Creation of Universe through Supernatural Power: Scientific and Vedantic Viewpoints

Indian Science Cruiser: vol. 2013

Creation of the Universe through Supernatural Power:

Scientific and Vedanta View-points Gopal C Bhar

Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, P.O. Belur Math 712202,

W Bengal India

Abstract: Science is unable to offer any plausible explanation in various cosmic and worldly affairs of

prime importance especially on the creation of the universe through Big Bang, creation of life, increase of

orderliness in the world, and keeping life-parameters fine-tuned for habitation. The biological complexity

cannot be generated by chance or natural processes. All these prove the presence of super mind behind the

universe. Proposed contents are as follows:

1. Introduction

2. Creation of the Universe: Cosmological Evidence

3. Consideration of Anthropic Principle

4. Evolution of Life

5. The Components Tuned for Life

6. Arguments from Laws of Thermodynamics

7. Conclusion

1. Introduction

The characteristics of God per popular scripture is described as the One who creates,

destroys and sustains the material existence, both animate and inanimate judging

perfectly well to what is right and what is wrong. God is omniscient (sarvajnah),

omnipotent (sarvasaktimaan) and all pervading (sarvabyapi):

उ�पि�म् च िबनाशम् च भुतानाम् आगितम् गित

वेि� िव�ाम् अिव�ाम् श सा बाचो भगबानेित

Utpttim cha Binasham cha Bhutanam Agatim Gati

Betti Vidyam Avidyam sha sa Bacho Bhagavanoti.

In the Bhagvad Gita Ch X.42, it is said that God with Supernatural Power is present

everywhere in the manifested Universe but remain mostly as unmanifested and that

cannot normally be realized through our senses. Even this universe is only a partial

aspect of Him. So He is not at all exhausted by that. He is hiding as subtle within gross

elements just like gross sky holds the subtle air within it.

In 1802 English theologian William Paley described the universe as intelligent design of

God since human creation of all products as of intelligent design. It was based on

Newton’s scientific findings in vogue at that time. Newton in the seventeenth century

through his discoveries of laws of Motion and Gravitation provided causal explanations

for the behaviour of all events in the universe, from the way the moon revolves around

the earth, and the planets revolve around the sun. Subject to the non-interference, the

location (position and momentum) of the moon at a given time determines the location of

the moon at every subsequent time. This fact, of course, together with other facts about

the position and momentum of the earth as it revolves around the sun, enables to

construct tide tables for decades, and even centuries in the future. In fact the universe was

considered as a wind-up clock which continues to run with certainty as everything is

predetermined and nobody has any control over it after rewind. However the clock

initially is required to be winded up by someone. However with the discovery of subtle

sub-atomic particles electron, proton, photon etc since the beginning of the twentieth

century, Newton’s law was unable to account for their behavior giving rise to birth of

New Physics by Niel Bohr, Max Planck, Schrodinger, Heisenberg etc and the

development of Quantum Physics. Quantum physics views the subtle particles as

nonphysical and non-local, interconnecting this universe (as a united whole) on all levels-

-from subatomic particles to the outer most galaxies. It is also based on the duality of

matter viz. particle and wave, and the uncertainty principle of Heisenberg. According to

that, events at the microphysical level occur by pure chance, without any causes

whatever. The latter leads to the concept of participation of the observer in the very

measurement process i. e. acting like subject, unlike impartial observer in

classical/Newtonian Physics. On the other hand another development came through

Einstein’s theory of relativity, supported by solid experimental observations of the

cosmos during the last couple of decades has revealed the creation of the universe is from

an event called Big Bang about 15 billion years ago, but some crucial points relating to

the working of the universe and the origin of life do not follow the well-established

scientific laws. Paley’s argument was refuted by Charles Darwin in 1859. Darwin in his

origin of species apparently tried to explain the complexity and diversity of life through

combined action of mutation and natural selection repeated over billion of years with

incremental improvement allowing for gradual emergent of improved species as is

adaptable to the existing environment. But the modern findings in Bio-Physics prohibit

such. Further, the very origin of life is impossible from inanimate materials and cannot

come from chance. Modern science has in fact given us powerful evidence that there

must be a supreme mind behind the creation and working of the universe. In particular

modern cosmology and the biology of evolution have given us amazing proof of super-

natural power. David Hume, eighteenth century philosopher pointed out the fact that we

cannot explain some phenomenon naturally lead us to conclude that it had to be a miracle

though in science respect is apparently more in the successful prediction of an

unexpected new phenomenon. These are discussed in this article on the basis of some

modern findings.

2. Creation of the Universe : Cosmological Evidence

The universe began with an explosion of unimaginable energy call Big Bang. When the

Big Bang occurred, the matter in the universe was randomly distributed. There were no

stars, planets or galaxies—just atoms floating about in the dark void of space. It is stated

that dark energy was the motivation force behind the big Bang. (It is stated that roughly

68% of the Universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest -

everything on Earth, ever sensed with all of our instruments, all normal matter - adds up

to the remaining less than 5% of the Universe). All matter, energy and even space and

time emerged from this explosion. Astronomical studies also revealed that the entire

universe, the solar system is populated with as many as 100 billion galaxies, each

carrying about 100 billion stars, it remains true that even today, scientific researches have

not been able to unravel this wondrous, incomprehensible mysteries surrounding the

entire Universe.

In the early phase the universe was filled with so called primordial soup consisting of a

sea of energetic subatomic particles electron, proton, neutron, photon etc. As it cools

down some of the particles joined together to produce nuclei of simple elements like

helium. Proton and electron combine to form hydrogen. According to the big-bang

theory, only hydrogen, deuterium helium, and lithium were formed in the early universe.

Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, and the other elements of the chemical periodic table

were not produced until billions of years later. Over the next billion years, the force of

gravity made the gas form clumps which become galaxies. As the universe expanded

outwards from the Big Bang, gravity pulled ever so gently on the atoms, gathering them

into clumps that eventually became stars and galaxies. Smaller clumps of gas collapsed

under its own weight and form stars. Inside the star hydrogen undergo nuclear reaction

forming heavier elements and releases excess energy. When a star runs out of hydrogen

its core collapses further and become hotter and end their life in explosion called super

novae in which elements they synthesized thrown into space, which mixed with H, He to

form rocky planets Mar, Earth, Venus etc. As the planets cool, the physical condition of

temperature and pressure and laws of chemistry determines what sort of chemicals is

produced in them. Nothing in the universe acts independently of the rest. It is a united

and linked whole. It is a cosmos, not a chaos. The evolution of the universe and of life

thereafter comes about through the operation of relevant scientific laws, as will be

discussed later in connection with creation of life. The whole process is harmonious and

coherent whole, where every stage depends on the previous stage, everything goes by

interacting with its environment. The environment is crucially important to universe and

also to life. As for example, the survival of a plant needs sunshine, air, water, needs

insects to pollinate dispersion of seeds, micro-organisms to breakdown dead plant and

animal matter etc. So everything in the world has a purpose in terms of overall

development of the universe. Nothing is irrelevant, everything has a part to play,

everything has a meaning. Einstein’s theory of relativity replies on the question of

creation of the universe through big bang with three predictions: The universe is

expanding from big bang; the created space and time is distorted at black holes, and an

enormous amount of energy called the dark energy, pulls the space apart sending the

galaxies beyond the edge of the visible universe.

Scientifically, there are at least two sets of major experimental evidence upon which big

bang cosmology rests: Expanding Universe and Cosmic Microwave Background

Radiation CMBR). The first discovery of Hubble in 1929 is all heavenly bodies

including earth were moving away from us. Hubble observed the red-shift of the light

from distant galaxies is proportional to their distances from us. This is like the frequency

shift of sound from a whistling railway engine as it passes away from us. The uniform

expansion of the universe is the simplest conclusion drawn from Hubble’s data. Earlier in

1915 Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity also gives good evidence of expanding

universe. The other major experimental finding is the cosmic microwave background

radiation. George Lemaitre and others too predicted that the heat from the Big Bang must

still exist as it would have nowhere to escape. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in 1964

discovered that the black empty space of the universe was not absolutely cold but it has a

slight temperature about 3 degrees of Kelvin above absolute zero degree of temperature.

It is neither localized nor did it have a definite source; instead, it is distributed equally

everywhere. This temperature is due to radiation left over in space after the big bang. The

distribution of temperature colours that has been measured, is found to be just like the

Planck’s radiation distribution for a black body at a temperature of 30 Kelvin. Such

microwave radiations exist all around us and is believed to constitute 1% noise in an

untuned analogue television screen. There are several other characteristic of the CMBR.

It is fairly uniform in all directions. The slight nonuniformity called anisotropy carry a

huge amount of information regarding the state of the universe. These fluctuations in

early universe, eventually led to formation of stars, galaxies and cluster under the

influence of gravity. The COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite found that

the universe is a perfect radiator with a background temperature 2.726 degree K. The

temperature at the creation was very hot. The universe radiates this heat over billions of

years since its creation to produce such an even temperature. The COBE measurement

also found in 1992 this temperature variation to such accuracy. This was later confirmed

by balloon experiments. It has also found that more than 90% of the universe consists of

dark energy and dark matter which is not sensible like conventional visible matter.

Further CMBR fluctuation measurement was taken up by WMAP (Wilson Microwave

Anisotropy Probe) satellite thereafter. The data support the concordance model of

cosmology. Additional supporting evidences are forthcoming through European Space

Agency’s mission of Planck satellite. Confronted by such evidence, Scientific American

in an article in its October 1994, noted that the Big Bang model was the only one that

could account for the constant expansion of the universe and for other observational

results. As Einstein pointed out, the significance of these experimental findings is that the

universe has a beginning. Through the principle of positive fact, if the universe has a

beginning, it must have a beginner, hence the existence of God. In words of British

astrophysicist Fred Hoyle: “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a

super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and

there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature”.

According to our time-honored Vedanta philosophy and Upanishads, this entire cosmos

consists of a brilliant interplay of harmony, where every little thing in the Universe is

organized and integrated with an extraordinary creative principle. There are two theories

of creation in Hindu Scripture: Creation through evolution from nirgun & nirakar

(commonly referred to as impersonal God) and creation from swagun & sakar (personal

God) being Nasadiya Sukta and Purusha Suktaपु�ष सू�म.् The former is based on

combination of Purusha and Prakati per Samkhya philosophy. This philosophy of

creation is described in Nasadiya Sukta of Rk Veda (129th Sukta of 10th Mandala)

which is a creation theory, basically saying that there was a beginning. The first one is

नासनासनासनासदासी�नोसदासी�ादानींदासी�नोसदासी�ादानींदासी�नोसदासी�ादानींदासी�नोसदासी�ादानीं नासीिजोनासीिजोनासीिजोनासीिजो नोनोनोनो �योमापरो�योमापरो�योमापरो�योमापरो यतयतयतयत |

�कमावर�व�कमावर�व�कमावर�व�कमावर�व: : : : कुहकःयशम!�न"भकुहकःयशम!�न"भकुहकःयशम!�न"भकुहकःयशम!�न"भ: : : : �कमासी$हनं�कमासी$हनं�कमासी$हनं�कमासी$हनं गभीरंगभीरंगभीरंगभीरं || It is the description of the Ultimate State prior to Creation. This Ultimate State is

designated as either EXISTANT or NON-EXISTANT. This is the state of Being and

Nothingness. There was NOTHING SECOND to it. From this the "One", animated by

its own impulse, breathed and came into existence. From the unfathomable depths of

water, from the darkness of the cosmic void, emerged this spirit, animated by desire."

This State is beyond all the dualities which we perceive viz., Death and Immortality, Day

and Night, no higher worlds and no nether worlds. Our mind set-up is duality and is

based on our sensing organs but God is beyond any such duality. The Nasadiya

Sukta ends with a questioning.... "veda yadi va na veda. While Purusha Sukta, refers to

the Parama Purusha is the source of all creation as the Cosmic Person, the Universal

Consciousness animating all manifestation. It being 90th Suktam of its 10th mandalam,

with 16 mantrams of Rk Veda, begins with the affirmation that all the heads, all the eyes,

and all the feet in creation are of the Purusha.

m sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākśaḥ sahasrapāt,

sa bhūmiṁ viśvato vṛtvā'tyatiṣṭaddaśāgulam.

Dasangulam is interpreted as ten fingers’ length, in which case it is said to refer to the

distance of our heart from the navel, the former is accepted as the seat of the Atman. He

pervaded (everything) universally, the conscious as well as the unconscious. We are to

behold creation not as a conglomeration of discrete persons and things, but as a single

Universal Person who gloriously shines before us and gazes at us through all the eyes,

nods before us through all the heads, smiles through all the lips and speaks through all the

tongues. This is the Purusha of the Purusha Sukta. Purusha is not the ‘seen’ but the ‘seer’.

Purusha is attributed as Universal Thinking Centre, a Centre which is everywhere with

circumference nowhere. The Purusha would consume himself in the fire of creation, to

create all the worlds. From this sacrifice did all of creation. It gives a description of the

spiritual unity of the universe. When everything is the Purusha, there cannot be an object

to be seen. The seer’s seeing of himself is not to be taken in the sense of a perception in

space and time, for that would again be creating an object where it is not. It is the seer

seeing himself not through eyes, but in Consciousness.

So only consciousness was there and that was all the energy present capable of constantly

transforming into matter. Swami Vivekananda termed these as prana and akasha arrived

after having a prolonged discussion in late nineteenth century with the then renowned

scientist Nicolas Tesla. Albert Einstein’s equation/equivalence of matter and energy came

much later at the twentieth century. Mother Sri Sarada Devi said God when creates is not

like an artist does which means it is not part by part in fragmented form but holistically

all at once. The intelligence design is an evidence-based scientific theory about creation

and life’s origin, not a religious-based idea challenging strictly the materialistic view of

evolution. But it appears that it is in fact a combination of both the above two. He

Himself reveals as the creator, preserver and destroyer at the same time. God made the

laws of nature in order to help Him rule the universe, and His laws therefore have a

tendency to encourage life. According to Advaita Vedanta the creation is a beginningless

and endless cycle of creation, maintenance and dissolution, called srishti, sthithi and

pralaya. This requires conscious planning and skilful action on the part of the creator.

Vedanta philosophy is that--the entire cosmos follows the rules of creation and

dissolution following the same rhythm of Sristi (creation), Sthiti (sustenance of creation)

and Pralaya (dissolution). Thus,

the Universe, believed to have a

life cycle of its own, spreads over

billions of years, while it

originates, grows, expands and ultimately dissolves into its subtle causal form. The srshti,

sthiti and laya (creation, maintenance, resolution) cycle is without a beginning or end.

Bhagvad Geeta again God pointed out at the end of one Kalpa with an interim period of

so called inactivity He creates again cyclically. The creation of the universe is an ongoing

process, not just a one-time event at the beginning:

Further in the Markendreya Purana Ch.81-93 (Sri Sri Chandi ), the Creator is being

worshipped in Bisheswari stuti as giving birth, creation, protection and ultimate

consumation of the universe:

3. Consideration of Anthropic Principle

The Anthropic Principle is the Law of Human Existence proposed by Brandon Carter in

1973 on the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus. NASA has defined

the principal habitability criteria as "extended regions of liquid water, conditions

favorable for the assembly of complex organic molecules, and energy sources to sustain

metabolism." It seeks to expand our understanding of the most fundamental

environmental requirements for habitability. The conditions necessary for nucleation

of life and habitation have been identified as:

(a) A planet with stable environment with the right light elements like carbon, hydrogen,

oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, including some trace elements like Mg and Fe.

(b) Energy source from a star predominantly containing H and He,

(c) Comfortable habitation temperature,

(d) A liquid solvent like water, which is made from the two most abundant chemically

reactive elements in the universe allowing easy movement of molecules to form

complex molecules of life.

Our existence in this universe depends on numerous cosmological constants and

parameters whose numerical values must fall within a very limited range of values. There

are three kinds of fine-tuning needed for consideration:

The fine-tuning of the laws of physics,

The fine-tuning of the fundamental constants of physics,

and the fine-tuning of the initial distribution of mass-energy in the universe.

Earthly life is so sensitive to the values of the fundamental physical constants and

properties of its environment that even the tiniest changes to any of these would mean

that life, as we see it around us, would not exist. Any design by human engineer normally

has no control over the laws of mechanics and nature, and also no control over the values

of the physical constants guiding the design of any system. The designer can only specify

the boundary conditions over which the system would work. Cosmic design on the other

hand, designs the very guiding natural laws including the universal constants so as to take

up and implement a specific purpose. There is splendid precision of nature’s laws

towards the evolution of life. With an increase in our understanding of physics, it is

possible that one day we will discover a Theory of Everything through which all other

facts of physics could be explained. Such a theory might even explain why the universal

constants and physical laws have to have such specific values. Further the multiverse

hypothesis claims that there are many other universes in addition to our own. Each of

these has different properties, and different values of the basic constants of physics. If the

number of these universes is extremely large, it would be less surprising that one of them

would happen to provide the specific conditions for life. The initial conditions of the

universe include information as the expansion energy of the Big Bang, the overall amount

of matter that was present, the ratio of matter to antimatter, the initial rate of the

universe’s expansion and even the degree of its entropy. If the expansion rate of the Big

Bang was greater, the early universe expanded faster, the matter in the universe would

have become so diffuse that gravity could never have gathered it into stars and galaxies.

If it was less, so the early universe expanded more slowly, gravity could have

overwhelmed the expansion and pulled all the matter back into a black hole.

The extreme improbability that so many variables would align so auspiciously in our

favor merely by chance has led some scientists and philosophers to propose instead that it

was God, the super mind who providentially engineered the universe to suit specific

needs so the universe appears to have been fine-tuned for our existence. Here are some

examples of how the Anthropic Principle directly affects the livability of our planet: The

unique properties of water, Earth’s favourable atmosphere, Earth’s reflectivity or

“albedo”, Earth’s magnetic field, Earth’s place in the solar system, Our solar system’s

place in the galaxy, The temperature of our sun. Considering all these it seems that we are

very fortunate to live on a privileged planet in a privileged solar system in a privileged

galaxy in a privileged universe.

The Earth’s reflectance of the Sun’s radiation back to space, albedo is very important

because it helps to define the temperature of the planet. The albedo of the Earth is 0.367,

while for nearby planets Venus and Mars the values are 0.84 and 0.15. For the Moon the

value is 0.113. Changes in planet’s climate depend essentially on three basic parameters,

the amount of incident sunlight, the fraction of this sunlight that is reflected by the Earth

surface, and the trapping of the Earth’s emitted infrared radiation by greenhouse gases

CO2, O3, H2O vapour, CH4 present in the atmosphere. The earth is such a planet with

stable environment with desirable gases. Our sun is such a star with desirable properties

and the radiant energy transmitted by the sum is most intense in the visible part of the

electromagnetic spectrum which is for greatest biological activity. This means that optical

properties of water and earth’s atmosphere are mysteriously harmonized to allow living

system for more effective utilization of the energy of the sun. The presence of free

oxygen (O2) is very unusual because oxygen loves to chemically react with other atoms

and molecules. The oxygen in our atmosphere would soon disappear if photosynthesizing

organisms like plants did not regenerate the oxygen in the process of photosynthesis

which is a natural biochemical process crucial to life on Earth. Furthermore, the

atmospheric layer of ozone surrounding the earth protects the living organisms of the

earth from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation and the high frequency radiation

emitted by the sun in all directions. The blocking of ultraviolet light enables life to exist

on earth surface; the full range of the solar ultraviolet light would kill life forms living on

the land. The ozone layer also shields the water from being dissociated by the ultraviolet

light. Of all the planets in the solar system, the earth is well within the so called habitable

temperature zone capable of sustaining life; planets Venus and Mars are too hot or too

cold for such habitation. Further, the tilt of the earth during its annual motion around the

sun is only moderate only + / - 23 degrees in contrast to chaotic spins 0 to 90 degrees of

Mars, Venus so as to make our average seasonal temperature within habitable limit

making thereby climatic stability. And this tilt angle of earth is very stable. All these

associated with large-sized moon (rare for other planets), about one-third the size of the

earth provide desirable features. Furthermore, the atmospheric greenhouse gases

(methane, ozone, water vapour, carbon-dioxide, CFC, nitrous oxide) retains the heat of

the earth during the night time making it comfortable for habitation for living organisms.

All structure and motion in the universe is governed by the four forces, known as the

gravitational force, the electromagnetic force, the strong and weak nuclear forces. If these

forces took on even slightly different strengths, the consequences for life would have

been devastating. The strong nuclear and electromagnetic forces are responsible for the

unusually efficient production of carbon, the element upon which all known life is based.

The forces cooperate in such a way as to create a coincidental match up of energy levels,

which enables the production of carbon from the fusing of three helium atoms. The

Gravitational force plays the central role in forming the universe. But gravity had to have

just the right force—if it was a bit stronger, it would have pulled all the atoms together

into one big ball. And if gravity was a bit weaker, the expanding universe would have

distributed the atoms so widely that they would never have been gathered into stars and

galaxies. All three other forces originate within atom. Strong nuclear force hold the

nuclear particles together, an attractive force operating between nucleons (protons and

neutrons), is a short-range interaction and operates only in distances shorter than 10−13

centimeter The weak force breaks the nucleus apart in radioactive decay. On the other

hand, electromagnetic interaction is a long-range interaction whose magnitude like the

gravitation force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between two

electric charges. Therefore, a proton in a heavy nucleus is pushed by electric forces of all

other protons while it is pulled only by nearby nucleons in the nucleus. . It follows that

the electric repulsive force exerted on a proton increases as the number of nucleons

in the nucleus increases; however, the attractive force due to strong interaction does

not increase after the nucleon number exceeds a certain threshold. Therefore, very

heavy elements are loosely bound and some of them decay naturally which are

radioactive. If the gravitational constant were larger than its current value, stars would

be more tightly bound, with their central temperatures would be increasing. The increase

of the central pressure and the temperature of the sun would increase the nuclear energy

generation rate. In order to radiate more energy at the surface, the temperature and/or the

area of the surface should increase. However, the stronger gravity would tend to decrease

the surface area. Therefore, the surface temperature of the sun would have to be higher

than it is now, emitting the bulk of its energy in ultraviolet radiation, unsuitable for

supporting life. With stronger gravity, some low-mass stars would emit most of their

energy in visible light, suitable for supporting life. However, such stars would not stay in

the main-sequence stage long enough to preside over the long evolutionary history of life.

Nature is sometimes said to tune itself. The fine-tuning of carbon is even responsible for

nature’s ability to tune itself to any degree. As professor Alister McGrath has pointed out:

"[The entire biological] evolutionary process depends upon the unusual chemistry of

carbon, which allows it to bond to itself, as well as other elements, creating highly

complex molecules that are stable over prevailing terrestrial temperatures, and are

capable of conveying genetic information (especially DNA). An overall reference for

design can be found in the following website: http://www.doesgodexist.org/PDF-

Files/Evidence-for-Design-in-the-Universe.pdf.

John Wheeler of Princeton University who helped invent the theory of nuclear fission,

commented in an article in Readers Digest in 1986: “Is man an unimportant bit of dust

on an unimportant planet in an unimportant galaxy somewhere in the vastness of space?

No. The necessity to produce life lies at the centre of the universe’s whole machinery and

design…. Slight variation in physical laws such as gravity or electromagnetism would

make life impossible”. Consequence of Some Fine Tuning Parameters Making Earth non-

Habitable the interested reader is referred to the reference: Hugh Ross, The Creator and

the Cosmos: How the Latest Scientific Discoveries of the Century Reveal God. These are

just some of the "design decisions" that had to be made in order for survival of life. But

even these are enough to show that the earth did not come into being as a result of chance

nor was it formed as a result of a lucky chain of events.

4. Evolution of Life

Billions of years ago, the planet Earth was a world destitute of living things; so was

completely barren of life. Instead of having an atmosphere rich in nitrogen and oxygen as

it is today, the atmosphere on primitive Earth was composed primarily of methane,

ammonia, hydrogen gas and water vapor. The world was not a hospitable place back

then, at least not according to human standards. The chemical evolution of cellular life,

chemosynthetic theory implies that the development of life is probable wherever the

proper physical and chemical conditions are in place. It implies that all life on Earth

evolved from a common cellular ancestor. One thing that supports this is that the

molecules of living organisms are rich in hydrogen-containing carbon compounds,

indicating that there was no free oxygen on primitive Earth. Another proof is the fact that

DNA and RNA are the genetic bases of all life forms on Earth. Also, ATP is the universal

energy currency of all living organisms, suggesting thereby a common origin of

metabolism. These molecular ‘proofs’ help support the chemosynthetic theory, making it

the most widely accepted scientific theory for the chemical origin of cellular life even

though there are pros. The evidence supporting the chemosynthetic theory is that the

molecules utilized to assure the life of organisms and its genetic sufficiency and

systematic function like DNA, RNA and ATP which were high in hydrogen containing

carbon compounds indicated that the earth's atmosphere primitively was oxygen free.

DNA is the famous molecule of genetics that establishes each organism's physical

characteristics. Life functions by design with incredible complexity, and this complexity

is coded for in the DNA molecule. Random, natural events cannot duplicate the

complicated design found in life. All existing life on earth, animal and plant had

developed from lower forms of life in a continuous process through mutation and natural

selection, being the Darwin theory of evolution, accepted about 150 years back. But the

obvious question of first life form coming out of a non-living material is hard to accept

by modern science. Further, laws of science, per our everyday experience reveal all

material systems animate or inanimate, degenerate when left to themselves in

environment. There are two prime oppositions of the evolution theory from the stand

point of revelation of modern Molecular Biology and Second Law of Thermodynamics.

According to Darwin’s theory creature with specific characteristics and attributes attuned

to natural condition prevailing environment and time continues to exist, perhaps

improving their adaptability through a process of natural selection whereby the strongest

survives through struggle for existence. But creatures with less adapted facilities are

defeated and disappear. Such process continues through millions of years leads to

development of better and higher forms of life until the end product is human being.

Later researchers argued continual changes in forms of life should takes place in both

directions, beneficial and regressive. These changes are inherited into genes of the

organism so as to pass on these “chemical errors” (mutation) to offspring. Such process

continued for millions of years yield better life forms on one hand, while at the same time

weakens the forms lacking ability to stand up exigencies of life will be wiped out and

disappear. It has even been possible in the laboratory to excite artificial mutations and

observe such organisms steadfastness to difficult conditions. There are many such

examples of bacteria withstanding antibiotics, insects impervious to insecticides, animals

and plants capable of living in extreme conditions like cold, hot and dryness and also the

development of special variety wheat by Norman Bleiberg in the last century that saved

the third world from starvation also comes in this category.

But there arise two fundamental problems: first, to explain how the giant polymers that

are essential to life, especially proteins and nucleic acids were synthesized under natural

conditions from their sub-units, and second, to understand the origin of cells. A living

cell is a self-reproducing system of molecules held inside a container of plasma

membrane based on lipid molecules. The membrane serves not only as a barrier to

prevent the contents of the cell from escaping and mixing with the surrounding medium

but also helps nutrients to inward pass if the cell is to survive and grow, and also waste

products have to pass outward. If cell had really formed spontaneously, we would expect

their important parts like lipids, proteins, RNA or DNA are to be formed under natural

condition. Biologists also came to realize that there may have been earlier phases in the

development of life that did not involve DNA. Harvard biologist Walter Gilbert in 1986

Francis Crick in 1968 suggested in the possibility of a primordial "RNA world", although

RNA has the combined properties of a self-catalyst and a self-replicator, its fragility has

led researchers to consider alternative scenarios.

In mid-2001, the Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics jointly presented the true

nature and enormous complexity of the digital code inherent in DNA. DNA Double

Helix: Its Existence Alone Defeats any Theory of Evolution. The scientific reality of the

DNA double helix can single-handedly defeat any theory that assumes life arose from

non-life through materialistic forces. All living cells are controlled by the information

stored in the DNA. According to Nobel Laureate Christian de Duve “DNA contains in

encrypted form the instruction for the manufacture of proteins. More specifically,

encoded within DNA is the exact order in which amino acids, selected at each step from

twenty distinct varieties should be strung together to form all of the organism proteins”.

Only proteins containing all left-handed amino acids will work in the living cell. Cells

cannot live unless each of their many proteins not only folds correctly, but receives the

correct address tag. A functional proteins requires the amino acids of the following

characteristics from which it is built to be (a) all left-handed, (b) all linked together with

peptide bonds, and (c) all in just the right sequence to fold up into three dimensional

structure needed for biological function. Though it has been possible to synthesise amino

acid but it has not been possible to link together to form proteins and its probability of

correct assembly shows that it is almost an impossible task.

However the crucial aspect of evolution theory on the origin of life remains unanswered.

The law of science that has stood the test of time being verified without exception since

Louis Pasteur’s finding in 1862 is the law of biogenesis which states that “Where a cell

exists, there must have been a preexisting cell, just as an animal arises only from an

animal and a plant from a plant”. Life never arises except from life. The very properties

of matter prevent the spontaneous generation of life. Harvard biochemist Nobel Laureate

George wrote in 1954 that “The reasonable view (during the two centuries before Louis

Pasteur) was to believe in spontaneous generation; the only alternative to believe in a

single primary act of supernatural creation. There is no third position. One has only to

contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that the spontaneous generation of a

living organism is impossible”. Later quite a few calculations of probability for

spontaneous generation of life from primordial soup environment present around the Big

Bang applying laws of biochemistry and thermodynamics by several biologists including

British astronomer Fred Hoyle, Yale biophysicist Harold Morowitz show virtual

impossibility of spontaneous generation of living organisms.” The evolution of the

theoretically simplest cell, requiring no less than about 124 proteins, would be an

incredible improbability of 1:10 to the 340,000,000 power “. According to Stephen

Hawking and Thomas Hertog "A bottom-up approach to cosmology either requires one

to postulate an initial state of the Universe that is carefully fine-tuned — as if prescribed

by an outside agency — or it requires one to invoke the notion of eternal inflation, a

mighty speculative notion to the generation of many different Universes, which prevents

one from predicting what a typical observer would see." Without exception, experiments

at each of these steps have failed to produce results to demonstrate that such

accomplishments can occur by chance events caused by the natural properties of

molecules.

Parallel developments have led to a revival of interest in the possibility that some of the

raw materials for life, and possibly even primitive life itself, may have come to the Earth

from space. The discovery of increasingly complicated molecules between the stars,

meteorites, comets, and the atmospheres of the giant planets, has contributed to

speculation that the seeds from which terrestrial life grew may have been planted during

the early bombardment phase of our planet. In particular, recent experimental work at the

NASA Ames Research Centre has yielded possible early precursors of life, including

cell-like bubbles, similar in structure to those found within the Murchison meteorite.

Additional valuable data bearing on the possible extraterrestrial connection with life's

origin will come from a number of current and planned space missions designed to

collect samples of primitive material from comets or asteroids and return them for

laboratory analysis. Other unmanned probes are scheduled to explore the environs of the

biologically interesting worlds Mars, Titan etc. In addition, the identification of

meteorites that have almost certainly come from the Moon and Mars, has demonstrated

that material may be routinely exchanged between worlds as a result of major impacts,

giving rise to the possibility of ballistic panspermia. It is not surprising that the results of

thousands of experiments confirming the law of biogenesis are consistent with the

calculated probabilities for the natural, chance or spontaneous generation of life. Besides

defying the law of biogenesis and probability, the chemistry of life is no simple affair.

Even the working of a simple cell is an efficient chemical plant having complexity far

more than any man-made machines. If one looks at these numbers, take a good hard look

at the probability, one has to arrive at the conclusion that evolution did not, and does not,

happen. The only alternative is intelligent design. It is the only theory that makes sense. If

one really takes an unbiased look at the facts, it is much harder to believe in evolution

than to believe in God. Here again we are forced to come to creation by supernatural

agency. This is stated by Lord Krishna in the Bhagvad Geeta :

5. The Components Tuned for Life

Nowhere in current physics, chemistry, or biology do we see any sign of a fundamental

life principle. It seems to view the life principle as some previously unrecognized,

holistic, teleological law of nature. It is speculated that a felicitous mix of law and chance

might be generalised to cosmology, producing directional evolution from simple states,

through complex, to life and mind. Let us consider the following parameters for

relevancy of life:

Carbon atom is the basis of life on earth because all organic molecules (such as nucleic

acids, amino acids, proteins, fats, and sugars) are formed by the combination of carbon

with other elements in various ways. While the basic mechanism for the manufacture of

carbon is the fusion of three helium nuclei into a single carbon nucleus, it can form

millions of different types of proteins by combining with hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen

etc. Carbon seems to be the chemical element best suited to act as the building block for

various types of complex molecular systems with unexpected properties, from

superconductivity to ferromagnetism. No other elements can take the place of carbon.

There are a number of conditions that are absolutely essential in order for carbon-based

life to exist. For example, carbon-based organic compounds (like proteins) can exist only

within a certain range of temperatures.

Temperature and atmosphere are important essential factors for life on Earth. Carbon-

based molecules can only survive between the limits of 120 and 20°C. Considering

temperatures range in the universe from the millions of degrees in hottest stars to absolute

zero, the thermal interval that allows life to exist is slim indeed. Earth is the only known

planet whose average temperatures fall within the habitable limits.

Oxygen content in the atmosphere, as necessary for respiration is just the right to prevent

rapid oxidation and also for formation and maintenance of ozone protective layer

surrounding the earth to protect living being from harmful effect of solar ultraviolet

radiation.

Air as well as water, as filter allows the passage of only those radiations from the sun

and the cosmos that is necessary for us, plant and animal on earth to live. Plants

photosynthesis with the visible light helps animals to breathe. Atmospheric gases

themselves absorb electromagnetic radiation immediately on either side of the visible and

near infrared and keep heat balance on earth surface. All the harmful and deadly cosmic

radiation coming from distant space is caught in this perfectly-designed filter. It is

impossible to ignore this artfulness. Further, if the density, viscosity, and pressure of air

were higher, breathing would be as difficult as drawing honey into a needle. It is clear

that if either the viscosity or the density of air were much greater, the airway resistance

would be prohibitive for the respiratory system to function.

For life to exist on earth we need a huge amount of water, but not ammonia and

methane, though their molecular weights are nearby. Water is the major constituent of

almost all life forms. Most animals and plants contain more than 60% water by volume.

About 70% of the human body is water. The biggest part of the blood that circulates

everywhere in our body is of course water. Water acts threefold ways: First, it operates

powerfully to equalise and to moderate the temperature of the earth; secondly, it makes

possible very effective regulation of the body temperature, and thirdly it favours the

meteorological cycle of maintaining comfortable temperature.

The unique properties of water that makes easy going for living organisms are:

a) As liquid it has high thermal conductivity,

b) Because water has a high specific heat, it can absorb large amounts of heat energy

before it begins to get hot. Water also releases heat energy slowly when situations cause

it to cool. Water's high specific heat allows for the moderation of the earth's climate and

helps organisms regulate their body temperature more effectively.

c) Water's high surface tension allows for the formation of water droplets and waves,

allows plants to move water (and dissolved nutrients) from their roots to their leaves, and

the movement of blood through tiny vessels in the bodies of some animals.

d) The high latent heat of evaporation gives resistance to dehydration and considerable

evaporative cooling. This combined with high thermal capacity greater than other

liquids enables us to sweat without much change in body temperature which is required

to be critically maintained at around 370 C. To keep itself cool in the face of the heat that

is being generated for body activity, the body employs the sweating mechanism by which

water spreads over the surface of the skin and quickly evaporates. The more energy one

expends, the more the body temperature will increase but, at the same time, the more he

will sweat and thus cool off. This magnificent thermostat system of the body has been

made possible for many reasons foremost of which stand the thermal properties of water.

e) Water is the only substance on earth that exists in all three physical states of matter:

solid, liquid, and gas while changing of state there is massive amounts of heat exchange.

This plays an important role in the redistribution of heat energy in the Earth's atmosphere.

f) Like other liquids, water contracts in volume as it grows colder but it only does this

down to a certain temperature (4°C) thereafter unlike all other known liquids it suddenly

begins to expand and when it finally solidifies (freezes) it expands even more. As a

result, "solid water" is lighter than "liquid water", thereby protecting all aquatic animals

while environment temperature further downs.

g) Water's low viscosity is essential for all living things, even plants. The tiny veins in the

leaf seen at the left are able to transport water because it is so fluid.

The laws of science are properties of matter they just describe how matter behaves. On

the other hand, in Bhagvad Gita these properties are described as attributes of God

Himself:

6. Arguments from Laws of Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics studies the efficiency of heat energy transfer/exchange in physical

process. It is practically a universal law of decay; the cause of why everything ultimately

falls apart and disintegrates over time. Material things are not eternal. Everything appears

to change eventually, and chaos increases. Nothing stays as fresh as the day one buys it.

We have to work hard to straighten a room, but left to itself becomes a mess again very

quickly and very easily. Even if we never entered it, it becomes dusty and musty. How

difficult is to maintain houses, and machinery, and our own bodies in perfect working

order; but how easy is to let them to deteriorate? In fact, all we have to do is nothing, and

everything deteriorates, collapses, breaks down, wears out, all by itself--- and that is what

the second law of thermodynamics is all about. So the death of animate matter is a

manifestation of this natural law. All natural systems degenerate when left to themselves,

chemical compounds ultimately breaks apart into simpler materials; certainly not pass

into complex form. In other words, the purely natural tendency of things is to move

toward chaos, not to order, and available energy necessary for work is lost (mostly as

heat) in this process. Eventually, the universe will run down and all life and motion will

cease. This is the natural tendency of all things. Batteries run down, machines break,

buildings crumble, roads decay, living things die, etc. Left to the natural state, all things

would eventually cease to function. Outside forces can increase order only temporarily

but cannot last forever. Once the source of energy is released, processes return to greater

disorder. The natural tendency of ordered arrangement is to become simpler and

disorderly with time. In a closed system a process proceeds in a direction such that the

unavailable energy (entropy) increases by the second law of thermodynamics. Things

progress naturally from order to disorder. Energy is not lost but is simply transferred

from orderly (availability) to disorderly (unavailability).

But evolutionism claims that over billions of years everything is basically moving

upward becoming more and more orderly and complex. Natural evolutionism requires

that physical laws and atoms organize themselves into increasingly complex and

beneficial ordered arrangements. This is against the basic law of science which reveals

the opposite. In words of renowned evolutionist and anti-creationist Issac Asimov: “The

universe is constantly getting more disorderly”. If evolution is true, there must be an

extremely powerful mechanism at work in the cosmos that can steadily defeat the powerful tendency toward disarrangements brought by this second law. This may

be enough to refute the theory of Evolution. But the earth is an open system that

receives outside energy from the Sun which might have helped to create life in this

planet. The biological systems, though apparently self-contained are also open, and

exchange both energy and matter from its environment. The application of external

energy can reverse a spontaneous, as stated earlier thermodynamically “irreversible”

reaction. Leaves will spontaneously burn (combine with oxygen) to form water and

carbon dioxide. The sun’s energy, through the process of photosynthesis, will produce

leaves from water vapor and carbon dioxide, and form oxygen. If the evolutionary force

has been so powerful in the universe, the Sun's energy could make a truly dead plant or

animal alive again in the same system (assuming similar supply of water, light, and the

like). It is, in fact the decay of the internal machinery of capturing energy to increase the

order of the plant/ animal and that cannot be restored. This is just like pure chemistry of a

cell is not enough to explain the working of a cell, although the very workings are

chemical. The chemical workings of a cell are actually controlled by information which

does not reside in the atoms and molecules. So it still leaves open the problem of how or

why the ordering process has arisen.

Ila Prigrogine, 1977 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry confirmed this and said “In a non-

isolated [open] system there exists a possibility for formation of ordered, low-entropy

structures at sufficiently low temperatures. This ordering principle is responsible for the

appearance of ordered structures such as crystals as well as for the phenomena of phase

transitions. Unfortunately this principle cannot explain the formation of biological

structures.”

Biological systems are open and exchange both energy and matter. Living systems also

have the second essential component—their own built-in mechanisms for effectively

converting and storing the incoming energy. Plants use photosynthesis to convert the

sun’s energy into usable, storable forms (e.g., proteins), while animals use metabolism to

further convert and use the stored, usable, energy from the organisms which compose

their diets. The apparent increase in organized complexity (i.e., decrease in entropy)

found in biological systems requires consideration of the following two additional factors

besides an open system and an available energy supply:

1. A “program” (information) directing the growth in organized complexity

2. A mechanism for storing and converting the incoming energy.

Each living organism’s DNA contains all the code (the “program” or “information”)

needed to direct the process of building (or “organizing”) the organism up from seed or

cell to a fully functional, mature specimen, complete with all the necessary instructions

for maintaining and repairing each of its complex, organized, and integrated component

systems. This process continues throughout the life of the organism, essentially building-

up and maintaining the organism’s physical structure faster than natural processes (as

governed by the second law) can break it down.

So we see that living things seem to “violate” the second law because they have built-in

programs (information) and energy conversion mechanisms that allow them to build up

and maintain their physical structures “in spite of” the second law’s effects (which

ultimately do prevail, as each organism eventually deteriorates and dies).

While this explains how living organisms may grow and thrive, thanks in part to the

earth’s “open-system” biosphere, it does not offer any solution to the question of how life

could spontaneously begin this process in the absence of the program directions and

energy conversion mechanisms described above—nor how a simple living organism

might produce the additional new program directions and alternative energy conversion

mechanisms required in order for biological evolution to occur, producing the vast

spectrum of biological variety and complexity observed by man.

We similarly treat the entire universe as closed system with available energy from hot

stars cooling down to space into unavailable energy. This is just like Pale’s watch

winding down like a giant wind-up clock, tickling down and losing available energy.

Since the energy is continually changing from available to unavailable energy, someone

had to give it available energy at the beginning i.e. the wind-up the clock, only someone

not bound by the second law of thermodynamics. Only the creator of the law could

violate and create energy in a state of availability to start with. This leads to the natural

conclusion that the universe had a beginning and that beginning had been caused by

someone or something operating outside the known laws of thermodynamics.

7. Conclusion

The proper scope of science is to describe the regularities of nature, to make it more

predictable and to have a better command over it. By design, to achieve its objective,

science has no framework to formulate or answer questions about purpose, values,

meaning of life. The greatest scientists of former times, like Newton and Maxwell,

considered their science to be work to the glory of God. All the said coincidences can be

explained not by chance but only by conscious design. The Anthropic Principle is further

evidence in support of the thesis that life was engineered by a transcendent Mastermind.

This in turn shows us that the whole universe and all the details of that universe including

the light of the sun that enables us to see and keeps us warm have been specially created

and arranged for us to live. Thus even after two centuries after Paley’s reasoning of watch

still applies. It is not literal watch but hundreds of carefully balanced equations, constants

and properties of matter. It can be realized if any of these quantities were changed in the

slightest way, the result would have been catastrophic. This fine tuning is often referred

to as “astonishing precision”, “cosmic coincidences’ etc. The cases of fine-tuning alone

should be sufficient to show that, apart from a multiverse hypothesis, the issue of fine-

tuning is not likely to be resolved by a future physicsas put forward by Robin Collins in

response to Victor Stenger’s book The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning: Why the Universe is not

Designed for Us, Amherst, New York, Prometheus Books, 2011. The universe is indeed

carefully designed for well-being of the man-kind though some feel that the fine-tuning

argument and other recent intelligent design arguments are modern versions of God-of-

the-gaps reasoning. Future science might provide an explanation for fine-tuning in terms

of a more fundamental law, a theory of everything perhaps. Just like Isaac Newton’s

theory of gravity provided powerful explanations of planetary motion even though there

was much disagreement about the mechanism by which one massive body exerted a force

on another as later explained by the Einstein’s relativity theory. The same applies in

quantum theory over classical theory no-one really knows what’s going on.

In the words of the Bhridaranyaka Upanisad( 3.8.9):

It is under the direction of the Almighty the sun, the moon and the earth are kept in right

position maintaining appropriate day, month and season for our habitation.

Almost similar is the message by Jesus in the Bible, sermons on the mount (St.Mathews): Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to

abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the

smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

All (the cosmic order guiding the universe) continue to function irrespective of the

creation.

Suggestion for further reading

1. James Gardner: Intelligent universe: AI, ET, and the emerging mind of the

cosmos, p 215, New Page Books; 1 edition (February 15, 2007)

2. George Wald Scientific American p.44-53 August 1954

3. Morowitz, H.J., Energy Flow in Biology, Academic Press, New York, 1968, p. 99

4. Christian de Duve: The Beginnings of Life on Earth Ch. The RNA World in

American Scientist September-October 1995

5. I. Prigogine, G. Nicolis and A. Babloyants, Physics Today 25(11):23 (1972)

6. C.B. Thaxton, W.L. Bradley, and R.L. Olsen, the Mystery of Life’s Origin:

Reassessing Current Theories, Philosophical Library, New York, 1984, pp. 119-120.

7. Hugh Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Latest Scientific Discoveries of

the Century Reveal God NavPress Publishing Group; 3rd edition (June 1, 2001)

,http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/astroevid.shtml;

8. http://www.doesgodexist.org/PDF-Files/Evidence-for-Design-in-the-Universe.pdf

9. Cohen, Darwin Was Wrong: A Study in Probabilities (New York: NW Research

Publications, Inc., 1984), p. 205 (as quoted in Vance Ferrell, The Evolution

Handbook (Evolution Facts, Inc., Altamont TN, 2001) p. 260.