Does the M-theory do away with the need for God, as Stephen Hawking claims in The Grand Design?
Quotes by scientists pointing out the limitations of M-theory:
“The connection between this multiverse idea and M-theory is, however, tentative. Advocates of M-theory such as Witten and Hawking would have us believe that it is done and dusted. But its critics have been sharpening their knives for a few years now, arguing that M-theory is not even a proper scientific theory if it is untestable experimentally. At the moment it is just a compelling and beautiful mathematical construct, and in fact only one of a number of candidate TOEs [Theories of Everything].”
– Theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili
“It is not testable, not even in any foreseeable future.”
– Physicist Paul Davies
“M-theory is not even defined …we are even told ‘No one seems to know what the M stands for.’ Perhaps it is ‘myth’… I don’t see that M-theory adds one iota to the God debate, either pro or con.”
– Oxford physicist Frank Close
“M-theory is highly speculative and certainly not in the zone of science that we have got any evidence for.”
– Physicist Jon Butterworth, Large Hadron Collider, Switzerland
“The book is a bit misleading. It gives you this impression of a theory that is going to explain everything; it’s nothing of the sort. It’s not even a theory.”
– Mathematical physicist Roger Penrose