Chapter 4: Cosmic Rules and Laws

What are the ultimate rules of the Universe? From where have they come? Do they exist only in the mind of human beings? Or do they exist independently of mankind? Why do they exist?

Prof. John D. Barrow: "Another possibility is that the Universe is not, as its root, a great symmetry, but a computation. The ultimate laws of Nature may be akin to software running upon the hardware provided by elementary particles and energy. The laws of physics might then be derived from some more basic principles governing computation and logic." (1999:64, 65).

"We might ask whether a 'Theory of Everything' will be mathematical. All our scientific studies of the Universe assume that it is well described by mathematical structure. Is this really a presumption? We can think of mathematics as being the description (or the collection) of all possible patterns. Some of these patterns have physical manifestations, while others are more abstract. Defined in this way, we can see that the existence of mathematics is inevitable in universes that possess structure and pattern of any sort. In particular, if life exists then pattern must exist, and so must mathematics. There is at present no reason to believe that there exists any type of structure that could not be described by mathematics." (1999:68, 69).

"We know already that the finite velocity of light ensures that we have a visual horizon (about fifteen billion light years away) in the Universe, beyond which light has not had time to reach us since the expansion of the Universe began. Thus, we are always prevented from ascertaining the structure of the entire Universe (which may be infinite in extent). Astronomers are confined to studying a finite portion of it, called the visible universe." (1999:72).

"All scientists regard the unity of the Universe as an unspoken presupposition that owes much to the great monotheistic faiths that underwrote Western science's faith in the rationality of Nature. A single Lawgiver means a single legislation: the decrees are what we call the laws of Nature. In subjects like astronomy and physics this has proved a stupendously successful working hypothesis. A small number of simple rules have enabled us to extend understanding of Nature from the inner space of the most elementary particles of matter to the outer space of the expanding universe of galaxies and quasars. We can understand the past and predict the future to an accuracy that the social sciences can only dream about. The unexpected ease with which we can express so many of the superficial complexities of the Universe into simple patterns is at once an unexpected gift and the reason why we find mathematics to be so successful in telling us how the world works.

"The Universe appears to be governed by a small number of fundamental forces (four, it seems from what we have seen so far) whose form is dictated by symmetrical patterns. These few patterns determine the forms of the laws of Nature. Physicists believe they are on course to unify them into a single 'superforce'. Yet, the outcomes of those few laws - the staggering diversity of structures we see in the Universe - need not possess the same simple patterns as the laws themselves. That is the secret of the Universe: how it is possible for a small number of simple laws to produce such a never-ending abundance of asymmetrical complexity." (1999:78, 79).

"Mathematics offers a sure path to understanding Nature's workings. ... Most mathematicians neither know nor care what mathematics is: it is simply what mathematicians do. If you question your mathematical friends more closely, you will find a range of quite different views on offer: for some it is merely a game of logical patterns, like chess or chequers; for others it is the uncovering of a deep structure of reality, the nearest we get to thinking the unadulterated thoughts of God.

"If you want to prove further and discover why mathematics is so unreasonably effective in describing how the world works, then few mathematicians will offer a strong opinion. If one sees mathematics as the great catalogue of all possible patterns that there can be, then it becomes inevitable that the world 'is' mathematical. We could not exist in a patternless chaos. Any intelligible universe must therefore contain patterns. But this does not exorcise the real mystery. Why are such simple patterns so far-reaching in their explanatory power?" (1999:83).

Why is the Universe mathematical?

"The most all-consuming category of thought that dominates our deepest images of the physical Universe is mathematics. Mathematics is the 'language' that allows us to talk most effectively, efficiently, and logically about the nature of things. But this mathematical language differs from other languages. It is not like English or Spanish. It is more like a computer language because it possesses a built-in logic.

"So mathematics is a language with a built-in logic. But what is so striking about this language is that it seems to describe how the world works not just sometimes, not just approximately, but invariably and with unfailing accuracy. All the fundamental sciences - physics, chemistry, and astronomy - are mathematical sciences. No phenomenon has ever been discovered in these subjects for which a mathematical description is not only possible but beautifully appropriate." (1999:85).

"Science seems to believe so deeply in the mathematical structure of Nature that it is an unquestioned article of faith that mathematics is both necessary and sufficient to describe everything from the inner space of elementary particles to the outer space of distant stars and galaxies - even the Universe itself. What are we to make of the ubiquity (= present everywhere) of mathematics in the constitution of the Universe? Is it evidence of a deep logic within the Universe: if so, where does that logic come from? Is it just a creation of our own minds or is God a mathematician? We are confronted by a mystery. Why does the symbolic language of mathematics have everything to do with falling apples, splitting atoms, exploding stars, or fluctuating stock markets? Why does reality follow a mathematical lead?" (1999:87).

"The most straightforward view of mathematics is to maintain that the world is mathematical in some deep sense. Mathematical concepts exist and they are discovered by mathematicians, not invented. Mathematics exists whether or not there are mathematicians. It is a universal language... Realism of this sort seems tantamount to the view that God is a mathematician. And indeed, if the entire material Universe is described by mathematicians (as modern cosmology assumes) then there must exist some immaterial logic that is larger than the material Universe." - Barrow, J. D. (1999:89).

"The growth of science has been wedded to a faith in the effectiveness of mathematics as a description of the Universe. Its utility is a secret whose recognition opened the door to our understanding and a manipulation of Nature. We do not fully know why mathematics works. ... Physicists have always been struck by the unreasonable utility of mathematics as a description of the physical world. Time and again they have found the esoteric pieces of so-called 'pure' mathematics, written long ago by mathematicians interested only in the internal harmony and elegance of the subject, turn out to be precisely the language in which some newly discovered facet of Nature is most naturally expressed. Their amazement is heightened by the fact that mathematics in Nature involves the subtlest structures that are the furthest removed from everyday experience. Moreover, lest one think that current mathematical explanations amount to retracing our own footprints in the sands of time, it works most powerfully in the astronomical and elementary particle realms, ... What we learn is that Nature is expressed in the language of mathematics - a language that differs in crucial respects from a language like English. Make a grammatical mistake and we can still communicate. But break the rules of logic and all is lost.

"Mathematics is like a computer language because it has a built-in logic whose neglect empties it of meaningful content. It may be helpful in the early stages to teach English in a way that overlooks spelling errors and grammatical infelicities (using it wrongly). But to apply such an attitude to logical accuracy when teaching mathematics would spell disaster." (1999:99).

"The number symbols we use were first introduced in ancient India. They represent the greatest intellectual innovation in history. They are far more universal than the letters of the Phoenician alphabet in which this sentence is written. They are a masterpiece of economical information storage. With just 10 symbols, any quantity can be represented. The secret is the 'place value' trick where the relative position of the symbols carries information. Thus 11 means 10 plus one. In a system without this nuance, like Roman numerals, the relative position of the symbols does not carry information. The result is a cumbersome system in which even the multiplication of the two Roman numerals, like CVII and LXIII, is a major enterprise because the notation does not think for you in the way that it does when we multiply 107 by 63." - Barrow, J. D. (1999:100).

"When we probe the inner space of the most elementary particles of matter or the outer space of galaxies and stars we find that mathematics is wonderfully effective in its descriptions of what is to be found there. It is appropriate. It is unrivalled. And the mathematics upon which one can count is not just the mundane and the familiar: it is the deepest and most abstract of the creations that the pure mathematicians - those poets of its language - have fashioned from the slightest promptings of reality. Time and again it has been found that these other-worldly studies have provided the physicist with precisely the logic and pattern required to describe and predict Nature's most deeply laid and glittering mechanisms. So successful has the mathematical modelling of Nature been in the realms of fundamental physics that the ultimate theories of physics are sought in no other place than in the catalogue of beautiful mathematical structures." (1999:103).

"Mathematicians do not merely invent mathematics to suit their own purpose: they discover it. This requires them to maintain that there exists another world of mathematical entities or ideas and the mathematical nature of reality is a manifestation of the blueprints of absolute truth that reside there. It also requires them to suppose that there exists some strange means by which we are able to interact with this other world of mathematical ideas so that our minds become aware of them. The means by which we do so is left unexplained." (1999:212).

"The cogs of the Newtonian world view which meshed 300 years ago provided onlookers with a picture of the world as a vast mechanism following God-given 'laws that never shall be broken. For their guidance hath He made.' ... The Newtonian apologists pointed to the existence of invariant laws themselves as evidence for an omnipotent lawgiver behind the scenes. We must appreciate, however, that this scientific picture of the world was not treated like any modern one. It was not doubted in any way. Newton was widely regarded as having discovered how the Almighty had constructed the world." - Barrow, J. D. (1999:213).

Result

The spatial and temporal order of the spherical Universe, with its diameter of 24 billion light years and its circumference of 75 billion light years, cannot have arisen with information, sent with the speed of light. It was made with information (cosmic software), transmitted instantaneously. And it is preserved with information, transmitted instantaneously. The Universe contains information and highest mathematics. They exist independently of mankind. Man has only found and understood them a little. Information and mathematics are spiritual, nonmaterial. They have their source in the spiritual, nonmaterial world, with the Creator. This information comes from the true God, the God of the Bible. His name is Jehovah. It means, He causes to become. He has thought out and made the Universe with its atoms and their particles, the clusters of galaxies, and the whole Universe, and the physical laws, ruling them. And he keeps it going.