It is hard to resist the impression that the present structure of the
universe, apparently so sensitive to minor alterations in numbers, has been
rather carefully thought out. . . . The seemingly miraculous concurrence of
these numerical values must remain the most compelling evidence for cosmic
design. Physicist Paul Davies
Would it not be strange if a universe without purpose accidentally
created humans who are so obsessed with purpose? Sir John Templeton.
Patrick Glynn became a confirmed atheist by the time he
received his doctorate from Harvard University in the 1970s. “Darwin had
demonstrated that it was not even necessary to posit a God to explain the
origin of life,” he said. “Life, and the human species itself, was the outcome
of essentially random mechanisms operating over the eons.”
“Gradually, I realized
that in the twenty years since I opted for philosophical atheism, a vast,
systematic literature had emerged that not only cast deep doubt on, but also,
from any reasonable perspective, effectively refuted my atheistic outlook. . .
. Today, it seems to me, there is no good reason for an intelligent person to
embrace the illusion of atheism or agnosticism, to make the same intellectual
mistakes I made”
Like so many people claiming to be atheists, believing what “science
books” had taught them and that there is no place for God in science, until he started
doing his own research. In his book God:
the Evidence, he gives credit to the
absolutely incredible fine-tuning of the cosmos, and that is one of the key
reasons why he concluded that the universe must have been the handiwork of a master
designer.
What does
fine-tuning mean?
“When scientists talk about the fine-tuning of the universe,
they’re generally referring to the extraordinary balancing of the fundamental laws
and parameters of physics and the initial conditions of the universe. Our minds
can’t comprehend precision of some of them. The result is a universe that has
just the right conditions to sustain life. The coincidences are simply too
amazing to have been the result of happenstance—as Paul Davies said, ‘the
impression of design is overwhelming.’
Take a look at this analogy of astronauts landing on Mars
and finding an enclosed biosphere, sort of like the domed structure that was
built in Arizona a few years ago. At the control panel they find that all the
dials for its environment are set just right for life. The oxygen ratio is
perfect; the temperature is seventy degrees; the humidity is fifty percent;
there’s a system for replenishing the air; there are systems for producing
food, generating energy, and disposing of wastes. Each dial has a huge range of
possible settings, and you can see if you were to adjust one or more of them
just a little bit, the environment would go out of whack and life would be
impossible. What conclusion would you draw from that?” The answer was obvious.
““That someone took great care in designing and building it,”
“You’d conclude that this biosphere was not there by
accident. Volcanoes didn’t erupt and spew out the right compounds that just
happened to assemble themselves into the biosphere. Some intelligent being had
intentionally and carefully designed and prepared it to support living
creatures. And that’s an analogy for our universe. “Over the past thirty years
or so, scientists have discovered that just about everything about the basic
structure of the universe is balanced on a razor’s edge for life to exist. The
coincidences are far fantastic to attribute this to mere chance or to claim
that it needs no explanation. The dials are set too precisely to have been a
random accident. Somebody, as Fred Hoyle quipped, has been monkeying with the
physics.”
Let’s look at one example, gravity. Imagine a ruler, or one
of those old-fashioned linear radio dials, that goes all the way across the
universe. It would be broken down into one-inch increments, which means there
would be billions upon billions upon billions of inches. The entire dial
represents the range of force strengths in nature, with gravity being the
weakest force and the strong nuclear force that binds protons and neutrons
together in the nuclei being the strongest, a whopping ten thousand billion
billion billion billion times stronger than gravity. The range of possible settings for the force
of gravity can plausibly be taken to be at least as large as the total range of
force strengths. Now, let’s imagine that you want to move the dial from where
it’s currently set. Even if you were to move it by only one inch, the impact on
life in the universe would be catastrophic. That small adjustment of the dial
would increase gravity by a billion-fold.
There are many more examples of the universe being fine-tuned.
Check out this article from the Discovery Institute on fine tuning.
Find the Truth and remember…. Have an Intelligent Faith!!
-Nelis
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