This article is dedicated to Sanjeet Yadav – a physics student of Delhi, India; one of my best friend, who have been a source of support & inspiration in my life.  Sanjeet, this is for you. Accept my honor.

NOTES:

1. For better understanding of the concepts in this article, read Who is God? & Life: The Greatest Masterpiece Of The Universe.

2. Readers are kindly requested to read the full article for the better understanding of the whole concept or before adopting a view. Thanks.

 

 

From the very beginning of human civilization, we’ve been strongly fascinated by the universe – its wonders. In those days, people can only see the stars, sun, moon & some planets like mars, venus. These cosmic wonders drew the attention of many people which gave rise to the science of astronomy. As people could see these objects as look from the night sky, they were not able to find the science behind these. But they used them for navigation & they started to relate our lives to those objects & thus gave birth to the art of astrology. (Note that astrology is completely different from astronomy. Astronomy is a natural science whereas astrology is an art based upon traditional believes. Moreover, astronomy is completely based on pure experimental/observational proves or evidences & astrology has no prove or evidence). The field started to develop & eventually it mixed with other natural sciences (physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, geology etc.). Today, modern astronomy is completely different from early astronomy. Today, astronomy is divided to many sub-fields such as astrophysics, cosmology, astrobiology/exobiology, planetary science. Today, mapping or charting the night sky is not astronomy; rather it is the study of the universe by using lot of principles of natural sciences & instruments.

Within the early 21st century, we’ve gathered enormous knowledge on astronomy. Though, there are lot many problems left to solve, we’ve solved much more than our level & will do forever. Now, we’ve got a standard model of our universe. We’re revealing very distant objects. We’re unveiling many planets beyond our 8 planets. We’re mapping the detailed images of our own planets. We’re doing our best to explore extra-terrestrial life. Not only this, we now know that most of the universe is made up of some invisible matter called dark matter & the universe is accelerating due to some unknown force called dark energy. To say, we’re very strong in the conception of astronomy. We’ve seen through radio waves, microwaves, visible light, infrared rays, ultra-violet ray, x-ray, gamma ray & now we’re able to see through gravitational waves too. We understand the universe at its best. But a question left behind. Why the universe is in the way it is?

    We know, how the universe is in the way it is, to a great extend, but we still have to answer why the universe is in the way it is. Why the values of physical constants are in the way it is? Why gravity is the weakest force? Why gravity works in macroscopic scale & strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force & electromagnetic force work in microscopic scale? Why there’s no antimatter left anymore in the universe? Why the black holes are in the center of galaxy? Why the stars end up in catastrophic explosion? Why planets revolve around stars? Why the earth is in the position it is? Why life evolved in the universe? In anyway, why the universe is in the way it is & not in some other ways?

This question is a matter of great thinking. Why the universe is in the way it is & not in some other ways. Sometimes, it may be funny to ask such questions because our common sense tells us that it is meaningless to ask why something is in the way it is. It is in that way. It’s not to be asked. But such common sense can’t prevent children & scientists to ask such explosive questions. Common sense is limited to common, regular, usual, day-to-day phenomena; not beyond. But the thinking of a child or a scientist is limitless, beyond everything. They don’t care of common sense.

Actually, everything has a reason behind their causes. Simply nothing happens without a reason. There must be a reason behind a cause. This is a law of nature. This applies to the structure of the universe too. The whole structure of the universe has a reason. Today, we know that our universe is among many universes. We also know that the structure, the laws & everything vary within the universes. Almost no universe is identical. So surely there must be a reason behind the structure of our own universe. Let’s find out the reason & answer the question – why the universe is in the way it is.

Our universe is very much complex. So complex that we can’t thing of. It is almost impossible to make the same universe. Universe is in the way it is – “to form life.” The reason behind the structure of universe is that universe wants to make life. All these structures we see in the universe are to synthesis such complex structure which can act by themselves & which can acknowledge the truth. In my article, Life: The Greatest Masterpiece Of The Universe, the whole story behind the formation of life was discussed. There, it was mentioned that there’s nothing complex like life & humans are the most complex among them, making humans the most complex structure throughout the universe. (For a better understanding on the topic, kindly read Life: The Greatest Masterpiece Of The Universe). From the smallest structure to the biggest, everything is in the way it is, just to produce life. The conditions to synthesis life is much complicated than one could imagine. One of the most important components of life – Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA is much difficult to produce. To make life, we need the universe as one we know. There’re almost 10500 universes & our universe is one among them. Each universe has its own set of laws & structures. There is hardly life possible in those universes. Our universe is one among them who has life. May be 1 out of 10300 or 10400universes has life. Life is rare because condition to make life is almost impossible. In fact, our universe, which is among those extremely rare life-supporting universes, has life only on earth. Life may be spread out in our universe. But one thing is quite certain that if life is possible in other places, it’s quite rare. To say, though life may be possible, it is in very rare place. The reason behind this is the favorable condition to produce life. It’s really a grand miracle that earth is in the right position – neither close to sun, nor far from sun, just in middle (though not approximately). See, no one has placed the earth on this position. When sun formed, these planets formed from the leftover materials. There was lot of collisions in the process. Some bodies collided with one another to form a single, bigger body; while some threw other out of their orbits to new orbits. As a result, all these went on for several years & eventually, they started to be in arrangement as we see today. Now the question is that how earth came in the right place. It may be few kilometers to the sun or away from the sun. How earth came out of chaos? As seen, the formation of life is the toughest. Every possible thing we see in the universe is all due to the formation of life. In fact, the laws of nature is also tuned in the way it is only to make such a universe which can produce life. The very nature of our universe is to produce life. Thus, we should understand our place in the universe. By size, we’re negligible in the universe. Almost, no one could point us if one search from the top of the universe. But our importance in the universe is greatest. Every known components of the universe are made to make such a condition which can eventually give rise to much complex structure which we call life. Let’s have a look on the glimpse of the formation of life. (The following processes of formation of life are discussed in great details in Life: The Greatest Masterpiece Of The Universe).

 FORMATION OF OUR UNIVERSE & ITS STRUCTURES:

  1. Our universe formed out of many universes as a result of collision of 2 universes or popped into existence by quantum fluctuations from vacuum by a particle called tachyon.
  2. In the process, the laws are devised in our universe.
  3. Gradually, 4 forces of nature broke down & separated.
  4. Universe filled with quark-gluon plasma.
  5. This quark-gluon plasma cooled down & eventually formed hadrons, including proton & neutron.
  6. Hadrons & anti-hadrons annihilated each other leaving leptons & anti-leptons dominating the mass of the universe.
  7. After that, leptons & anti-leptons annihilated each other leaving a small residue of leptons.
  8. After most leptons and anti-leptons are annihilated at the end of the lepton epoch the energy of the universe is dominated by photons.
  9. Protons (hydrogen ions) and neutrons began to combine into atomic nuclei in the process of nuclear fusion. Free neutrons combined with protons to form deuterium. Deuterium rapidly fused into helium-4. This process is called nucleosynthesis.
  10. Hydrogen and helium were at the beginning ionized, i.e., no electrons are bound to the nuclei, which (containing positively charged protons) are therefore electrically charged (+1 and +2 respectively). As the universe cooled down, the electrons get captured by the ions, forming electrically neutral atoms. This process is relatively fast (actually faster for the helium than for the hydrogen) and is known as recombination.
  11. Before decoupling occurs most of the photons in the universe were interacting with electrons and protons in the photon–baryon fluid. The universe was opaque or “foggy” as a result.
  12. The first structure of the universe – quasar formed.
  13. The first stars, most likely Population III stars, formed and started the process of turning the light elements that were formed in the Big Bang (hydrogen, helium and lithium) into heavier elements.
  14. Large volumes of matter collapsed to form a galaxy. Population II stars were formed early on in this process, with Population I stars formed later.
  15. Gravitational attraction pulled galaxies towards each other to form groups, clusters and superclusters.
  16. Objects on the scale of our solar system formed.
  17. Complex molecules started to form on earth (or may be in some life-supporting planets like mars).
  18. First Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA formed.
  19. First-ever simple life started to form.
  20. Eventually, after evolution, first humans or homo sapiens – the most intelligent & complex structure in universe formed on earth.

As you’ve just seen, there were several complicated processes involved in the formation of life. These processes took more than 13.7 billions years (current age of the universe). Processes after processes, life came into existence. The above mentioned processes also indicate to one point that formation of life is the last process & the last process is the final & refined process. So, this too indicate that the universe is in the way we see it only to form life. With these all, few natural questions appear – if the universe is in the way it is to form life, then what is the purpose of life in the universe? Why the universe is in the way it is to support life? Why the universe is made in such way to form life? What is its importance?

Till now, we understood why the universe is in the way it is. Now, we’ve to explore why the universe is in the way it is to support life. The answer to this question will also answer the question – why we get consciousness? Consciousness is the quality of acknowledging the realities. Life can actually acknowledge realities. It knows where it is, where to live, where to go, what to it, what to defend, what to love etc. The act of knowing is only in life. Humans are most conscious than any other living being because humans can acknowledge realities in much better way. It is this quality which makes it most powerful & extraordinary. Just now, we answered why universe is in the way it is. That means we could acknowledge a reality. Now, this is due to our consciousness. This acknowledgement can’t be done by other beings as they’re less conscious than us. But they can acknowledge where they’re. Now, non-living beings can’t acknowledge this. They can’t acknowledge anything. They’re like dead person. When someone dies, it’s whole body stops to works & become totally unconscious. From then, it can’t acknowledge realities. The same condition happens with these non-living beings. They can’t acknowledge anything. But the question is that what reason behind our consciousness is. The purpose of life in the universe or the reason behind our consciousness is to –

explore the universe & nature. Life is produced in the universe to explore the universe. After many refinements, humans came into existence & humans are chose to explore nature as they’re the most conscious. Other living beings do these 3 things naturally or basically: eating, surviving & defending. We humans also do these things but along with these, we also do other things like exploring, creating new things etc. But other beings don’t do all other things which we humans do. So, we’re special as we’re made to explore. So, the purpose of making life is to explore nature at its best. Here we’re exploring to know what the purpose of life is because naturally we’re assigned to do this task. As mentioned in the timeline of big bang, humans are the final product of this game. Other beings formed in the process of making us. Actually, they don’t have special purpose. But as nature is made in the way, just to support humans (final product of life), other living forms are still existing. They’re important for the existence of humans as we’re dependent upon each other. As dinosaurs will prevent in the way to the formation of humans, nature killed its whole species. Thus, the intention of making the universe is to support humans (which are the final product of life) & humans are made to explore the nature, to acknowledge realities. As long as humans will be in the universe or universes (if it escapes to other universes), we’ll get question after question as we’re made to explore new frontiers of realities. Thus, this cycle of question & answer will go on until the death of humans. Again, a natural question emerges – why life or humans are made to explore?

What’s the reason behind exploration? Why exploration of nature is so important that humans are made through hostile conditions? There’s a wild possible answer to this question. As discussed in my previous article, Who Is God?, there’s a wild & bizarre possibility that some advanced civilization may produced us in this virtual world to observe us whether their (people’s of that civilization) creation (life) is harmful or harmless so that they can recreate us in their world. As such, they may want us to explore our world. They may want to see how we explore our world. In this idea, there’re some problems. We may not be produced by such civilization. We may came into existence by the laws of nature directly. (The problems in the idea that ‘some advanced civilization may created us’ is discussed fully in Who Is God?). So, such things may not be true at all. Another possibility which is less-bizarre is that may be it is the law of nature that ‘when anything becomes very complex as humans, their interests develop to exploration or become curious to acknowledge the realities.’ This idea is quite friendly. The reason behind exploration of nature may be a co-incidence. When billions of trillions of universes came into existence, some of them had such conditions that complex structures began to develop & eventually life formed & then formed the humans, which due to their most complex structure, started to develop their interests to explore nature. This idea completely altered or changed our previous answers to the questions – why the universe is in the way it is & what’s the purpose of life. In our previous answers, it was mentioned that universes are the results of a previously-planned model which leads to the intention of developing life. But this answer states that universes are the results of co-incidence. There was no planning for this. Now, the questions arise – which idea is most appropriate? Which idea reflects reality? Are the universes results of planned model or unplanned model? No one is really sure of the answer. But one thing is quite certain that if the universes are results of planned model, it certainly needs creator. If the universes are results of unplanned model, it may or may not need creator. From a point of view, universes are result of planned model because laws of nature are much precise. They’re so precise that we can’t imagine. In this article, in Life: The Greatest Masterpiece Of The Universe & in Who Is God?, we had discussed that our universe is very much complicated. The physical constants are so that if they’re changed by few factors, life & other structures will not be possible. Thus, it’s hard to believe that universes came into existence without creator. From another point of view, universes are results of unplanned model because it’s possible that out of 10500 universes, few of them get complex structures, from some of  which life developed. In fact, we’re not sure whether other universes have complex structures or not because we’ve never seen them, we just guessed. Till this level of knowledge, our universe has complex structures. So, universes came into existence without creator. It has been a matter of question whether creator exists or not both in Who Is God? & Why The Universe Is In The Way It Is? In both the articles, we’ve discussed how a creator can exist or how a creator can’t exist. I welcome readers to share their views with me whether creator exists or not & how they may exist or may not exist. (Readers are requested to share their views in comment box below or through my email id – sandeepdebamishra@gmail.com). Through out this article, we’ve discussed many questions of our very existence:

  1. Why the universe is in the way it is?
  2. What is the purpose of life?
  3. Why the life is made to explore universes?
  4. Are the universes planned model or unplanned model?
  5. Why or why not the universes need creator or god?

We humans need to explore more questions of our existence. We’ve much more to unveil. Till now, we’re not sure of the answers of all the 5 questions listed above. Humans are made for exploration & thus this is our prime duty to do that. There’re rapid advances in science & technology with the help of which we could answer many questions about our own existence. Today we’re in the most advanced era of exploration. By shaking hands with technology, science can explore many questions of existence in much better way. The dream of yesterday is the hope of today & the reality of tomorrow. Through ages, humans have overcome the challenges posed by nature & will do forever. There’re lots of new questions to answer waiting for us in the horizon…

 

Copyright©2011 Sandeep Deba Misra