I bought Hawking’s book last weekend and read it in a day.  I was curious since a lot of buzz about the book seemed to focus on his denial of the existence of God.  I had to find out for myself what he had to say.

First let me say that I was quite surprised.  I thought at first it might be beyond me. Although my Physics degree is fading way into the past (1965), I have kept up on my science reading and I found the book an excellent, non technical review of things I already know, and introduced me to things I was not too clear on, such as M-theory.   It is probably a tough read for anyone completely technically illiterate - but should very enjoyable to anyone with a reasonable smattering of physics and science. (there is no partial differential equations).

It is quite clear though,  he is not at all denying the existence of a god, only that we need not use the God explanation as the force behind the creation of universes.

Just as we now know enough that we don't have to explain the "Sun" as a god driving a fiery chariot across the sky (it is a giant fusion engine at the centre of our solar system), we know enough that the spontaneous creation of universes out of nothing appears to be a sure thing and very much part of the nature of the laws of Physics.

Hawking believes that gravity has a key role in the creation of a universe.  Starting with the law of conservation of energy he observes:

“If the total energy of the universe must always remain zero, and it costs energy to create a body, how can a whole universe be created from nothing?  That is why there must be law like gravity.  Because gravity is attractive, gravitational energy is negative.  One has to do work to separate a gravitationally bound system, such as the earth and the moon.  This negative energy can balance the the positive energy needed to create matter, but it is not quite that simple.  The negative gravitational energy of the earth, for example, is less than one billionth of the positive energy of the matter particles the earth is made of.  A body such as a star will have more negative gravitational energy, and the smaller it is (the closer the parts of it are are to each other), the greater the negative energy will be.  But before it can become greater than the positive energy of the matter, the star will collapse to a black hole, and black holes have positive energy.  That’s why empty space is stable.  Bodies such as stars or black holes cannot just appear out of nothing.  But a whole universe can”.

So, what Hawking is saying is that there is a way for an entire universe to appear out of nothing, and we need not invoke an action of a supreme being to explain it. 

For those who have difficulty with something out of nothing for example -  there is an experiment called the Casimir Effect that demonstrates that what we thought was totally empty space - is really what Wheeler calls a quantum foam - where particles spring into being out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly.  This was first proposed back in 1948 - not a new idea at all.

And for those who think all this is completely bizarre - you are totally right.  I can give you this quote from J. B. S Haldane:

“I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.“

No one can look seriously at our universe and not marvel at it’s complexity and beauty from the macroscopic to the microscopic.  Who could not feel awe at the Hubble deep space photos of the darkest part of the sky showing it is filled with millions of galaxies (not stars - but galaxies - each with billions of stars)  Who could not feel confused at the results of quantum physics that describes effects that seem to be at odds with our “common sense”.  There is in all of us a very deep feeling - a wonder - as to what this is all about and what our part in it is.

Whether of not there is a God behind all this is left for Religion and Philosophy to ponder. In my mind, Physics only reveals that should such a creator exist - he/she/it is far more like what I think a supreme being should be. Not someone with a score card controlling everything and judging our every word and action, but something quite wonderful beyond anything we can understand and explain.

Letter to the editor - Ottawa Citizen - published 17 Sept 2010.

21 Sept 2010 - “The Grand Design” is co-authored by Leonard Mlodinow.  Curiously enough, I was sitting at my desk and I spied the book “Feynman’s Rainbow” in my bookcase.  On a whim, I took it out and was surprised to see it was written by non other than Leonard Mlodinow.  This is a quite wonderful book about Leonard’s arrival at Caltech after completing his PhD.  His office was across the hall from Murray Gell-Mann and down the hall was the office of Richard Feynman.  The book is Leonard’s encounters with Feynman and the insights he got from those conversations.  Recommended book.

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