Physicist Prefers Magic Over Theology (and logic)
Posted in Science, Worldview on Jul 16th, 2007 2 Comments »
Take some time and read Salon.com’s interview with Paul Davies titled “We are meant to be here.”
Basically, Davies says that there was no creator of the universe — he “wants to stay away from a pre-existing cosmic magician,” calling that a “naïve, silly idea.” However, he has no problem asserting that the efficient cause of the incredible order and precise fine-tuning of the universe is… (drum roll please)… us.
I’m. Not. Kidding.
Yes, li’l ol’ you and I are behind the laws of the universe. This is like saying that a baby is the efficient cause of its parents’ existence. “The emergence of life and observers causes the universe to have the laws that it does. In the causal sense, it puts the cart before the horse,” Davies said. That’s quite a horse.
Davies continues: “The difficult point is that we have to explain why life today can have any effect on the laws that the universe emerged with at the time of the big bang.”
Well gee, that is sort of a problem, isn’t it…
More from Davies:
We’re trying to construct a picture of the universe which is based thoroughly on science but where there is still room for something like meaning and purpose. So people can see their own individual lives as part of a grand cosmic scheme that has some meaning to it. We’re not just, as Steven Weinberg would say, pointless accidents in a universe that has no meaning or purpose. I think we can do better than that.
It may come as a shock to Dr. Davies that this has been tried and found wanting…
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
I’ve got a lot more I want to say about this, but I just don’t have time to blog on it now — maybe another time. Still, I’d love to get some discussion going.
