Some super-calculating intellect must have designed the properties of the carbon atom; otherwise the chance of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would be utterly minuscule. A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question. -- Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle was probably the most brilliant scientist of the 20th century who never became world famous. He was the man who coined the term "big bang" to describe the small, incredibly hot beginning of the universe. However, Sir Fred was ridiculing the theory because he rejected the Big Bang. Hoyle didn't believe an origin of the universe was possible, probably due to his atheism. Even after the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation supported Hubble's observations of redshift, which indicated the universe not static, but expanding. In the quote above, Hoyle is referring to his prediction about the carbon 12 atom, which was an extraordinary accomplishment, for which fellow physicists William Alfred Fowler and Chandra Wickramasinghe won the 1983 Nobel Prize in physics. Hoyle was famously snubbed and excluded from sharing the honor he so richly deserved, allegedly because he alienated and annoyed so many of his peers with his more controversial opinions. Author Simon Singh wrote the following about Hoyle: After ten … [Read more...]