Muslim creationism part 4

This is part of a series about the book “The Creation of the Universe” by Adnan Oktar. View Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Chapter 3: The rhythm of the atoms

This chapter is about carbon and oxygen. It starts with a basic review of the structure of the atom, and then goes on to explain how carbon is formed. All of this is basically accurate. Every element in the periodic table apart from hydrogen and helium were formed from smaller nuclei in the heart of the sun.

Oktar explains in detail the process of producing carbon, trying to make it seem like a very unlikely process. Carbon formation happens in giant and supergiant stars (horizontal branch stars) that derive their energy from helium fusion – it requires higher temperatures than main sequence stars like our sun can generate. The process of carbon formation is call the triple alpha process as it requires three alpha particles (helium nuclei). The immense temperatures and pressures in these stars allow two helium nuclei to fuse into an unstable isotope of Beryllium. This unstable isotope normally decays quickly, but if the temperature and pressure of the star is high enough, the rate at which it forms can match the rate at which it decays, meaning there is always some around for the next stage. The next stage happens when it comes in contact with another helium nucleus and they fuse to form a carbon nucleus. Eventually, these carbon-containing stars will explode as a supernova, and out of the remnants gravity will form solar systems like ours, rich in heavier elements. Rather than being a very rare and unusual event as Oktar tries to portray, it has happened so much that oxygen and carbon are the third and fourth most common elements in our galaxy.

The next few sections make the rather obvious observations that these nuclear reactions would happen differently if the strong nuclear force had a different strength. Well, yes, obviously. He is just trying to try another variant of the fine tuning argument from the previous chapter. He continues in this vein by asserting that “logically” protons should have a greater charge than electrons because they have a greater mass. He gives no reason to suggest why we should expect that charge and mass be related but just hammers on the obvious fact that that chemistry would be very different if the charge on the electron were different.

And then he concludes that obviously Allah did it because the Quran says that “He built the heaven, he raised its vault high and made it level” (79:27).