In a thread on DeenPort we were asked for comments on Prof Krauss’ book in which he claims that according to modern physics the universe could have spontaneously come into existence without any act of creation. My simple response was to ask, how did the laws of physics come into existence?
Mansoor Malik brought to our attention the excellent critique of the book here:
Here I capture some further thoughts about the issue.
When I asked where the laws of physics came from, I wasn’t trying to prove the existence of God, but more to show that Professor Krauss’s opinion that something came out of nothing is not true because there existed something (e.g. physical laws) that provided the necessary infrastructure for the something (our material universe) to come into being. For instance it is a theory in modern physics that particles such as electrons can be spontaneously created “ex nihilo” in a vacuum. However, these particles are not really coming out of nothing (nihilo), as it requires a certain amount of energy for the particle to come into existence. It turns out that a vacuum in space is believed to have an energy density (i.e. it contains energy which can spontaneously convert into matter) and therefore a vacuum in space is not, to my mind, “nothing”. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy). The energy is changed into matter (the electron) as per Einstein’s well known formula E = mc2. Prof Krauss presumably thinks that space (a vacuum) was ‘always there’ and its existence needs no explanation. I consider that a highly naive assumption and strongly disagree. Further, how and why does E = mc2 hold, for example?
Having said the above, there is a stronger argument at the meta level (i.e. stepping back a bit and looking at the problem from the outside). Consider a thought experiment. We simulate a universe similar to our own (in some type of computer for example). Whether that is in fact physically possible is not relevant to the argument. Let us call this simulated universe the Inner universe, and our actual universe the Outer universe. The Inner universe is entirely simulated in all dimensions i.e. all points in Inner space and time are simulated and observable by us so that we can look at any simulated point at any moment in simulated time. According to scientists of Professor Krauss’s ilk, life and even consciousness can evolve in such a universe. Let us therefore say that an entity very similar to Prof Krauss is found to have evolved in the Inner simulated universe. He sees a universe with exactly the same properties as our own. This entity, having a simulated brain very similar to Prof Krauss and observing a universe of the same laws as those of our own universe, makes the statement that his universe came into being entirely ex nihilo and therefore was not the result of an act of creation.
Well, clearly this Prof Krauss in the Inner universe is wrong, as we in the Outer universe created his universe. You see where this argument is going, we too are potentially in an Inner universe, and our Prof Krauss is equally as wrong as the one in our Inner universe. God (ultimately) created our Inner universe. We have absolutely no conception of what lies “outside” our universe and experimentation within our universe tells us nothing about how our universe came into being. We are entirely trapped in this universe and cannot see nor even have the faintest conception of what “exists” other than our universe (except by revelation).
It was noted that in my book A Message For Tuqa, I do not advance a proof for the existence of God.
Given therefore that science does not answer the fundamental questions to which I sought answers, I turned to a recognition of my soul, and the creator of my soul. In the quran and the teachings of the prophet I found a sound compass as to where and how to seek further insight.
Where does faith come from?