An Accidental Universe is As Likely As a Created One

Stephen Hawking, one of the World’s leading scientists, released a new book in 2010 called, ‘The Grand Design.’ He and his co-author, Leonard Mlodinow, stated that, ‘you don’t need God to create the universe because the laws of gravity and a certain version of quantum physics suffice to make it inevitable that the universe will create itself, out of nothing, in an infinite variety of forms; and given an infinite variety of forms, a segment or sub-universe friendly to mankind is bound to develop, no design needed, grand or not.’ He also later on in the book writes that, ‘spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.’ Both of these quotes are strong evidence that the universe is an accidental one, and there is no such thing as a creator or a created universe. A strength of this is it completely rules out God, so therefore rules out any questions like, ‘How did God come about’ or ‘Why do we have the problem of evil if God exists.’ If God or any other creator doesn’t exist, then it becomes much simpler and rules out lots of unanswerable questions.

A weakness of this is that it doesn’t really explain how the universe was created accidentally. It just states that it has something to do with the laws of gravity and quantum physics as if they are a given. Quantum physics, itself, is still a hypothesis so cannot be proven itself, let alone prove something else. So, although Hawking makes it obvious that he believes that the universe is accidental, he doesn’t have clear scientific evidence to prove this. Overall I think that the an accidental universe is not as likely as a created one, as the world is just to finite in detail and perfect to be a fluke. The creation of the World was just too prefect that it couldn’t of happened by accident. By agreeing with modern science, we are saying that the Big Bang created the universe. Had the Big Bang been different, the universe probably wouldn’t contain life. Had the rate of expansion been even fractionally slower, then the Big Bang would have been followed by a big crunch before life could have even developed. Had the rate of expansion been even fractionally faster, then stars and planets could not have formed.

It is highly unlikely therefore that an accidental Big Bang would be such as to allow life to develop and therefore highly unlikely that the universe is accidental. This then gives us proof that there is a perfect, necessary and eternal Creator whose purpose in creating the universe was to bring about life. A strength of this is that it explains how the universe came to be with its finite level of detail. It also reassures us knowing that there is a greater power watching over us. A weakness of this is if God or a creator did create the universe then why is the universe not completely perfect. If God exists, then why do we have natural evils which cause suffering and devastation all over the World? It also begs the question, if God created the World, then what created God?

Overall, I think that a created World is more likely than an accidental one because the creation of the World is too prefect that it couldn’t have happened by accident In conclusion, I think that a created World is more likely than an accidental one because the World has such as high level of detail that it couldn’t have just happened by accident. For example, trees take in carbon dioxide which keeps our air cleaner but then releases oxygen so we can breathe. This can’t of happened by accident as it’s system us too complex, so it must have been created.