Einstein and the Spaghetti String Theory, Part I

Scientific Discoveries and our Perception of God

Reading further in Neffe's Einstein biography, I've come to the section on the history of science up to Einstein's time, and how the young boy's reading affected his later discoveries and the course of his life.

One of the things that struck me was Neffe's description of Newton's view of God and how it affected his concept of the universe: "God is forever, and is present everywhere. Being eternal and omnipresent, He creates space and time" (my translation). Newton sees God as existing in space and time, so for him, space and time must be absolute and constant, otherwise God would not be perfect. Even if nothing else existed, space and time would continue. "Eternity" meant simply the infinite continuation of time.

Then along came the theories of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, and suddenly nothing was as before!

Not only are space and time relative; they are inextricably intertwined with matter, and began at the Big Bang.

According to the "Planck World", the universe began in a nutshell, in a manner of speaking. This is a short description of how I understand it. (Let me say at this point that I'm only just beginning to understand these things myself, so please excuse any over-simplifications on my part! If you see any errors, please let me know.)

First of all, some necessary definitions:

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle:
A theory stating that it is impossible to simultaneously specify the position and momentum of a particle, such as an electron, with precision. Also called the indeterminacy principle, the theory further states that a more accurate determination of one quantity will result in a less precise measurement of the other, and that the product of both uncertainties is never less than Planck's Constant, named after the German physicist Max Planck. Of very small magnitude, the uncertainty results from the fundamental nature of the particles being observed. In quantum mechanics, probability calculations therefore replace the exact calculations of classical mechanics.
- http://www.fusionanomaly.net/uncertaintyprinciple.html

Schwarzschild radius:
A characteristic radius associated with every mass. The term is used in physics and astronomy, especially in the theory of gravitation, general relativity. It was found in 1916 by Karl Schwarzschild and results from his discovery of an exact solution for the gravitational field outside a static, spherically symmetric star. The Schwarzschild radius is proportional to the mass. The Sun has a Schwarzschild radius of approximately 3 km; the Earth's being approximately 9 mm. A star that collapses beyond its Schwarzschild radius becomes a black hole. The surface at the Schwarzschild radius acts as an event horizon in a static body. (A rotating black hole operates slightly differently.) Neither light nor particles can escape through this surface from the region inside, hence the name "black hole". The Schwarzschild radius of the super-massive black hole at our galactic centre is approximately 7.8 million km. The Schwarzschild radius of a sphere with a uniform density equal to the critical density is equal to the radius of the visible universe. It is coincidental that Schwarzschild also means "black shield", which is befitting for the idea of a black hole.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_radius

Curie point:
The Curie point is a term in physics and materials science, named after Pierre Curie (1859-1906), and refers to a characteristic property of a ferromagnetic material. The Curie point, or Curie temperature, Tc, of a ferromagnetic material, is the temperature above which it loses its characteristic ferromagnetic ability: the ability to possess a net (spontaneous) magnetization in the absence of an external magnetic field. At temperatures below the Curie point the magnetic moments are partially aligned within magnetic domains in ferromagnetic materials. As the temperature is increased from below the Curie point, thermal fluctuations increasingly destroy this alignment, until the net magnetization becomes zero at and above the Curie point. Above the Curie point, the material is purely paramagnetic. At temperatures below the Curie point, an applied magnetic field has a paramagnetic effect on the magnetization, but the combination of paramagnetism with ferromagnetism leads to the magnetization following a hysteresis curve with the applied field strength. The destruction of magnetization at the Curie temperature is a second-order phase transition and a critical point where the magnetic susceptibility is theoretically infinite.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie_temperature

When does the point of indeterminacy of a particle equal its Schwarzschild radius? In other words, when is the Schwarzschild radius so great that we can no longer determine what a particle is "doing"?

The particle would have to have the following dimensions (I haven't figured out how to do raised numbers in html, so please excuse the odd appearance.)

- 10-8 g mass
- 10-33 cm length
A light wave passing through this particle defines a period of time, namely:
- 10-34 seconds

Compress a mass of 10-8 g into a radius of 10-33 cm and you get the 10-93-fold density of water, with a Curie point of 1032 Kelvin. That is how the universe started out! The particles had no orientation and their distribution was almost perfectly symmetrical. Not until the universe began to expand and cool down did quarks combine to form protons and neutrons, and the first atoms (hydrogen and helium) come to be.

"The Universe in a Nutshell":
Planck mass: 10-8 g
Planck length: 10-33 cm
Planck temperature: 1032 Kelvin
Planck time: 10-34 seconds
Planck density 10-93-fold density of water

These are the smallest physically relevant measurements, and this is how the universe began. After the first 3 minutes, it consisted almost entirely of homogenous particle/anti-particle pairs that came together, destroyed each other and thereby released energy. But a miniscule asymmetry meant that out of every 10 billion particle/anti-particle pairs, one "orphaned" particle remained. The energy from the other pairs that destroyed each other created a quantum vacuum that worked like antigravity and caused the remaining particles to spread out. As the universe expanded and cooled, the particles joined to form atoms, the atoms coalesced into molecules, and so forth.

Physics begins where space and time become relevant. That only happens when information can be transferred from one point to another. When particles are indeterminate, so are space and time. Then there is no way to differentiate between cause and effect. Therefore Physics can tell us nothing about when space and time equaled zero, i.e., before the Big Bang. Space and time began with the expansion and cooling of the universe.

To help in understanding the concept of an expanding universe, I like to use the illustration of a balloon covered with dots. Before it's blown up, the dots are very close together, but as it expands, they spread out. Imagine there are two-dimensional beings that exist on the skin of this balloon. They can move between the dots, but cannot perceive any dimensions beyond their own. For them, time is linear.

Now say I blew up the balloon and am holding it. Because I'm outside of it and not part of it, I can interact with the two-dimensional beings at any point on the balloon at the same time. For me there is no difference between their past and their future, because I see everything at once. Indeed, I can cause the balloon to collapse again too.

Since quantum mechanics and the Theory of Relativity have revolutionized our view of the universe, it has become easier to imagine a God who is independent of space and time, and created both. For me, that is the answer to how Christ's death around 2000 years ago can be relevant for us today. God sees each of us as we were, are and will be, but also sees Christ's sacrifice for us as though it were just happening! That is how Christ could pay the price for all sin in all (our) times: past, present and future. And at some point, God will bring space and time to a close. Then, once more, there will only be eternity. Eternity isn't time going on forever; it is the absence of time (and space) as we know it. That is why the most sacred name of God in the Old Testament is Yahweh, or "I AM". In other words, He exists in the "eternal present".

One last question:

What is easier to believe?

1. That the universe just appeared out of nothing

- Or -

2. That God created it out of nothing?

Both views must be taken on faith, because science cannot tell us what happened before the Big Bang!

*Due to time constraints, I'll add the appropriate footnotes later.