A creator-proving equation
A Harvard scientist has made a surprising claim that a mathematical formula might actually support the idea of God’s existence, even though many people think scientists usually try to challenge religious beliefs. This claim comes from Dr. Willie Soon, who is both an astrophysicist and an aerospace engineer. He recently shared his thoughts on the Tucker Carlson Encounter show.
In a YouTube video from the show, Dr. Soon talked about a significant equation from 1928 that suggests the universe was designed with purpose. He mentioned a theory related to the prediction of antimatter by the famous physicist Paul Dirac. Dr. Soon explained the ‘fine-tuning argument,’ which says that the laws of physics in our universe are so exact that life couldn’t have just happened by chance. According to this idea, the conditions necessary for life are too perfectly arranged to be random.
After the Big Bang, scientists think that matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts. But surprisingly, there is a lot less antimatter in the universe than we would expect.
Since antimatter has the opposite charge of matter, if they were equal, they would have canceled each other out. This means there wouldn’t be any matter left to create stars, planets, or even life. Dr. Soon believes that this difference isn’t just a coincidence; it shows that there might be some kind of design behind it.
He also pointed out that some discoveries in physics seem to reveal important truths about the universe even before they are proven through experiments. A good example of this is Dirac’s equation from 1928, which went against the known laws of physics at the time but was later found to be correct.
Dirac, who is often called the ‘father of antimatter,’ discovered its existence while trying to figure out issues related to how fast subatomic particles move. Scientists had already created equations for slow-moving electrons, but they were still puzzled by high-speed particles.
Dirac tried to combine Albert Einstein’s well-known equation E=mc² with Schrödinger’s equation, which helps predict where a particle might be at a certain time. At first, his calculations didn’t work out, so he came up with the idea of a new kind of electron that had negative energy.
This surprising idea confused many scientists because they didn’t understand what it meant back then. However, Dirac thought the equation was so simple and beautiful that it had to be right.
Just a few years later, in 1932, scientists proved that antimatter existed when they found the first antimatter particles in cosmic rays.
Famed mathematician & theoretical physicist, Paul Dirac (Getty Images)
Dirac’s research was super important because it started a whole new area of physics called quantum field theory. This field mixes the ideas of quantum mechanics with Einstein’s theory of relativity.
In 1963, Dirac made a really interesting comment about the universe. He suggested that the beauty found in mathematical laws might point to some kind of higher intelligence.
Dirac said, “It seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms of mathematical theory of great beauty and power, needing quite a high standard of mathematics for one to understand it.”
He also mentioned, “One could perhaps describe the situation by saying that God is a mathematician of a very high order, and He used very advanced mathematics in constructing the universe.”
Dr. Soon’s ideas are similar to those of other thinkers like Richard Swinburne and Robin Collins. They argue that things like the strength of gravity, the ratio of proton to electron mass, and the cosmological constant support the idea of fine-tuning in the universe.
They believe that if any of these values were even a little different, life as we know it wouldn’t be possible.
This long-standing argument between science and religion still causes a lot of debate, but if Dr. Soon is right, then math could be seen as strong evidence for a divine creator.
Featured Image Credit: Tucker Carlson / YouTube