Apologetics: The Basics
Session 6 – God Exists, Part 3
First 3 Design Arguments
- Origin of Life
- Tiny Machines
- Supernatural Communications
Design Argument #4 – Universe Creation Design
The Anthropic Principle
The scientific principle that everything about the universe was designed especially to accommodate life on earth.
There are factors related to the creation of the universe that are so finely tuned as to be inexplicable in terms of chance.
The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron and the ratio of the masses of the proton and the electron. The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life…it seems clear that there are relatively few ranges of values for the numbers that would allow the development of any form of intelligent life.” – Stephen Hawking
Three Examples
1. Ratio of electrons to protons
– if larger OR smaller would prevent chemical bonding
– Acceptable limit of variation, 1 in 10(37)**
** 10(37) example, billion N American dime piles to moon **
2. Ratio of electromagnetic force to gravitational force
– if larger there would be no small stars, if smaller there would be no large stars
– Acceptable limit of variation, 1 in 10(40)
3. The expansion rate of the universe
– if the expansion rate were faster the universe would expand too quickly for
stars to form, if slower the universe would have collapsed back in on itself
– acceptable limit of variation, 1 in 10(55)
This is just 3 of more than 140 examples!
How good is this evidence?
“Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say ‘supernatural’) plan.” – Arno Penzias
““[There} is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all…It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe…The impression of design is overwhelming.” – Paul Davies
Design Argument #5 – Life Supporting Planet Design
How many stars?
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Three Examples
- Galaxy must be a spiral galaxy
– elliptical galaxies are too old to produce 3rd generation stars
– odds, 1 in 16 (but listed as 1 in 10!)
2. Parent star cannot be too big or too small
– too big and the star burns too erratically, too small and the planet has to be
too close causing rotational issues
– odds, 1 in 1000
3. Planet must be right distance from the parent star
– too close or too far causes temperature, radiation and rotational issues
– odds, 1 in 1000
2009 List of Design Requirements for a Life Support Planet
- 816 parameters = 10(-1333)
- Less dependency factor reduction 10(324)
- Plus longevity factor addition 10(45)
- Number of stars in the universe 10(22)
- Final estimate for finding a single life support planet in the universe we live in, ONE CHANCE IN 10(1032)
*** and this 2009 number grows every year ***
How good is this evidence?
“…the emergence of life on earth is, from a purely scientific viewpoint, an outcome of immense improbability.” – Stanley Jaki
“…a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology.”
– Sir Fred Hoyle
THE DESIGN ARGUMENT: What is more rational?
An intelligent Creator designed everything?
Or to believe there is no Creator, in which case YOU MUST BELIEVE…
- Man is just another species
- There is no absolute right and wrong
- That the universe just accidentally popped into existence for no reason?
- Beating odds like 1 in 10(37) for 140 necessary characteristics?
- Having a life support planet beating odds of more than 1 in 10(1032)?
- Life assembled by natural processes overcoming odds of 1 in 10(40 thousand)?
- Nature created a language in a way it has never done since…
- And nature built machines in a way it has never done since…
…Thank GOD he doesn’t ask me to have this kind of blind faith!
As Norm Geisler and Frank Turek wrote, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist”
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself up over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”
– agnostic astrophysicist Robert Jastrow
*** This is where the evidence takes us ***
And now for that Last Bullet…But what about…
- Quantum fluctuations
- String Theory
- Multi-verse
- Infinite Universes
Five Points
First…This does NOT address the Moral Arg
Second…Even proponents know there will never be any direct observation of another universe…so they understand that even a second universe will never be anything more than a possibility, much less an infinite number of them…multiple universes will never be more than an educated guess…SHELDON COOPER
This is why… Cosmologist George F.R. Ellis wrote that multiverse models ultimately are not science, but rather “scientifically based philosophical speculation.”
Third…how many is an issue…’multi-verse’ explains nothing, has to be infinite…
Fourth…a ‘multi-verse’ could have been the creation model for God
Fifth…Using the multi-verse to explain the fine-tuning of the universe…
destroys reason and ultimately undermines the scientific method…
Examples: Marry Me in the sky, Mount Rushmore, sand dune, Rosetta Stone…
would all inevitably be the result of natural forces in an infinite universe model
IF YOU CHOOSE TO PLACE YOUR FAITH IN INFINITE UNIVERSES, YOU HAVE ABANDONED YOUR ABILITY TO APPEAL TO RATIONALITY AS AN EXPLANATION FOR ANYTHING …INCLUDING SCIENCE
My suggestion…let’s stick with reason…and the principle of rational people…“Probability is the sole ground on which finite human beings can make rational conclusions.”
Probability clearly tells us…God Exists!
Recommended resources: *** Hugh Ross – Creator in the Cosmos ***
*** Reasons.org + Compendium ***
Know what you believe
Know why you believe it…