On Oct. 30, cosmologist and theoretical astrophysicist Luke Barnes spoke to an audience of Wheaton College students, professors and local residents in Barrows Auditorium. The talk, entitled “Was the Cosmos Expecting Us?” was the seventh installment of the Questioning Christianity series. The series, which began in January, invites experts from various fields to address modern doubts regarding Christianity.
Barnes, a researcher at Western Sydney University, opened by referencing a time he gave a similar talk in which he posed the same question. After giving this previous talk, Barnes left ten minutes for questions, and he found the discussion was so controversial that the entire group remained an hour and a half later.
“It was the most delightful experience of my life, that a group of skeptics started arguing with each other,” he said.
Barnes explained how physics utilizes laws, initial conditions and constants to rationalize the surrounding world. He described matter as a multi-level production factory — protons and neutrons are made up of quarks, atoms make up molecules and so on. Despite the fact that the masses of these particles are insanely small, he said, most elements would not exist if they were slightly tweaked.
Additionally, he explained that the same principle is true with gravity and heat, as there is a very limited amount of variation in their values that allows for a functional universe.
“Of all the possible values of the fundamental constants of nature, the subset that permits the existence of life seems very small,” Barnes said. “If you get the cosmological constant wrong, no two particles are ever going to touch each other in the history of the universe.”
This is what is described as the “fine-tuning hypothesis,” the idea that among all of the universes that could physically exist, only a limited number would be able to support life. He believes the principles of this hypothesis overlap with the idea that creation was designed.
Barnes believes his work in physics demonstrates intentionality in creation, noting that the establishment of the design hypothesis was largely attributable not to philosophers and theologians but to physicists and cosmologists.
“Let’s be clear about the direction that all of the science we know points. And that’s in the direction of design,” he said.
He ended the lecture by quoting Henri Poincaré, a mathematician and theoretical physicist, in “The Value of Science” as an example of how he sees science and faith intertwining. “We should be astonished by nature’s regularity. Men demand of their gods to prove their existence by miracles, but the eternal marvel is that there are not miracles without cease. The world is divine because it is a harmony. If it were ruled by caprice, what could prove to us it was not ruled by chance?”
Barnes then fielded questions from the audience. One participant asked what people can infer about the nature of the designer, if anything. Barnes responded that we cannot infer much, but Christianity provides much more information than naturalism could. He considers this a massive win because it refutes the idea that science and faith contradict each other, which has become more common over the past century.
In response to a question about why God would create a universe governed by physical laws, Barnes said the fine-tuning hypothesis fits with God as a being who values finite minds. He said part of human morality involves being able to predict the consequences of actions, which upholds his belief that God values order.
Another audience member asked if Barnes was already a Christian when he started studying physics, or if he became a Christian through his understanding of science. Barnes said his Christian faith was pivotal in developing his interest in the creation of the universe. “For me, the faith was first, but the fine-tuning made me like, ‘This is getting the atheists worried,’ and that’s what drew me into it,” he said.
When asked if he sees faith and science as separate entities, Barnes responded that he thinks they are integrated on a number of levels.
“Science got started because people thought if there was a mind behind the universe, there’s got to be some sort of natural plan there,” he said. “I don’t need to push God out of the picture to start doing science, particularly because I think God is in the picture.”
But Barnes noted the ability of faith to defy science at times, referencing Jesus rising from the dead as an example of God not always following scientific rules. “The laws of nature aren’t the final word on reality,” he said.
Darren Craig, professor of physics, said he enjoyed Barnes’s lecture and appreciated how Barnes included research he had been personally involved in. “The specialness of our universe is certainly an amazing thing to ponder and I am grateful for the ways in which his work has drawn attention to this and to the Creator who arranged it to be that way,” he said.
