THE BEGINNER'S END

Wilkinson microwave anisotropy probe, also known as WMAP gave us a picture of the baby universe. In the picture shown below the universe was only 375,000 years old. Today its age is known to be 13.8 billion years give or take. There is enough proof that the big bang has occurred but a more interesting question is why it occurred. Who or what started it? There are many theories surrounding this. I would like to share a few of them.

Those who believe in god or a supernatural being think it’s the work of God. But the first question that comes to mind when you hear this is who created god. How did God come into existence? This is often ignored and covered up by saying God has been there forever. It’s not a satisfying answer though. Another thing is that supernatural powers don’t exist. However bizarre of a phenomenon you witness it’s always science, governed by known or yet to be discovered laws of physics. Science is already so spooky that you don’t need supernatural stuff to explain something. I mean space can be curved, particles can exist in two places at the same time, time is relative and time travel is possible. Isn’t science already weird enough? 

The point is that we know there was no god involved in the creation of human beings. We are a result of natural selection. In fact, we know there is no hand of God in the creation of most things in the universe. Like stars, planets, galaxies etc. it’s only when science is unable to explain something the idea of God is invoked. This is known as the “god of the gaps” argument. 1000 years ago everything beyond the sky was the work of God. Even events like eclipses. But once science explains everything those claims are forgotten and god recedes to the next unexplained phenomenon which right now is what happened before the big bang. So the big bang is claimed to be the work of God.

People often say that if there isn’t a creator then why is the universe so fine-tuned for life to exist. However, the counter to that is the Anthropic principle. This basically says that the universe gives the illusion of being fine-tuned for life but in reality, it only looks fine-tuned because observers already exist.

To understand this I would like you to imagine the following:

Imagine you are 6 years old and you are playing a game with your mother. The game is as follows. A coin is tossed and you win if its heads and you lose if its tails. However, you are kind of a competitive kid who hates losing and would cry immediately if that happens. So your mother who immensely loves you puts a blindfold to you and then tosses the coin and only lets you take off the blindfold if you win. If you lose she immediately tosses the coin again until its heads and only then lets you look at the outcome. As a result, you always win and start believing that you have some kind of powers that let you win always.

It’s only when intelligent life comes into existence that they start making observations and ask the question of why is universe fine-tuned for life? Whereas in all the universes where life doesn’t come into existence there is no one to ask the question “why the universe is not fine-tuned for life?” You are only opening your eyes when you win which gives an illusion of you winning all the time.

The next interesting theory that I like the most is that the universe came from nothing. As equal amounts positive and negative sum up to give zero. Matter and antimatter sum to give nothing. Where did the antimatter go is a question yet to be answered. Scientists suspect something at the time big bang favored the creation of matter. One particle per billion of the matter was in excess and after the annihilation of matter and antimatter, the leftover matter formed the known stars, planets, and galaxies.

The last theory is that maybe we are created by an advanced civilization of alien species. However, this doesn’t answer the question, who created those aliens? Did they come from nothing? If they did, why do we need an intermediate step? We ourselves could have come from nothing. Maybe we are in the physics lab of an advanced alien civilization or more interestingly maybe we are in their computer lab running as a computer simulation.

However, I find myself in this peculiar position where I don’t how I came into existence and what’s to be done in this life which most likely seems like an accident. Not a lot of atoms in this universe are a part of a conscious being and I am lucky to be a conscious being. But this physical state is only temporary and each one of us is going to become a part of the unconscious cosmic dust sooner or later. Life is precious. Enjoy it to the fullest before you regret it. Cheers!!!

-Ajet