Posted on 06/18/2013 5:22:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last week, in Nice, France, I was privileged to participate along with 30 scholars, mostly scientists and mathematicians, in a conference on the question of whether the universe was designed, or at least fine-tuned, to make life, especially intelligent life. Participants — from Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Berkeley, and Columbia, among other American and European universities — included believers in God, agonistics, and atheists.
It was clear that the scientific consensus was that, at the very least, the universe is exquisitely fine-tuned to allow for the possibility of life. It appears that we live in a “Goldilocks universe,” in which both the arrangement of matter at the cosmic beginning and the values of various physical parameters — such as the speed of light, the strength of gravitational attraction, and the expansion rate of the universe — are just right for life. And unless one is frightened of the term, it also appears the universe is designed for biogenesis and human life.
Regarding fine-tuning, one could write a book just citing the arguments for it made by some of the most distinguished scientists in the world. Here is just a tiny sample, collated by physicist Gerald Schroeder, who holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he later taught physics.
Michael Turner, astrophysicist at the University of Chicago and Fermilab: “The precision is as if one could throw a dart across the entire universe and hit a bullseye one millimeter in diameter on the other side.” Paul Davies, professor of theoretical physics at Adelaide University: “The really amazing thing is not that life on Earth is balanced on a knife-edge, but that the entire universe is balanced on a knife-edge, and would be total chaos if any of the natural ‘constants’ were off even slightly.
Roger Penrose, the Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, writes that the likelihood of the universe having usable energy (low entropy) at its creation is “one part out of ten to the power of ten to the power of 123.” That is “a million billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion billion zeros.”
Steven Weinberg, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, and an anti-religious agnostic, notes that “the existence of life of any kind seems to require a cancellation between different contributions to the vacuum energy, accurate to about 120 decimal places.” As the website explains, “This means that if the energies of the Big Bang were, in arbitrary units, not:
1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
But instead:
1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
There would be no life of any sort in the entire universe.”
Unless one is a closed-minded atheist (there are open-minded atheists), it is not valid on a purely scientific basis to deny that the universe is improbably fine-tuned to create life, let alone intelligent life.
Additionally, it is atheistic dogma, not science, to dismiss design as unscientific. The argument that science cannot suggest that intelligence comes from intelligence or design from an intelligent designer is simply a tautology. It is dogma masquerading as science.
And now, many atheist scientists have inadvertently provided logical proof of this.
They have put forward the notion of a multiverse — the idea that there are many, perhaps an infinite number of, other universes. This idea renders meaningless the fine-tuning and, of course, the design arguments. After all, with an infinite number of universes, a universe with parameters friendly to intelligent life is more likely to arise somewhere by chance.
But there is not a shred of evidence of the existence of these other universes — nor could there be, since contact with another universe is impossible.
Therefore, only one conclusion can be drawn: The fact that atheists have resorted to the multiverse argument constitutes a tacit admission that they have lost the argument about design in this universe. The evidence in this universe for design — or, if you will, the fine-tuning that cannot be explained by chance or by “enough time” — is so compelling that the only way around it is to suggest that our universe is only one of an infinite number of universes.
Honest atheists — scientists and lay people — must now acknowledge that science itself argues overwhelmingly for a Designing Intelligence. And honest believers must acknowledge that the existence of a Designing Intelligence is not necessarily the same as the existence of benevolent God.
To posit the existence of a Creator requires only reason. To posit the existence of a good God requires faith.
— Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His most recent book is Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
You have a pretty weak andhelpless God.
One who is not a God at all.
On the contrary, His Plan to allow Satan an appeals trial of his original sentence is now observable to the entire Creation, so the righteousness and justice of His original judgment will be indubitable for all eternity future.
The children of homosexuals are an even more desperate state.
Ran into a mid-aged homosexual man this weekend with his two sons who were about 6-7 years old. He declared they were gay.
We suggested that perhaps that was for them to decide when they were older and he responded that he they had been designed that way genetically and he had already had several others who turned out as girls and they destroyed them and started from scratch until they designed them the way they wanted them.
Recognizing homosexuals have grown up in a society where their sexual lifestyles are chosen behaviors, when it was criminal, but they have learned how to achieve their goals criminally without consequence,...it is very scary to consider what criminal activities they might be pursuing in genetic engineering.
I guess he will have an eternity in the Lake of Fire to feel proud about it.
So what if that's what it looks like?
Satan loses in the end. God has stated otherwise in His word.
God is not bound by His creation as your philosophy intimates.
Got any Scripture to back that up?
nope. It is addressed absolutely no where in scripture. The problem still remains though.
say not saw
Actually, He did directly create everything that could be created.
Col 1:15-17
(15) Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
(16) For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
(17) And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
They come out of the woodwork in Palm Springs.
Some 10 years ago we bumped into some homosexuals who had started their own homosexual church and were engaged in rewriting the Bible as a ‘Gay Bible’,..go figure.
A couple of years later we bumped into so who met regularly who journeyed out of the country to adopt children from foreign countries in order to have children. later they brought the practice into the US.
Now they are engaged in genetic engineering and are showing up with toddlers, bragging about their exploits.
IMHO, they’re insatiable and criminally insane.
There is a discernible difference between ‘creation’ and ‘making’ and ‘allowance’.
The persons were ‘created’. Man was ‘made’. A Divine Institution of Volition has been established by God (not created). The persons are given Volition. From their volition, they have personal responsibility for their thinking, behavior, and actions.
Satan is the father of sin, not God. Sin is anything not in God’s Plan. It is opposite of God. Sin is a consequence of improperly exercising our volition.
The issue of sin and man and God has been resolved on the Cross eternally. Man may still have consequences from sin in regards to personal relationships and his freedom, but we have been redeemed from the slave market of sin.
Good and Evil have not yet been so resolved. They must be resolved in time. The issue of sin may be resolved in an instant.
The human body is made from the dust of the earth and God breathed life into it. The soul, comprised of the heart and mind is created. The human spirit is created, (also known as the new man).
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