tell us who fred hoyle was. >> guest: fred hoyle as you point out was extremely well-known in the u.k. because number one hero to many popular books. he has the very popular radio program so he was known to the general public as well as the scientific community very well. it's true that the u.s. is not as well-known. he is certainly i would say one of the few biggest astrophysicist at astrophysicists of the 20th century. there is no doubt about that. for a period of maybe 25 years he was arguably the biggest astrophysicists that existed. he is the person that told us for example all the elements that you and i are made of were actually formed inside cells. at the beginning of the universe there was hydrogen and elements. life depends on carbon, hydrogen, oxygen phosphorus and all of those elements were forged inside of stars. there is the expression we are stardust so we really we are at that. the materials in our bodies were once inside some star and foil is the person who came up with the theory for that. and how all of that works. >> host: it's almost ironic because didn't hoyle be

. >> host: so you selected charles darwin, lord kelvin, linus pauling, fred hoyle, and albert einstein. let's talk about each of these starting with darwin. he is known mostly the serial evolution. but as i understand it, he never really even use the term evolution in his actual original writings. >> guest: that's right, he never use the word evolution in his book. however, but the last part of the book has evolved but the word evolved has been a part of this. so you are right. i mean, it was not accepted and defined. but given that it has been like this, it has been much more popular. >> host: so the theory of natural selection later became adopted by those, can you tell us a little bit more about what drove him? >> basically he came out with the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. so he did one big theory, which was composed of a number of steps in it, for example, it was the concept of evolution and the species are not immutable, they change and so on and so forth. it was the concept of this that changes happen very slowly, like this and it is not that you with one sp

tell us who fred hoyle was. >> as you point out extremely well though in the u.k. because he wrote number popular books and a very popular radio programs and he was known as will to the scientific community it is true in the u.s. he is not as well-known. he certainly is one of the few biggest astrophysicist of the 20th century no doubt for a period of maybe 25 years he was arguably the biggest astrophysicist. the person that for example, tells us all the elements that we are made of four forms inside stars. at the beginning of the universal the hydrogen and helium but everything life depends on carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, ph osphorus, all of those were found inside stars. there is the expression we are stardust. literally. the material in our body were once inside some star. a and fred wheel came up with the theory for that year and how it works. >> host: is the most ironic because today he believed the universe was constant a with will change or second time? >> guest: correct. even more ironic than what you pointed out because this is the person who cleans the term

um, it's been more of a problem for atheists, um, like fred hoyle and the steady state people who hated the idea of the big bang. because if you have an eternal universe, you don't need an initial event. no, no. that - that's right. but god can create a universe with an infinite past just as he - that's not a problem for god. so - so, you would look at god in a universe that had no beginning, that had an infinite past as maybe the cause, or we can say the ontological - the - the fundamental being creator of it, but not the creator in a time process. presicely. he's, ontologically, he is prior to the universe, not necessarily temporally. god isn't really needed, uh, to light the blue touch paper, he's needed for there to be anything at all; that's the theological question, um, the question that was posed by leibniz, you know, way back, why is there something rather than nothing? that's the fundamental theological question to which god provides the answer, rather than the beginning in time. here's the common theology - which rodney challenges: everything that begins to exist has a cause.

. >> host: fred hoyle maybe one of the lesser known in the united states but overseas he is well recognized to be one of the giants. tell us who fred wheel was. >> guest: as you point out he was extremely well known in the u.k. because he wrote many popular books and had a very popular radio program and was known to the general public as well but in the u.s. is not as well-known. wonder that he you biggest astrophysicist there is no doubt about that before period the of 25 years are really -- arguably the biggest that all the elements that you and i are made of or actually formed inside stars. at the beginning of the universe and everything that life depends on carbon, oxygen all of those elements inside the stars. there is the expression we are stardust literally. the material in our body inside some star and he was the person who came up with the theory of fact. >> host: is the most ironic because did it he believed the universe was constant and that it was set in time? >> guest: correct period even more ironic in the sense he coined the term big bang which is used today that our universe