom Nothing as the equivalent from cosmology.”-- Richard Dawkins, in the Afterword of the book(Cosmology: the study of the origin and general structure of the universe)October 2014NJBibleScience.org6
“those who require the existence of something for whichthere is no observable evidence whatsoever (like divineintelligence) to reconcile their view of creation with their apriori prejudices”Some of the Top Evidences for God:InformationFormation of First LifeDesign and Beauty of Living ThingsSecond Law of ThermodynamicsIrreducible ComplexityFine-tuning of PhysicsFine-tuning of Earth for LifeHuman Reasoning and LogicSexual ReproductionOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org7
“You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’texploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen,oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life- weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created inthe nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to getinto your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode.So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be heretoday.”October 2014NJBibleScience.org8
Purpose is the most fundamental differentiatorSecular“'Why' implicitly suggests purpose, and when we try to understand thesolar system in scientific terms, we do not generally ascribe purpose to it.”-- KraussBiblicalFor this is what the LORD says— he who created the heavens, he is God; hewho fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it tobe empty, but formed it to be inhabited-- Isaiah 45:18October 2014NJBibleScience.org9
SecularBiblicalOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org10
SecularBiblicalOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org11
Review of some relevant concepts?Big BangCosmic EvolutionAbiogenesis (non-life to life)Biological EvolutionOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org12
Formation of 24/the-pleasures-of-model-driftOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org13
http://snap.lbl.gov/science/darkenergy.phpOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org14
Space and time begin with the Big BangIt is not really an explosion, it is an expansionIt is not an expansion into pre-existing space,space is being created with the expansionIt is an expansion in a “fourth dimension” The expansion has no center The universe is homogeneous (the same inevery direction) There is no special place in the universeOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org15
Buttons on a balloonprovide a 2D objectsexpanding in 3D analogy –here 3D galaxies areexpanding into a 4D ober 2014NJBibleScience.org16
StarsOrganized into galaxiesForm clustersForm filaments and superclustersSeparated by immense voidsCreating a “cosmic web”October 2014NJBibleScience.org17
Sloan Great Wall – 11,243 galaxiesCfA2 Great Wall – 1,732 /Pil/GalaxyStructuresOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org18
The horizon problem The temperature of the CMB (Cosmic MicrowaveBackground) radiation is essentially the same in alldirections (without inflation there has not been enoughtime for thermal equilibrium to be reached) The flatness problem The expansion rate of the universe is very finely balancedwith gravity (without inflation this is a fantasticcoincidence as the accidental byproduct of a Big Bang)October 2014NJBibleScience.org19
Big Bang expansionAABA & B have differentrandom temperaturesOctober 2014Maximum distance lightcould have travelled sinceNJBibleScience.orgBA & B became far apart due to expansion.Not enough time for lightto travel between A & Band establish equilibrium temperature20
Three possible physical geometries for the universeDensity greater than thepositive curvaturecritical densityclosed universeDensity equal to thecritical densityflatcritical universeDensity less than thecritical densitynegative curvatureopen universeWe appear to live in a “flat” universeOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org21
http://crab0.astr.nthu.edu.tw/ hchang/ga2/f2804-geometry.JPGOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org22
MeasuredMeasurement of thecosmic backgroundradiation indicates aflat ithabang/files/2012/07/model maps-600x590.jpgOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org23
Dark matter: needed toaccount for gravitationalforces within and betweengalaxies Dark energy: needed toaccount for the acceleratingexpansion of the universe Nobody knows what they really matteranddarkenergyOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org24
Sir Fred Hoyle put it succinctly when hereferred to the Big Bang model as a “dull-as-ditchwater expansion which degradesitself adiabatically [without loss or gain of heat]until it is incapable of doing anything at all. Thenotion that galaxies form, to be followed by anactive astronomical history, is an illusion. Nothingforms; the thing is dead as a doornail”Hoyle, Fred (1981), “The Big Bang in Astronomy,” New Scientist,92:521-527, November 19October 2014NJBibleScience.org25
The beginning as revealed by God in the BibleEternal GodSix-day creationLife from GodOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org26
Practical “And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault ofthe sky to separate the day from the night, and letthem serve as signs to mark sacred times, and daysand years, and let them be lights in the vault of thesky to give light on the earth.” – Genesis 1:14-15Theological “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skiesproclaim the work of his hands.” – Psalm 19:1October 2014NJBibleScience.org27
Job 9:8 - He alone stretches out the heavensPs 104:2 - He stretches out the heavens like a tentIsa 40:22 - He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, andits people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavenslike a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.Isa 42:5 - He who created the heavens and stretched them outIsa 45:12 - My own hands stretched out the heavensJer 10:12 - [God] stretched out the heavens by hisunderstandingZec 12:1 - The LORD, who stretches out the heavensOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org28
Hartnett 2007 Extension of work done by theoretical physicistMoshe Carmeli. The universe is an expanding whitehole with our galaxy at the center. The theory is a 5-dimensional modification and extensionof Einstein’s general theory (“spacevelocity” instead of“spacetime”) – the fabric of space itself is expanding Assumes a spherically symmetric, finite, bounded universewith the earth near the center Does away with need for dark matter and dark energy We are seeing the creation process in the heavens as it washappening on day four of the creation weekStarlight, Time and the New Physics, Dr. John Hartnett, 2007October 2014NJBibleScience.org29
Initial radius 8 million light yearsGod stretches the heavens on day fourGalaxies were created closer to earthGod expanded the space dragging them apartAdditional galaxies were created during the expansionOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org31
The Krauss view of the beginning“These "quantum fluctuations" imply somethingessential about the quantum world: nothing alwaysproduces something if only for an instant.”“I want to stress that a multiverse is inevitable ifinflation is eternal, and eternal inflation is by far themost likely possibility in most, if not all, inflationaryscenarios.”October 2014NJBibleScience.org32
http://www.physast.uga.edu/ jss/1020/s4/S4 13.jpgOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org33
Effects of virtual particles are needed to match theory with measurement –considered strong support of quantum mb0.jpgOctober du/ xiaofeng/Lamb-shift.jpg34
Come into existenceAnnihilate each otherhttp://abyss.uoregon.edu/ js/images/quantum vacuum.gifOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org35
There is a fundamental limit to the precision with which bothparticle position and momentum can be known at same pgOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org36
iles/2010/11/xkcd -Guest-Week -Bill-Amend-FoxTrot.jpgOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org37
Virtual particles that carry away zero energy can exist forarbitrarily long timesHigherEnergyAt precisely zero energy, particleduration time can be longZeroShorterOctober 2014NJBibleScience.orgDurationLonger38
The law of conservation of energy states thatthe total energy of an isolated system cannotchange. A zero-energy universe hypothesisstates that the total amount of energy in theuniverse is exactly zero. That is the only kind ofuniverse that could come from nothing,assuming such a zero-energy universe is,already, nothing. Such a universe needs to beflat.October 2014NJBibleScience.org39
Kinetic energy (motion)0Inflation-Gravitational energyTiny closed universe with zero total energy rapidly inflates to a flat universe,before it collapsesOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org40
A generic property of inflation is the balancing of thenegative gravitational energy, within the inflating region,with the positive energy of the inflaton field to yield a postinflationary universe with negligible or zero energy density. Itis this balancing of the total universal energy budget thatenables the open-ended growth possible with inflation;during inflation energy flows from the gravitational field (orgeometry) to the inflaton field—the total gravitationalenergy decreases (i.e. becomes more negative) and the totalinflaton energy increases (becomes more positive). But therespective energy densities remain constant and oppositesince the region is inflating. Consequently, inflation explainsthe otherwise curious cancellation of matter andgravitational energy on cosmological scales.October 2014NJBibleScience.org41
Quantum gravity allowsspace-time to spontaneouslyappear (from ons/6/6a/Quantum gravity.pngOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org42
The idea that there may be an almost infinite number ofuniverses, each having different laws of physicsWe happen to live in one “just right” for lifeUsed to avoid the “fine-tuning”problem, that our universe seemsto be specialAll models of eternal inflationproduce an infinite multiverse,typically a ds/multiverse.jpgOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org43
1. Quantum gravity forms a space-time region2. The space-time region is a quantum vacuum (quantum lawsoperational)3. Virtual particle forms having precisely zero total energy4. Zero total energy allows it to exist longer5. Positive kinetic energy is precisely balanced by negativegravitational energy6. Tiny closed universe is formed7. Rapidly inflates to a flat universe8. This universe happens to have just the right physics andproperties for cosmic and biological evolutionOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org44
He conveniently glosses over a number of logical and scientific issues1.2.3.4.5.6.Arbitrary definition of “nothing”Krauss nothing is not true nothingCosmological ArgumentA necessarily existent, transcendent mind is requiredLaws of nature are descriptive not creativeQuantum states are arrangements of physical stuff andnot creation from nothing7. His “science” (mostly speculation) ASSUMES there isno God to show that God is not necessary8. Evolutionary claims have poor scientific statusOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org45
Krauss defines “nothing” “quantum vacuum” Why would that have been the initial default state of the universe? Where did the quantum vacuum come from? Where did the laws of quantum mechanics come from?Is there some point at which there are no furtherpreconditions to be explained?October 2014NJBibleScience.org46
One of the oldest principles of rationalphilosophy is ex nihilo nihil fit:out of nothing, nothing comes. “Nothing could be more irrational than theidea that something comes from nothing.”-- R.C. SproulOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org47
creatio ex nihilo’, meaning ‘creation [by a creator]not out of any pre-existing stuff’. Belief in a necessarily existent being who groundsthe potential for the existence of contingent thingsand who actualises that potential via a freely chosenact of omnipotence is a logically coherent answer tothe question of why the physical universe exists.Moreover, this answer is supported by thecosmological argument. October 2014NJBibleScience.org48
1. Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence,either in the necessity of its own nature or in an externalcause.2. The universe exists.3. Therefore the universe has an explanation of its existence.4. If the universe has an explanation of its existence, thatexplanation is God.5. Therefore, the explanation of the universe’s existence isGod.October 2014NJBibleScience.org49
If the process of everything getting its existencefrom something else went on to infinity, thenthe thing in question would never haveexistence. And if the thing has existence thenthe process hasn’t gone on to infinity. There wassomething that had existence without having toreceive it from something ober 2014NJBibleScience.org50
GreatFirstCause(God)No spaceNo timeBack in TimeTime starts hereOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org51
David Albert, The New York Times review: What the fundamental laws of nature are about, and all thefundamental laws of nature are about, and all there is for thefundamental laws of nature to be about, insofar as physicshas ever been able to imagine, is how that elementary stuffis arranged. But the laws have no bearing whatsoever on questions ofwhere the elementary stuff came from, or of why the worldshould have consisted of the particular elementary stuff itdoes, as opposed to something else, or to nothing at October 2014NJBibleScience.org52
Relativistic-quantum-field-theoretical vacuum states — no less than giraffesor refrigerators or solar systems — are particular arrangements ofelementary physical stuff. The true relativistic-quantum-field--theoreticalequivalent to there not being any physical stuff at all isn’t this or thatparticular arrangement of the fields — what it is (obviously, and ineluctably,and on the contrary) is the simple absence of the fields! The fact that somearrangements of fields happen to correspond to the existence of particlesand some don’t is not a whit more mysterious than the fact that some of thepossible arrangements of my fingers happen to correspond to the existenceof a fist and some don’t. And the fact that particles can pop in and out ofexistence, over time, as those fields rearrange themselves, is not a whitmore mysterious than the fact that fists can pop in and out of existence,over time, as my fingers rearrange themselves. And none of these poppings— if you look at them aright — amount to anything even remotely in theneighborhood of a creation from nothing.-- David Albert, The New York Times reviewOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org53
Then the universe must have come from nothing or createditself, because there was no one to start it! Then inflation must be true, because the scientific facts ofnear-constant background temperature and flat universalgeometry demand it Then the multiverse must be true, because the scientificfacts of fine-tuning and improbability demand it Then cosmic evolution must be true, because we are on theEarth, a planet well-suited for life! Then abiogenesis and biological evolution must be true,because here we are, living beings! October 2014NJBibleScience.org54
The “science” used to show that God isunnecessary (and therefore probablydoesn’t exist) is based on theASSUMPTION that God does not existOctober 2014NJBibleScience.org55
God created the universe (from true nothing) There is no need for inflation There is no need to think there may be other universes There is no need for cosmic evolution as God made the Earthdirectly to be inhabited God turned non-life into life (breathing life into Adam) God created the kinds of plants and animals directly October 2014NJBibleScience.org56
Creation of the universe – could never happen from truenothing Inflation – speculation, not reproducable Multiverse – speculation, could NEVER be proven Cosmic evolution – speculation never observed (takes toolong they say) Abiogenesis – anti-science, against the Law of Biogenesis Biological evolution – never observed, many scientificreasons against it even being possible (e.g. information,irreducible complexity) October 2014NJBibleScience.org57
20 For since the creation of the world God’sinvisible qualities—his eternal power and divinenature—have been clearly seen, beingunderstood from what has been made, so thatpeople are without excuse 22 Although theyclaimed to be wise, they became fools 25They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,and worshiped and served created things[evolutionary theories] rather than the Creator.October 2014NJBibleScience.org58
True “nothing” cannot produce “something” Krauss has NOT SHOWN how our universe could havecreated itself from nothing There is no getting away from the need for an ultimatebeginning by an uncaused, eternal, transcendent mind God exists and He is the creator!October 2014NJBibleScience.org59
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A zero-energy universe hypothesis states that the total amount of energy in the universe is exactly zero. That is the only kind of universe that could come from nothing, assuming such a zero-energy universe is, already, nothing. Such a universe needs to be flat. October 2014 NJBibleScience.org 39
