(Under Construction)
Introduction
Definitions
- Fine Tuning: “Fine-tuning refers to the surprising precision of nature’s physical constants, and the beginning state of the Universe. To explain the present state of the universe, even the best scientific theories require that the physical constants of nature and the beginning state of the Universe have extremely precise values.” By BioLogos ( http://biologos.org/questions/fine-tuning)
- Argument from Design: “aka teleological argument; an argument for the existence of God based on the hypothesis of an ultimate design, intention, or purpose in the universe” By Meriam-Webster Online Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/argument%20from%20design)
- Examples: from Discovery Institute (http://www.discovery.org/a/91)
- If the initial explosion of the big bang had differed in strength by as little as 1 part in 10^60, the universe would have either quickly collapsed back on itself, or expanded too rapidly for stars to form. In either case, life would be impossible. [See Paul Davies, 1982, pp. 90-91.] (According to John Jeffrey Davis, this is comparable to shooting a bullet at an object one inch wide 20 billion light years away and hitting it.)
- If the strong nuclear force had been stronger or weaker by just 5% life could not exist. (Leslie, 1989, pp. 4, 35; Barrow and Tipler, p. 322.)
- If gravity was stronger or weaker by 1 part in 10^40, stars such as the sun, which are necessary for life, couldn’t exist. (Calculated by Brandon Carter.)
- Common Objections
- Multiverse Theory: the idea that there are a huge number of universes out there, and we happen to be in the one where everything fell into place perfectly to sustain life.
- Anthropic Principle: [need more research as of 1-15]
- Implications:
- What argument from design does not prove: that the God who designed the universe is the Christian Jehovah of the Bible (although there are other good reasons to believe so apart from the fine-tuning argument)
- What it does imply: that there is a force independent of the universe who created it to sustain human life
Quotes:
“I do not believe that any scientists who examined the evidence would fail to draw the inference that the laws of nuclear physics have been deliberately designed with regard to the consequences they produce inside stars. If this is so, then my apparently random quirks have become part of a deep-laid scheme. If not then we are back again at a monstrous sequence of accidents.”
–Sir Fred Hoyle, astrophysicist
So, this argument, if successful, gives us a cosmic designer of the laws of nature and of the universe.
