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Book Reviews
by Ronald C. Lasky
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0. Beond A Reasonable Doubt: Evidence for a Designed Universe
by Ronald C. Lasky
Since 1964 when Penzias and Wilson discovered the remnant microwave background from the “big bang,” a converging understanding of the creation of the universe has been stable now for decades. Although small perturbations in this understanding occasionally occur as new information unfolds, these new findings are eventually understood in the context of the big bang theory. No theory appears on the horizon to supplant the big bang theory and most practicing astronomers and physicists currently accept it.
This book will briefly review the two thousand years of science that culminated in the big bang theory. It will then examine the evidence that supports a famous statement by acclaimed British physicist Stephen Hawking:
The odds against a universe like ours emerging out of something like the Big Bang are enormous… I think there are clearly religious implications whenever you start to discuss the origins of the universe. There must be religious overtones. But I think most scientists prefer to shy away from the religious side of it.
To examine this statement, I will discuss the unique nature of the physical constants and laws in our universe and their suitability to allow the creation of the cosmos. It will be shown that if these physical constants and laws were only slightly different there would be no matter at all, let alone life. As examples of the fine-tuning of these laws and constants, among others, our examination will include the formation of the elements from primordial hydrogen. In this analysis, I will review in some detail the creation of carbon, oxygen, and iron and show that were the physical laws and constants only slightly different, no elements with higher atomic masses than hydrogen would have been created. The four fundamental forces of nature (gravitational, electrical, strong nuclear and weak nuclear) will also be presented, again arriving at the same conclusion…if they were only slightly different, the cosmos and life would not exist. From the tiny hydrogen atom to the mightiest galaxy, the universe cries out to us that it is designed.
1. The Many Works of Paul Davies.
I belong to the group of scientists who do not subscribe to a conventional religion but nevertheless deny that the universe is a purposeless accident. Through my scientific work I have come to believe more and more strongly that the physical universe is put together with an ingenuity so astonishing that I cannot accept it as a brute fact. There must, it seems to me, be a deeper level of explanation. Whether one wishes to call that deeper level “God” is a matter of taste and definition. Furthermore , I have come to the point of view that mind- i.e. conscious awareness of the world – is not a meaningless and incidental quirk of nature, but an absolutely fundamental facet of reality. That is not to say that we are the purpose for which the universe exists. Far from it. I do, however, believe that we human beings are built into the scheme of it in some basic way.
---Paul Davies in The Mind of God, Touchstone, 1992
Davies stands alone as the author of the most books that support evidence for a designed universe. My favorites are: About Time, God and The New Physics, Superforce, The Accidental Universe, The Forces of Nature, The Matter Myth, and The Mind of God.
2. Before the Beginning, Just Six Numbers By Martin Rees
If there were nothing beyond our universe, its properties indeed seem fine tuned, or even providential. Martin Rees in Before the Beginning, Addison Wesley, 1997.
Although Rees is an atheist, his two books stick to the facts and, to me, present a cogent argument for design.
3. Achilles in a Quantum Universe, By Richard Morris
…we cannot help but be reminded of the argument from design when we consider all the improbable coincidences upon which life depends. Richard Morris in Achilles in the Quantum Universe, Addison-Wesley, 1997.
Morris is another author that is likely not a theist, but he presents many of the scientific arguments for design rather well.
4. Darwin on Trial, By Phillip Johnson Darwin’s Black Box, By Michael Behe
No one at Harvard University, no one at the National Institutes of Health, no member of the National Academy of Science, no Nobel Prize winner- no one at all can give a detailed account of how the celium, or vision or blood clotting or any complex biological process might have developed in a Darwinian fashion.
---Michael J. Behe in Darwin’s Black Box p 187, Touchstone, 1996
Phillip Johnson’s Darwin on Trial is the first (in time) best book pointing out the scientific and logical weaknesses of Darwinism. The second (in time) best book, Michael Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box shows the weakness of Darwinism to offer even a theoretical explanation for the development of irreducibly complex mechanisms such as an eye or the sense of hearing.
5. Nature’s Destiny By Michael Denton
As an author and speaker, reading Denton’s Natures Destiny was a humbling experience. Probably nowhere else are so many arguments for design listed and explained so clearly. A “must read” for all interested in the topic of evidences for a designed universe.
6. Mere Creation, Intelligent Design By William Dembski
Mere Creation is a collection of chapters on design, where as Intelligent Design is Dembski’s own work. Both are significant and valuable pieces of work, but can be challenging reading. Dembski is a brilliant young mathematician and philosopher and appears to be the new leader for the design movement.
7. The First Three Minutes, Dreams of a Final Theory By Steven Weinberg
…the more the universe seems comprehensible the more it seems pointless.
--- Stephen Weinberg, Nobel laureate, in The First Three Minutes, Basic Books, 1993
Weinberg is one of the most famous practicing nuclear physicists, having co-discovered the unification of the electromagnetic and weak nuclear force unification. He claims to regret his quote above, and his perspective does not appear to be that of a theist, however his books are considered classics in the field of understanding the cosmos. I feel I’m counted in the company of Freeman Dyson we he says: “I have some disagreement with Weinberg’s philosophy, but I have no disagreement with his facts.”
8. The Inflationary Universe By Alan Guth
Any current understanding of big bang cosmology requires understanding “Inflation.” This book is written by the man who discovered/invented it. A bit challenging in some chapters, but Guth has an engaging style.
9. Universes By John Leslie
Leslie’s book is a good compendium of facts relating to the universe and the big bang. He does a good job on the “fine tuning” arguments.
10. The Little Book of the Big Bang By Craig Hogan
This is an excellent, little book about the big bang.
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