Fine Tuning of the Universe - Lecture Series by Dr Gasser Hathout

Lecture 7: Introducing the Standard Model | Part 1

These lectures give the background material needed to start looking at the fine tuning of the constants of nature – specifically the fine tuning of the masses of the fundamental particles, as well as the fine tuning of the forces through which these fundamental particles interact. To understand this material, we need to become familiar with what physicists call “the Standard Model.” This understated name is actually the product of more than 50 years of work by some of humanity’s greatest minds, and it is the catalogue of the fundamental particles which make up all matter in the universe (such as quarks, electrons and neutrinos), as well as an introduction to the forces through which these fundamental particles interact with each other (electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force).

Fine Tuning of the Universe

The notion of Fine Tuning of the Universe is a set of recent and profound scientific discoveries -- spanning only the last few decades -- which has had an unprecedented impact on the debate about the relationship of science and faith. It stands as the strongest set of scientific arguments supporting the existence of God, and the notion of a purposeful Creation. It is a critical counter to a mental culture which tries to paint the picture that science has rendered the notion of faith obsolete.

What is Fine Tuning? To quote Luke Barnes, an astrophysicist at the Sydney Institute of Astronomy, it is the discovery that “Even the smallest changes to the laws of physics as we know them tend to make a universe which is completely unliveable. This is called the fine-tuning of the universe, and is frankly one of the most baffling facts in all of science!”

In this lecture series, we will explore some of these discoveries together, and see how they impact the debate about the relationship of science and faith.