00:00I recently published a book that asked if God created the universe.
00:04It caused something of a stir.
00:07People got upset that a scientist should have anything to say on matters of religion.
00:14I have no desire to tell anyone what to believe,
00:17but for me, asking if God exists is a valid question for science.
00:23After all, it is hard to think of a more important or fundamental mystery.
00:30Then what, or who, created and controls the universe?
00:35The universe is a machine governed by principles or laws,
00:41laws that can be understood by the human mind.
00:47I believe the discovery of these laws has been humankind's greatest achievement.
00:53For it's these laws of nature, as we now call them,
00:57that will tell us whether we need a God to explain the universe at all.
01:03For centuries, it was believed that disabled people, like me,
01:08were living under a curse inflicted by God.
01:11While I suppose it's possible that I've upset someone up there,
01:15I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way,
01:19by the laws of nature.
01:23So what exactly is the law of nature, and why is it so powerful?
01:28Is that these physical laws, as well as being unchangeable, are universal.
01:33They apply not just to the flight of a ball, but to the motion of a planet,
01:43and everything else in the universe.
01:47Unlike laws made by humans, the laws of nature cannot ever be broken.
01:53That's why they are so powerful, and when seen from a religious standpoint, controversial too.
01:59If you accept, as I do, that the laws of nature are fixed,
02:06then it doesn't take long to ask, what role is there for God?
02:11This is a big part of the contradiction between science and religion,
02:16and although my views have recently made headlines,
02:20it is actually an ancient conflict.
02:23Science does not deny religion.
02:25The dust offers a simpler alternative,
02:28but several mysteries remain.
02:31After all, if the earth moves,
02:33could it be God that moves it?
02:36Ultimately, did God create the universe in the first place?
02:40I believe it's a cosmologist's duty
02:43to try and work out where the universe came from.
02:46Luckily, it's not quite as difficult as it seems.
02:50Despite the complexity and variety of the universe,
02:56it turns out that to make one,
02:58you need just three ingredients.
03:00Let's imagine we could list them in some kind of cosmic cookbook.
03:05So, what are the three ingredients we need to cook up a universe?
03:09The first is matter.
03:13Stuff that has mass.
03:16Rock, ice, liquids, vast clouds of gas,
03:22massive spirals of stars,
03:24each containing billions of suns,
03:26stretching away for incredible distances.
03:30The second thing you need
03:32is energy.
03:35Look up at the sun,
03:37and you can feel it on your face.
03:42Energy produced by a star
03:4493 million miles away.
03:50Energy permeates the universe,
03:53driving the processes that keep it a dynamic,
03:58endlessly changing place.
04:01So, we have matter,
04:03and we have energy.
04:05The third thing we need to build the universe
04:07is space.
04:11Lots of space.
04:14So, where could all this matter,
04:17energy, and space
04:19come from?
04:21We had no idea
04:23until well into the 20th century.
04:26Albert Einstein.
04:28Sadly, I never got to meet him,
04:31since I was only 13 when he died.
04:33Einstein realized something quite remarkable.
04:37That two of the main ingredients
04:39needed to make a universe,
04:41mass and energy,
04:43are basically the same thing.
04:46Two sides of the same coin, if you like.
04:49His famous equation,
04:50E equals mc squared,
04:53simply means that mass
04:54can be thought of as a kind of energy.
04:58and vice versa.
04:59So, instead of three ingredients,
05:02we can now say the universe
05:04has just two.
05:07Energy
05:07and space.
05:09So, where did all this energy and space come from?
05:13The answer was found after decades of work by scientists.
05:17Space and energy
05:19were spontaneously created
05:21created in an event we now call
05:23the Big Bang.
05:29At the moment of the Big Bang,
05:32an entire universe full of energy
05:34came into existence.
05:36And with it,
05:37space.
05:39It all inflated,
05:41just like a balloon being blown up.
05:44So, where did all this energy
05:49and space come from?
05:52We can use the laws of nature
05:54to grasp the very origins of the universe
05:57and discover if the existence of a god
06:00is the only way to explain it.
06:02The great mystery
06:04at the heart of the Big Bang
06:05is to explain
06:07how an entire,
06:08fantastically enormous universe
06:10of space and energy
06:12can materialize
06:13out of nothing.
06:18The secret lies
06:19in one of the strangest facts
06:21about our cosmos.
06:22The laws of physics
06:23demand the existence
06:24of something called
06:26negative energy.
06:28To get your head
06:30around this weird
06:31but crucial concept,
06:34let me draw a simple analogy.
06:36Imagine a man
06:37wants to build a hill
06:38on a flat piece of land.
06:41The hill
06:42will represent the universe.
06:52To make this hill,
06:54he digs a hole in the ground
06:55and uses that soil
06:57to build his hill.
07:02But of course,
07:03he's not just making a hill.
07:06He's also making
07:07a hole.
07:09In effect,
07:10a negative version
07:12of the hill.
07:14The stuff that was in the hole
07:16has now become the hill.
07:18So it all perfectly balances out.
07:24This is the principle
07:25behind what happened
07:27right at the beginning
07:27of the universe.
07:29When the Big Bang
07:30produced a vast amount
07:31of positive energy,
07:33it simultaneously
07:34produced the same amount
07:36of negative energy.
07:40In this way,
07:41the positive and the negative
07:42add up to zero.
07:45Always.
07:47It's another law of nature.
07:49So where is all this
07:55negative energy
07:56today?
08:00It's in space.
08:03This may sound odd,
08:06but according to the laws
08:07of nature concerning gravity
08:09and motion,
08:10laws that are among
08:11the oldest in science,
08:13space itself
08:14is a vast store
08:16of negative energy.
08:17enough to ensure
08:20that everything
08:21adds up to zero.
08:25The universe
08:26is like an enormous
08:28battery
08:29storing negative energy.
08:32The positive side of things,
08:34the mass and the energy
08:35we see today,
08:37is like the hill.
08:38The corresponding hole
08:40or negative side of things
08:41is spread throughout space.
08:44So what does that mean
08:46on our quest
08:47to find out
08:48if there is a god?
08:52It means that
08:53if the universe
08:54adds up to nothing,
08:55then you don't need
08:57a god to create it.
09:00Since we know
09:01that the positive
09:02and negative
09:03in the universe
09:04adds up to zero,
09:05all we have to do now
09:07is work out what,
09:08or dare I say who,
09:10triggered the whole process
09:12in the first place,
09:13down to the atomic level,
09:16and right down
09:18to the subatomic level,
09:21and you enter a world
09:24where conjuring something
09:26out of nothing
09:26is possible,
09:28at least for a short while.
09:32That's because at this scale,
09:34particles such as protons
09:36behave according to
09:38to the laws of nature
09:39we call
09:39quantum mechanics.
09:41And they really can appear
09:43at random.
09:46Stick around for a while
09:48and then vanish again
09:50to reappear somewhere else.
09:55Since we know
09:56the universe itself
09:57was once very small,
10:00smaller than a proton,
10:01in fact,
10:02this means
10:03something quite remarkable.
10:05it means
10:07the universe itself
10:08in all of its
10:10mind-boggling
10:11vastness and complexity
10:12can simply
10:14have popped
10:14into existence
10:16without
10:17violating
10:18the known laws
10:20of nature.
10:22In a nutshell,
10:24do we need a god
10:25to set it all up
10:26so that the
10:27Big Bang could
10:28bang?
10:29I have no desire
10:33to offend
10:34anyone of faith,
10:36but I think
10:36science has
10:37a more compelling
10:38explanation
10:39than a divine creator.
10:41who
10:56who
10:56have
10:57died
10:59because
11:00there
11:00have
11:02become
11:02everlasting
11:03and
11:03go
11:04to them
11:05and
11:05the
11:07second
Yorumlar