That's the conclusion that Stephen Hawking has come to, in his latest book The Grand Design, written in conjunction with Leonard Mlodinow.
In his introduction to the book on the amazon.com website:
"How can we understand the world in which we find ourselves? Over twenty years ago I wrote A Brief History of Time,
to try to explain where the universe came from, and where it is going.
But that book left some important questions unanswered. Why is there a
universe–why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist?
Why are the laws of nature what they are? Did the universe need a
designer and creator?It was Einstein’s dream to discover
the grand design of the universe, a single theory that explains
everything. However, physicists in Einstein’s day hadn’t made enough
progress in understanding the forces of nature for that to be a
realistic goal. And by the time I had begun writing A Brief History of Time,
there were still several key advances that had not yet been made that
would prevent us from fulfilling Einstein’s dream. But in recent years
the development of M-theory, the top-down approach to cosmology, and new
observations such as those made by satellites like NASA’s COBE and
WMAP, have brought us closer than ever to that single theory, and to
being able to answer those deepest of questions. And so Leonard
Mlodinow and I set out to write a sequel to A Brief History of Time to attempt to answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. The result is The Grand Design, the product of our four-year effort.In The Grand Design
we explain why, according to quantum theory, the cosmos does not have
just a single existence, or history, but rather that every possible
history of the universe exists simultaneously. We question the
conventional concept of reality, posing instead a "model-dependent"
theory of reality. We discuss how the laws of our particular universe
are extraordinarily finely tuned so as to allow for our existence, and
show why quantum theory predicts the multiverse–the idea that ours is
just one of many universes that appeared spontaneously out of nothing,
each with different laws of nature. And we assess M-Theory, an
explanation of the laws governing the multiverse, and the only
viable candidate for a complete "theory of everything." As we promise
in our opening chapter, unlike the answer to the Ultimate Question of
Life given in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the answer we provide in The Grand Design is not, simply, "42."
At issue is a single line, much quoted before the book itself is released to the general public, where Hawking states: "“Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist…It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."
The pundits of the media, having nothing else to blather about,have decided to pounce on this book and generate some 'discussion'. Also, some sales for the book, I presume.
Here's a sampling of the headlines.
God did not create the universe, says Hawking
Stephen Hawking says universe not created by God
A review by Roger Penrose (he's not interested in the God argument, but has other bones to pick.)
Note: Ruchira is currently dealing with a medical emergency and won't be posting until she gets back to Houston.
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