Epigraph

سَنُرِيهِمْ آيَاتِنَا فِي الْآفَاقِ وَفِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ ۗ أَوَلَمْ يَكْفِ بِرَبِّكَ أَنَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ

We shall show them Our signs in every region of the earth and in themselves, until it becomes clear to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that your Lord witnesses everything? (Al Quran 41:53)

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

The universe needed to be fine-tuned at its very beginning to be biophilic or to support life, but coincidences or providence do not simply end there. There were many more coincidences required to obtain the building blocks of life, such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, copper, and zinc. We also needed the providential meteor strike some 60 million years ago, to eliminate the dinosaurs and make the planet more habitable for mammals. This is examined in a separate article: The Glorious Quran: From Mother’s Placenta to Afterlife. The list of coincidences is unending and points to the incoherence of atheism.

Today, we will focus on carbon, a fundamental building block for life.

The formation of carbon within stars is a remarkable process that plays a pivotal role in the existence of life as we know it. This synthesis occurs through the triple-alpha process, a set of nuclear fusion reactions whereby three helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) combine to form a carbon-12 nucleus. This sequence is highly improbable due to the extremely short lifespan of the intermediate beryllium-8 nucleus, which exists for only about 10^{-16} seconds before decaying back into two helium nuclei. For carbon production to proceed efficiently, a third helium nucleus must fuse with beryllium-8 within this fleeting timeframe.

The Hoyle state is an excited energy level of the carbon-12 (^12C) nucleus that plays a pivotal role in the synthesis of carbon within stars, a process fundamental to the existence of life. Its characteristics are so precisely aligned with the requirements for carbon production that many scientists consider its existence to be a remarkable example of cosmic fine-tuning.​Wikipedia

The Triple-Alpha Process and the Hoyle State:

In stellar environments, particularly within red giant stars, carbon is produced through the triple-alpha process. This sequence involves the fusion of three helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) under extreme temperatures and pressures:​

1. Formation of Beryllium-8 (^8Be): Two alpha particles combine to form ^8Be, an unstable nucleus with an extremely short half-life of about 10^{-16} seconds. ​Wikipedia
2. Capture of a Third Alpha Particle: Before ^8Be decays back into helium nuclei, a third alpha particle can fuse with it to form carbon-12. The probability of this reaction occurring is significantly enhanced if there is an excited state in ^12C that resonates at an energy close to the combined energy of ^8Be and the additional alpha particle. ​Wikipedia

The Hoyle state serves as this resonant energy level, situated approximately 7.65 mega-electronvolts (MeV) above the ground state of carbon-12. This resonance dramatically increases the likelihood of carbon formation in stars, facilitating the synthesis of this essential element. ​Argonne National Laboratory+2arxiv.org+2AIP Publishing+2Wikipedia

Fred Hoyle’s Prediction:

In the early 1950s, astrophysicist Fred Hoyle recognized that the observed abundance of carbon in the universe could not be explained by known nuclear reactions unless there was an as-yet-undiscovered excited state in carbon-12 that allowed for efficient production via the triple-alpha process. He predicted the existence of this state at an energy of about 7.65 MeV. Hoyle’s prediction was subsequently confirmed experimentally in 1954, validating his hypothesis and highlighting the remarkable alignment of nuclear energy levels necessary for carbon synthesis. ​

Fred Hoyle did not win a Nobel Prize, although his work was instrumental in the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to William Alfred Fowler, who acknowledged Hoyle as the pioneer of stellar nucleosynthesis.

The Miraculous Aspect of the Hoyle State:

The precise energy of the Hoyle state is critical; even a slight deviation would result in insufficient carbon production, profoundly impacting the potential for life to develop. This fine-tuning has led to discussions about the anthropic principle—the idea that certain aspects of the universe appear to be tailored to allow for the emergence of life. The existence of the Hoyle state at exactly the right energy level is often cited as a striking example of such fine-tuning in the cosmos. ​Wikipedia

In summary, the Hoyle state is a remarkable feature of nuclear physics that enables the formation of carbon in stars through the triple-alpha process. Its precise energy level, predicted by Fred Hoyle and later confirmed experimentally, underscores the intricate conditions necessary for the synthesis of life-essential elements in the universe.

As we add coincidence after coincidence that is required for our very existence on our planet Earth, the Quranic assertion is inescapable:

It is God who created the heavens and earth, who has sent down water from the sky and with it brought forth produce to nourish you; He has made ships useful to you, sailing the sea by His command, and the rivers too; He has made the sun and the moon useful to you, steady on their paths; He has made the night and day useful to you and given you some of everything you asked Him for. If you tried to count God’s favors you could never calculate them: man is truly unjust and ungrateful. (Al Quran 14:32-34)