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Creation and the Personal Creator
in Islamic Kalām and Modern Cosmology Department
of Physics, Yarmouk University, 21163 Irbid, Jordan Published
in: Humanity, the World and God, Studies in Science and Theology, Vol.
11, 149-166, Lund University, Sweden 2008. Abstract The question of the eternity or temporality of the universe
was thoroughly discussed by Muslim theologians. Most of them, principally
those who were called Mutakallimūn, agreed on
the notion of creation ex nihilo, i.e.,
creation out of nothing. On the other hand some Muslim philosophers adopted the Greek
originated notion of an eternal universe that has existed forever without a
beginning. In modern times the Kalām
cosmological argument was revived by William Craig to be utilized as a logical
reason for the existence of God. In this paper I will try to elucidate the fundamental
Islamic arguments brought up by Mutakallimūn
in support of the principle of creation and I will concentrate my study on
arguments proposed by two main thinkers: the well-known theologian Ibn Hazm Al-Zāhirī
and the wellrecognized thinker Abu Hamid Al-Ghazālī. I
then discuss some questions raised in connection with the philosophical
implications of modern cosmology, including the role of the primary
singularity and the possible avoidance of such a singularity through quantum
effects. I also touch upon the anthropic principle
that is deemed necessary for the explanation of the delicacy of the present
world, with mankind being the necessary observer, witnessing the unfolding
reality of this world. Keywords: Kalām, Mutakallimūn,
creation, personal creator, anthropic principle, eternity,
temporality, Islamic thought, cosmic singularity. Introduction Once the ancients had developed the capacity to think
philosophically, they posed for themselves a number of important questions,
such as: what is the origin of the world and is it temporal or eternal?. Every nation on the globe had its own answers to such questions,
and their answers often formed the framework for their religious beliefs. As we look back from the prospect of the twenty-first century,
we can analyze the sources of such beliefs and see what basic factors they
had in common and in what respects they diverged or differed. Different schools of thought had different starting points and
different approaches to tackling the very same questions. This would
eventually lead to different answers. Now from the prospect of the
twenty-first century, with all our knowledge, ideas and methodologies, we are
free to choose from among those intellectual accomplishments the ones that
will best serve the interests of humanity. However it may not be an easy task to define what would best
serve human interest, because different people have different interests and
humanity in general, I feel, has not yet reached the level of a shared common
understanding and community of interests. Human life is still characterized
by greed, jealousy and selfishness, far from the wisdom that religions have
preached for thousands of years. The question as to whether the universe is temporal or self
contained and eternal is a vital one today, because it is directly connected
with the question and meaning of our existence. It is very much connected
with our ethics and the source from which we draw such ethics, and therefore,
would be vital for the definition of the whole structure of life and death in
this world. Humankind has a highly developed level of comprehension that
enables them to construct rational explanations for the occurrence of natural
phenomena. Such reasoning formed the foundation for a general logic that
controlled their thinking and consequently feedback on it in such a way as to
direct the result just by presenting the postulates. That is to say: the
logic, which originally was devised out of the rational analysis of the phenomena,
became so dominant as to dictate the structure of
thought for comprehending the whole universe. Discussing the question of the creation of the world (the
universe) we should remember that here we will be talking about two different
arenas: one is usually called metaphysics, and the other is usually called
physics. In fact we have no realization of the former except through a
priori reasoning and deductive extrapolation. Unfortunately our
mental construction is set up and operates in such a way that our inductive modelling
of the physical world is left with only a small role to play in the
metaphysical arena. Despite this, many peoples have thought that the observation
and study of physical phenomena and events may be able to take us confidently
into the world of metaphysics, up to the level that we can “prove” the existence
of God. When we question the eternity and the temporality of the
universe we have to define the terms we use. For example we should
differentiate between the term “creation” and the term “origin”. Also it is
important to define the term “God” not only in respect of being a personal
creator or some global natural law or condition, but in respect of his entity
in relation with the structure, rules and logic that may be anticipated with
his existence. Much confusion may occur if we do not allow for a clear
definition of the term “God”. Even on a theological level among theists, we find
that different people have different concepts of God. So when we say that atheists
deny the existence of God, it is important to know which God they are denying,
and when we say that theists believe in God it is important to know which God
they are talking about. However, we should admit that the biggest problem stems
from the fact that we cannot resort to anything other than our customary
logic, and our human comprehension. Modern cosmology, developed during the twentieth century, and
the astronomical discoveries that were achieved, clearly indicates that the
universe originated some finite time ago from a primordial state. Since its
beginning the universe was in continuous change and development. This
continued evolution by itself is but a continuing creation; every moment the
universe is in the process of becoming. This was one basic idea that Mutakallimūn proposed long ago. Mutakallimūn were a
group of Muslim thinkers and theologians who appeared during the 8th
century
and continued to dominate Islamic thought until the 10th
century.
They developed the system of thought that was named Kalām.
In Arabic Kalām means “speech” or “dialogue”,
but it also points to the system of thought which Mutakallimun
developed in order to counter the arguments of the philosophers and
express the Islamic worldview. Mutakallimūn gave us
the view that the universe is restless and is continuously developing;
nothing in the universe would stay two moments in a stationary state. This
was to the contrary of the view that dominated Western thought, where the
universe was considered as a highly organized, static, unchanging system.
Some authors refer to this say that “The cosmological principle, according to
which the universe is homogeneous and isotropic on a large scale, is
sufficient to ensure that a Newtonian universe cannot be static, but must be
either expanding or contracting. A philosophical predisposition in western
societies towards an unchanging, regular cosmos apparently prevented
scientists from drawing this conclusion until it was forced upon them by 20th
century
observations” (Coles and Luccin 2004:xii). The creation of the world
according to the Qur’an The Qur’an is the Holy book of Muslims and the main source of
the Islamic creed. The Qur’an stipulates that the world was created within a
finite time by Allah (God), the external omnipotent agent. Although the story
of creation told by the Qur’an is not much different from that told by the
Old Testament, the apparently minor differences between both scriptures
reflects fundamental differences between the concepts of the Creator in the
two books. The Creator in the Qur’an is much more abstract than that in the
Old Testament; the Creator in the Qur’an does not get tired after creating
the world, whereas, according to the Old Testament, he needed some rest after
completing creation. Furthermore, although both scriptures tell us that God created
the world within six days, albeit not necessarily equivalent to our days, the
Qur’an, unlike the Old Testament, does not give much detail. God in the Qur’an
is the Creator and Sustainer of the world though
his control over every bit and every change of his creation: “Praise be to Allah, Who created the
heavens and the earth, and made the Darkness and the Light “(The Qur’an 5:1). The Qur’an also stipulates that Allah is the Sustainer of the universe: “Your Guardian-Lord is Allah,
Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days, then He established
Himself on the Throne (of authority): He draweth
the night as a veil o’er the day, each seeking the other in rapid succession:
He created the sun, the moon, and the stars, (all) governed by laws under His
Command. Is it not His to create and to govern? Blessed be Allah, the
Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds”! (The Qur’an
14:19). The Qur’an also indicates that Allah can create some form of
intelligent beings other than humans: “See thou not that Allah created the
heavens and the earth in Truth? If He so will, He can remove you and put (in
your place) a new Creation?” (The Qur’an 14:19). The Qur’an allows for the possibility that Allah can create
other worlds anew with the same properties as ours: “See they
not that Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth, has power to create
the like of them (anew)? Only He has decreed a term appointed, of which there
is no doubt. But the unjust refuse (to receive it) except with ingratitude”
(The Qur’an 17:99). The Qur’an clearly indicates that the universe is expanding
since was first created: “With power did We construct the Heaven: and We are extending
it” (The Qur’an 51:47). The Qur’an explicitly stipulates that the universe (heavens)
will collapse at its final stage: “The Day that We roll up the heavens like a
scroll rolled up for letters, even as We produced the first Creation, so
shall We re-produce a new one: a promise We have undertaken: truly shall We fulfill it” (The Qur’an 24:104). In respect to the creation of mankind the Qur’an stipulates
that the human was created in stages from clay: “We did create man from a
dynasty from clay” (The Qur’an 23:12). And we read: “He Who has made
everything which He has created Most Good: He began the creation of man with
(nothing more than) clay” (The Qur’an 32:7). It is also stated in the Qur’an that Allah after creating man
he blew some of the divine spirit into him, and at that stage he ordered the
Angels to obey the human: ‘“When I have normalized him (in due properties) and breathed
into him of My spirit, fall ye down in obeisance unto him”. (The Qur’an
15:29) The above verse concerning the creation of man indicates that
he was created and pre-destined to be an advanced creature with special
capabilities; thanks to the infusion of the divine spirit, which has become
an essential part of his makeup. I believe that one manifestation of this
divine infusion is the ability to think conceptually and construct things to
enable mankind to explore the world with such ingenuity. It is as if man has
acquired, by that divine infusion, some of the divine attributes. This makes
it possible to view man’s mission in this world to build up his own
understanding of the Creator through investigating the world. As to the attributes of Allah, the Qur’an says that Allah is
omniscient, wise, knowledgeable, creative, merciful, benevolent, and most
powerful. He can hear and speak to his servants and enjoys all attributes
that are found with humankind, however it is also mentioned that these
attributes are rather the good names for Allah and are not meant to be taken
literally. The creation according to Muslim
Thinkers Muslim thinkers were divided into philosophers and
theologians. Theologians are divided into religious dogmatists and Mutakallimūn. Mutakallimūn
are the natural theologians who tried to verify Islamic creed rationally,
while at the same time keeping the Qur’anic
revelations in the background of their thought, believing that the universe
is temporal, having been originated from nothing. On the other hand, Muslim
philosophers, mostly following the Greek tradition, gave utmost priority to rational
deduction. They believed that the universe is eternal in essence, but nevertheless
created in time (Averroes 2001). Mutakallimūn
considered the Qur’an to be the primary source for their knowledge of the
world, and accordingly they sought to achieve an understanding of the world
based on the stipulations of the Qur’an. Richard Walzer
summarized this by saying that: “Mutakallimūn
followed a methodology that is distinct from that of the philosophers in that
they take the truth of Islam as their starting point” (Walzer
1970:648). Mutakallimūn played
a great role in developing Islamic theology and building the foundations of
Islamic jurisprudence. However due to continued clashes between different
factions of Mutakallimūn in respect of a
dogmatic argument related to the attributes of Allah, the Caliph had to
abandon Kalām
discussions,
and the studies and teachings of it altogether. Kalām, which
is the discourse of Mutakallimūn, was divided
into Daqīq al-Kalām
which
discussed the properties of nature, and Jaleel
al- Kalām, which discussed the
divine attributes and metaphysics (Altaie
1994:7-18). Using Ian Barbour’s terminology (Barbour 1998:100), Jaleel al- Kalām would be called “natural theology”, whereas Daqīq
al- Kalām is the “theology of nature”. Mutakallimūn, who
represented the upper level of Muslim thinkers, believed that the creation of
the world can be used as an argument for the existence of God. In essence
this was based on the simple argument formulated by Al-Ghazālī
to read “Every event which begins must have a cause, the world is an event
that began to exist; therefore, it must have a cause” (Al-Ghazali
1983:19). Many of the arguments for the creation of the world in the
original Islamic literature are mixed with arguments for the existence of
God. However, it is not difficult to see that this mix-up occurs because of
the nature of the argument itself and is, in fact, related to the traditional
Islamic approach to this problem. The problem of creation is normally set as
the first problem to be discussed in most of the Kalām
books. The argument for the temporality of the world is part of a
whole theory of natural philosophy that the Mutakallimūn
tried to construct under the name of Daqīq
al-Kalām. Such a theory was
actually based on five principles that formed the structure of Daqiq al- Kalām, these are: 1. Temporality: this
stipulates that the world is temporal, finite and limited and that the
creation took place ex nihilo i.e.,
out of nothing (Al-Alousi 1980:59; Wolfson 1976: 359-372). 2. Discreteness: this
stipulates that the structure of space, time, energy and matter and every
associated property is discrete. 3. Continual creation:1
this
stipulates that the world has to be re-created every moment anew. A very good
account of this principle can be found in the book named al-shamil Fi Usul
al-Deen (Al-Juwayni
1969:159). A modern analysis and discussion of this principle was given by Wolfson (Wolfson: 1976: 392- 406). 4. Indeterminism: this
stipulates that the laws of nature that we recognize are contingent and
undetermined. A notion that resonates with the Copenhagen interpretation of
quantum theory (see Jammer 1974:259). 5. Space-time integrity: this
stipulates that space has no meaning of its own and would exist only if a
body existed, and that time has no meaning of its own without an event taking
place in space (Altaie 2005). The arguments put forward by Muslim philosophers
to
prove the eternity of the universe and their theory of the existence of God
was refuted by Abu Hamid Al-Ghazālī,
a great thinker of the tenth century, in his book Tahafut
al-Falasifa (the incoherence of the
philosophers) (al-Ghazālī: 2000). The aim
of al-Ghazālī was directed at proving
that philosophers are incompetent to suggest a coherent theistic theory of
divine existence and action. Mutakallimūn
followed two distinct routes to tackle the question of creation (Al-Shahrastānī: 14). The first was to prove that
the world is temporal and created, and has a definite origin in a finite
past. This was done through a series of arguments that assumes that “the
world as a whole is composed of jawāher
(substances)
and a'rādh
(accidents),
and that no Jawhar
is
separated from one or several a'rādh. But all
a'rādh
are
created in time, from which it must necessarily follow that the Jawhar which serves as their substratum, is likewise
produced in time, for every thing that is conjoined with things produced in
time and is inseparable from them is produced in time. Therefore, the world
in its entirety is produced in time (Maimonides 1969: 63)”. Maimonides also recognizes that the reason for assuming
the re-creation of a'rādh
was
“so that no one would claim that there exists some nature of things; and that
it is the nature of this body which would require this or that kind of
accidents. Instead they want to say that God has created these accidents
without any natural mediation (Maimonides 1969: 64)”. The second route followed by Mutakallimūn
is to refute the arguments which suggest that the world is eternal. Many of
the Mutakallimūn follow the two routes in their
presentations and discourse. It is remarkable that the approach of Mutakallimūn
to proving the temporality of the world and its constituents through their
natural theology always stemmed from basic assumptions that can be summarized
as follows: 1. The finiteness of the world, based on the philosophical
assumption that an infinite extension is impossible. 2. The impossibility of events with infinite regress. 3. That the universe began to exist, and that both space and
time have finite extension and both existed only when this world came into existence. 4. That matter itself and by itself is impotent and not
capable of effecting any change. 5. That God is a non-physical entity outside space and time. Such assumptions are prominent through most of the
argumentation presented by Mutakallimūn
through their different approaches to the problem of the world’s existence
and its relation to God. When they feel their arguments need reinforcement,
they usually present logical reasons for adopting such an assumption. This logical approach normalized Kalām
to
be a prescribed framework of knowledge and consequently, its arguments were
articulated into a form of standard scholastic teaching. It is of some importance to mention that all Mutakallimūn believed in creation ex nihilo, (from
nothing) but that they discussed the question whether the vacuum is absolute
emptiness or something that has some characteristic realization. This dispute led the Mu’tazilites to
suggest that the vacuum is a realizable character by definition. However this
dispute had nothing to do with the stipulations of the Qur’an, as Wolfson seems to think2, but
rather with the concept of vacuum in its lingual context (Al-Juwayni 1969:134-135). Mutakallimūn tried
to construct a theory of an evolving universe through the principles of
discreteness and continuous creation (al-Alousi
1965: 269-297). The accidents (a'rādh) are
radically contingent and had to be continually re-created by Allah in every
successive instant (Macdonald 1927: 326-344). Consequently they find that
Allah is not only the Creator of the universe but he is also its Sustainer. This notion of God the Sustainer
is taken primarily from the Qur’an which states that Allah is a live Sustainer “Allah! There is no god but He,
the Living, the Selfsubsisting, Eternal “(al-Qur’an
1:255). This notion is so fundamental and basic in Kalām
that,
nearly all factions and groups of Mutakallimūn
would endorse it, and it has affected many of the views of Kalām
in
respect to nature and how it would develop. In fact the concept of causality
and the action of physical laws in the world is much dependent on the notion
of Allah the sustainer, without which the world cannot
run. So Allah is not only initiating the action of physical laws but also sustaining
its action, otherwise nature would not run itself. However this concept has led
some authors to claim that Mutakallimūn, and
especially Al-Ghazālī, do not believe in
causation, whereas in fact they did believe in causal relationships but denied
that effects can be caused solely naturally without the intervention of an external
agent, i.e., Allah (Altaie 2006: 239-247). Ibn
Hazm Al-Zāhirī
(933-1063 A.D) This is one of the early Muslim thinkers and theologians who
compiled most of the Islamic Kalām
arguments
put forward by earlier Mutakallimūn. Although
he was not considered to be one of the leaders of Mutakallimūn,
he was certainly a renowned scholar of Kalām. Ibn Hazm based his argument for
proving that the world is temporal on the following main assumptions: 1. An infinite cannot exist and events with infinite regress
are impossible. 2. The world is denumerable. 3. Space and time began to exist (i.e., were created) and are
finite. Ibn Hazm
also presented his arguments against those who claim that though the world
has an origin; it is actually not created but is eternal. The serious
arguments presented in supporting the case center
around the origination of time and the denial that any absolute character can
be attributed to time itself, a point which I have discussed and analyzed
elsewhere (Altaie 2005). Al-Ghazālī
(1058-1111 A.D): Al-Ghazālī was one of the
great thinkers of Islam. He tackled the problem of creation in his book Tahafut al-Falasifa (‘the Incoherence of the Philosophers’)
through the refutation of the arguments of philosophers. His arguments were
postulated in a more advanced form than those of Ibn
Hazm, although there are some similarities in the arguments
of both thinkers. Again al-Ghazālī
believed that space and time are interdependent, finite and do not have any
absolute character. In the first discussion of his book, al-Ghazālī
refutes the idea of the world’s past eternity that
the philosophers assumed. He refuted the need for preponderance, ascribing
the creation of the world to the divine will, which is eternal and had
existed in the absence of time. As to the question of the existence of time before the
creation of the universe, Al-Ghazālī
denies such a status because, he says: “According to us, duration and time
are both created”,(Al-Ghazālī
2000:20), and both space and time were created once matter/energy was created
and neither can have existed before the moment of creation. This he describes
by saying: “Time is originated and created, and before it there was no time
at all. We mean by our statement that God is prior to the world and time that
He was and there was no world and that then He was and with Him was the world”
(Al-Ghazālī 2000:31). Al-Ghazālī carefully
differentiates the divine will from the divine power; he says that the will
is “an attribute whose function is to differentiate a thing from another
which is similar. If this were not its function, then power would be sufficient”
(Al-Ghazālī 2000:22). In this respect Al-Ghazālī remarks that the divine will and
knowledge is different from human will and knowledge: “God’s knowledge differs
from human knowledge in matters we have [already] established. Why, then, should
the difference [between the divine and the human] in the case of the will be unlikely?”
(Al-Ghazālī 2000:23). Al-Ghazālī discussed at
length the question of the first moment of creation and showed that the
moment of creation had no before, even though God already existed before
creating the world (Al-Ghazālī
2000:30-36). It is amazing to read some of the arguments of Al-Ghazālī and feel as if he was refuting present
day arguments like those of Adolf Grünbaum, who
says that since there were no instants of time prior to the big bang, it
follows that the big bang cannot have a cause (Grünbaum
1991:233-254). On the other hand, deep consideration of this problem led Al-Ghazālī to conclude that space and time are
similar; the absence of time before the creation of the world was correlated
with the absence of space or void outside the world. He says: “All this is
due to the inability of the imagination to comprehend an existence that has a
beginning except by supposing a 'before' for it. This 'before', from which the
imagination does not detach itself, is believed to be a thing realized, existingnamely, time. This is similar to the inability of
the imagination to suppose the finitude of body overhead, for example, except
in terms of a surface that has an above,
thereby imagining that beyond the world there is no place, either filled or void.
Thus, if it is said that there is no 'above' above the surface of the world
and no distance more distant than it, the estimation holds back from
acquiescing to it, just as if it is said that before the world’s existence
there is no 'before' which is realized in existence, [and the imagination]
shies away from accepting it” (Al-Ghazālī
2000:32). Furthermore, Al-Ghazālī
discussed the possibility that the universe could have been larger or smaller
in size, concluding that this should be possible, and therefore he suggested
the possibility of an expanding universe (Al-Ghazālī
2000:37-39). Regarding the divine attributes, the widely divergent views of
Mutakallimūn caused a lot of dogmatic
problems, culminating later in mutual accusations of being Kafer (unbeliever in Islam), a
point at which Kalām
ceased
to be a rational. This was the reason behind the abandonment of the study,
discussion and teaching of Kalām by the end of
the eleventh century. Since then we can say that no serious work has been
done on Kalām. The Kalām
Cosmological Argument This is an argument of Kalām
that was revived recently by William Craig who set the rgument
as follows: “Everything that begins to exist must
has a cause of its existence, the universe began to exist, and therefore it
has a cause of its existence (Craig 1979:63)”. The original argument was proposed by Al-Ghazālī
as quoted above in his book al-Iqtisad
fi al-I'tiqad, which
summarizes the basics of the Islamic creed. The revival of the argument
benefits from the discoveries of modern cosmological research, which show
that the universe is expanding, that it was originated some finite time ago
in the past, and that the matter/energy content of the universe was created
from the vacuum by violating the law of conservation of energy. These discoveries
seem to indicate that the universe began to exist, and accordingly the proponents
of the Kalām cosmological argument (KCA) claim
that the universe must have a cause of its existence. However, the question remains whether the cause of the
existence of the universe is to be found within the universe and its physical
content, or whether it is the result of some supernatural action that
surpasses the laws of physics. On the other hand, some of the opponents of
the KCA do not see that there is a cause for the universe to exist. Some of
them deny a supernatural cause from the start, since they do not seem to
believe in anything beyond physics, mathematics and measurements. Other opponents of KCA do not see that the universe has ever begun
to
exist, despite the discoveries of the twentieth century. They engage in
theoretical speculations like those of Hawking and Hartle
which suggest that the universe could have existed indefinitely before the
big bang in imaginary time. Others try to resort to the uncertainty principle
and natural vacuum fluctuation to supply the energy needed for the universe
to exist. For the universe to come to existence, they think, there would be
no need for an external agent. All this brings us to investigate the problem
of creation from the point of view of modern cosmology. Creation in Modern cosmology According to the prevailing paradigm in modern cosmology, the
universe began to exist about one Hubble time ago (Hubble time is the inverse
of Hubble constant) (~1010year), space and time were created in
that event, and so was all the matter/energy that exists in the universe.
This event has been termed the big bang. Before the big bang there was nothing, no space, no time, and
surely no matter or energy either. So it is correct to say that the creation
of the universe took place exnihilo
according
to the big bang. Once space, time and matter/energy
existed physics began, the universe went through a stage of very rapid
expansion, and its temperature fell in inverse proportion to its radius.
Consequently, material particles accumulated, and the electrons combined with
protons to form the first hydrogen and helium atoms some 300,000 years from
the beginning. Accordingly, the early universe was mostly composed of
hydrogen and helium nebulae. In these nebulae stars were formed by accreting
matter, consequently the temperature rose to the level where nuclear reaction
started, by which hydrogen nuclei fused together to form heavier ones. The full scenario for the formation of light elements out of
the particle soup at the early stages of the universe was proposed by George
Gamow and collaborators in the late forties of the last century. They
anticipated the existence of a cosmic microwave background radiation, which
at the present age should be at a temperature equivalent to about 3 Kelvin.
In 1965 Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were lucky enough to pick up the
microwave signal which was called the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation
(CMB). This radiation represents the relic of the big bang at the stage when
electrons combined with nuclei, approximately 300,000 years after the big
bang. This discovery was considered a success for the big bang theory of Gamow
and his collaborators. Since then, detailed studies of this CMB have been initiated,
and today much of the accurate information that we know about the universe
has been deduced from the precise measurement of the CMB. This big bang model which became the standard model of modern
cosmology was found to suffer from some problems which were partially
resolved through Inflation theory. However, no matter how many holes we find
in the big bang model, no scientist has yet been able to deduce the natural
abundance of light elements or predict the 3K CMB using an alternative model.
The big bang model was considered by some authors to support the theistic
assumption that the universe has a personal cause for its existence.
Nevertheless some philosophers continued to dispute this issue and will
continue to do so. The singularity The question of the singularity is a relevant one, since it is
related to the initial conditions of the universe. In fact, since there was
neither space nor time preceding the big bang, this event was unique. In the
absence of space and time no physics is possible, and therefore we cannot ask
what initial conditions preceded the big bang. Sometimes it is said that the universe started from a state of
infinite density, pressure, and temperature, but in fact this statement is
problematic, since there is no physics available to define such a state. On
the other hand, the cosmological models that are singular, i.e. those
implying that the universe originated from a point with infinite density,
pressure, and temperature, usually do not take into consideration quantum effects.
Models which take quantum effects into consideration produce universes with
non-singular beginnings (Altaie 2002: 044028; Altaie and Setari 2003:
044018). The suggestion by Hawking and Hartle
(Hawking and Hartle 1983:2690) that the universe
could have existed before the big bang indefinitely in imaginary time implies
that the universe did not exist physically; since imaginary time is not a physically
measurable quantity. So following Carroll (Carroll 2003) I would say that “in
all honesty the entire proposal is very far from being well-formulated”. Moreover, despite
being speculative, the Hawking–Hartle suggestion
would not help to provide us with an eternal universe operating without God. Some theists may consider the existence of a singularity at
the beginning of the universe as supporting evidence for the need for a
creator. However, in my opinion, the existence of a primary singularity is
more supportive of the atheistic argument than the theistic one. That is
because the non-singular universe will need a personal creator to bring it
into existence through the control of design probabilities. This may be explained as follows: a singular universe implies
the choice between existing or not existing (0 or 1: 0 for non-existing and 1
for existing). Choosing either of these two possibilities will entail the
other null and void. If the universe was created non-singular, then we should
think not only (either 0 or 1) but also how to choose the initial parameters
that characterize the small batch. Nonetheless, although a singular universe
will not completely eliminate the role of God, it will make it much easier,
because in that case God does not need to choose the characteristics of the
initially created finite batch; if a choice of the initial conditions is to
be made, then surely “design” is implied and, therefore, a purpose or a “cause”
had to exist. From the epistemological point of view, a singular universe is
more deterministic than a nonsingular one.
Infinitesimal (continuous) variations do not allow for tolerance, while
finite (discrete) variations allow for uncertainties that are proportional to
the range of the value. This is why whenever we introduce quantum effects, which
are indeterministic; we get a nonsingular
universe, whereas ignoring such effects produces an initially singular
universe. Adolf Grünbaum (1989:373-394;
1994:225-236) considers the big bang to be a pseudo event since, at t=0 there
was no time to define the start. Therefore, according to Grünbaum
“the Big Bang does NOT qualify as a physical point-event of the space-time to
which one would assign three spatial coordinates, and one time coordinate”.
Obviously this is true, but this does not mean that there was no big bang,
nor does it imply that the big bang is an uncaused event. Though I agree with
Lovell (1961:106) that this question is the subject of metaphysics. Indeed in
a physical world causal priority entails temporal priority, but if this
applies to the big bang as well, this means that the big bang has some non-physical
(I
do not say metaphysical) cause.
After all our present physics may not be the ultimate physics that humankind
will ever discover. Creation Ex Nihilo without God It is sometimes said that a physical vacuum is not entirely
empty: it is composed of virtual particle-antiparticle pairs that now and
then pop in and out of physical existence. According to the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle these states can live only for a very short time so
that they cannot be measured; thus they are called ‘virtual’. The existence
of such states was taken by some people to be the source for a possible
spontaneous creation of the universe without the need for any external intervention.
Beside the fact that there is no rigorous theory that can explain such a process,
it is important to point to the fact that actually, no virtual
state
can turn into real one
without the existence of a strong external field of force. This is well known
to physicists who are experts in this field, and this again brings us to the
question of the source of such an external field, capable of turning virtual
states of the vacuum preceding the existence of the universe into real states
of energy and matter. Causal priority and temporal
priority This is a point that was raised by Grünbaum
when he commented on William Craig, suggesting that causal priority does
necessitate a temporal priority, he says “The proponents of simultaneous
asymmetric causation must give us a criterion for distinguishing one of two
causally connected simultaneous events as the cause of the other. Clearly,
for simultaneous events, temporal priority is unavailable to provide the
required criterion for causal priority” (Grünbaum 1994:225-236). A
similar point was addressed at some length by Al-Ghazālī
(2000:30-32) and Al-Shahrāstanī (2004:9-17)
in the context of discussing the refutation of an eternal world. The argument
presented by Al-Shahrāstanī is more
elaborate than that of Al- Ghazālī, but both
begin by discussing the meaning and implications of causality, trying at the same
time to differentiate between the possible and the necessary, and to
differentiate between priority in time and priority in essence. In short, Al-Ghazālī and Al- Shahrāstanī
find it necessary to accept the fact that there was neither space nor time before
the universe existed, in order to be able to realize the meaning of creation
taking place without comparative priority. The anthropic
principle Recent cosmological discoveries have directed the attention of
physicists to the fact that our universe, by accommodating intelligent and
highly developed living organisms, appears to be “fine tuned” to allow such a
high level of complexity and organization to exist (Barrow and Tipler 1986). It is remarkable that the structure of the
universe is very sensitive to the values of the fundamental physical
constants. This fine tuning was interpreted by some physicists and
philosophers to mean that the universe was pre-designed to accommodate
humankind. Others think that our existence in such a universe may be
understood to be mere luck (Davies 1982). The eminent physicist S. Weinberg
discussed the question of the anthropic principle
and fine tuning on different levels of his works (Weinberg 2000), in a talk
given at Conference of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science in Washington, D.C. on Cosmic Design he campaigned against the belief
that the universe is purposively designed or destined for any thing other
than natural selection. He says: “Above all, today we understand that even
human beings are the result of natural selection acting over millions of
years of breeding and eating” (Weinberg 1999). It is sad that a scientist like Weinberg could not realize the
fact that from both a logical and an epistemological point of view, the term
natural selection is actually ambiguous: for nature to select it should have
a will, and for nature to compose it should have the power to coordinate and
that would mean that nature has a mind. But is this the same as the mind of
God? This will be discussed below. It is also sad that Weinberg encourages a
destructive dialogue between science and religion. In the closing statement
Weinberg says: “In an e-mail message from the American Association for the
Advancement of Science I learned that the aim of this conference is to have a
constructive dialogue between science and religion. I am all in favor of a dialogue between science and religion, but not
a constructive dialogue. One of the great achievements of science has been,
if not to make it impossible for intelligent people to be religious, then at
least to make it possible for them not to be religious. We should not retreat
from this accomplishment”. The mind of God A final question is whether the laws of physics that we are
devising or discovering reflect the mind of God The answer is obtained once
we answer the question whether scientific theories express facts and
realities, or whether they are expressions of our mind and imagination? The
history of modern science tells us that scientific theories change over time,
and although a correspondence is established sometimes between the results of
calculations based on new theories and the old ones, it is found that the concepts
are liable to change. We now have two famous and well-studied examples: quantum
theory versus classical radiation physics, and relativity theory versus Newtonian
mechanics and gravitation theory. We have seen how the classical particle
concept has changed and how the wave-particle duality concept replaced the old
one and constitutes the substratum of quantum theory. Moreover, the determinism
of classical physics was replaced by the indeterminism of quantum measurement.
These new concepts completely changed the philosophy of the natural law.
Determinism may not need God if the laws in nature operate independently, but
indeterminism would surely need an external God to decide the result and
coordinate the actions of different, sometimes conflicting laws. A
deterministic law can enforce a kind of self ruling; if the laws are
deterministic such that the entire universe can be run in a self-contained
manner, then there is no need for an external agent to run it. To the contrary, if indeterminism underlays
the structure of the laws of nature, then surely a need for an external ruler
will be inevitable. That is why Einstein could not accept the notion that the
Old One (God) plays dice5. Here reason conflicts with nature,
which does not necessarily follow the laws that our mind has devised, but follows
the laws that were devised by the Creator. The physical laws of nature that we are said to discover are
actually devised by our mind, the mind of Paul Davies for example, but not by
the “Mind of God”. So, in one way or another, we are discovering our mind and
the way our mind, not the Mind of God, works. This fact may be easily
recognized once we remember that people thought, for more that 200 years,
that Newton’s law of gravity is the law of God controlling the solar system.
Then it turned out that neither the mathematical formulation of Newton’s law
nor his concept of gravity were right, despite the fact that astronomers
successfully used it to calculate the orbits of the planets in the sky precisely,
and even to predict the existence of other planets which were duly discovered
later. That is why no one can catch God at work, not even the great Einstein
himself. Different conflicting and stand-alone laws cannot act by
themselves to produce the qualities of organization and delicacy of nature.
These laws need some coordinating mechanism which would be, in essence, yet
another law of nature. Otherwise we have to resort to an external agent that does not
abide by the characteristics of nature itself. There is no way we can find a natural
law
unifying all the laws in nature, simply because such a law would contain the
mechanism and control necessary for the coordination of all the other laws in
nature, and that is a self-defeating goal; because such a goal, in
replicating itself ad infinitum, must ever elude us. Therefore the role of an
external agent that does not follow nature is deemed necessary to resolve
such a dilemma, an agent that acts outside of space and time and does not
necessarily abide by our logic and comprehension. Physicists and other scientists need to revise the way they
think about God in order to be able to seriously comprehend the possibility
of having an external power, will or wisdom or whatever that initiates, controls and sustains the universe. God needs to be
thought of as an abstract entity that exists, acts and is beyond physical space
and time. Otherwise, if we think of God as an entity within and part of our physical
world and characterize him according to our scientific standards, then surely
we will be “led
to conclude that adding God would just make things more complicated, and this
hypothesis should be rejected by scientific standards”
as
Sean Carroll puts it (Carroll 2003). God is
not physical; should it be so he would be contained within the universe. He
would then be subject to the laws of the universe and would need a
supernatural power to coordinate his acts and sustain his will and power. References Al- Ghazālī,
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233-54. Grünbaum, A. (1994), “Some Comments on William Craig’s
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American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. Wolfson, H. 1976. The Philosophy of the Kalām, Harvard University Press, 1976. Short CV M.B. Altaie
is a professor of theoretical physics at Yarmouk
University, Jordan. He obtained his Ph.D. degree
from Manchester University (UK) in 1978, specialized in the theory of general relativity and the cosmology of
the early universe. He has published number of
papers in quantum cosmology in an endeavor to
suggest a model for the very early universe preceding the big bang
stage. Altaie has published several books (in Arabic) including relativity, astronomy,
and science and religion. His main interest focuses
on utilizing the methodology and arguments of Islamic Kalām in the contemporary science and religion debate. |
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