Posted on 10/15/2001 7:18:15 PM PDT by Heartlander
What exactly is going on here? Schools suddenly want to make a point that God has no place in our children’s lives during a time our country is crying out for Him. If education is their claim than let’s deal with some facts:
1. Had the rate of expansion of the big bang been different, no life would have been possible. A reduction by one part in a million million would have led to collapse before the temperatures could fall below ten thousand degrees. An early increase by one part in a million would have prevented the growth of galaxies, stars, and planets.
2. The material of the observable universe is isotropic (evenly distributed) to an accuracy of 0. 1 percent. Such an accuracy is antecedently improbable and slight variations would rule out life.
3. Had the values of the gravitational constant, the strong force constant (the force binding protons and neutrons in the nucleus), the weak force (the force responsible for many nuclear processes [e.g., the transmutation of neutrons into protons]), and the electromagnetic force been slightly greater or smaller, no life would have been possible.
4. In the formation of the universe, the balance of matter to antimatter had to be accurate to one part in ten billion for the universe to arise.
5. The random coalescing of several unrelated factors necessary for life someplace in the universe is highly improbable. This can be seen by examining the factors on earth necessary for life. The point is not, however, that it is amazing that these factors came together on earth instead of somewhere else. Rather, it is amazing that they came together anywhere, and earth is used to illustrate the factors necessary. Had the ratio of carbon to oxygen been slightly different, no life could have formed. If the mass of a proton were increased by 0.2 percent, hydrogen would be unstable and life would not have formed. For life to form, the temperature range is only 1-2 percent of the total temperature range, and earth obtains this range by being the correct distance from the sun, just the right size, with the right rotational speed, with a special atmosphere which protects earth and evens out temperature extremes. In addition, the planet which had these factors just happened to contain the proper amount of metals (especially iron), radioactive elements to provide the right heat source, and water-forming compounds. Perhaps the proper temperature range could be obtained in another way. But earth shows how delicate and multifaceted are the independent factors involved in maintaining the correct temperature for life. 3
6. The chance formation of life from nonlife (abiogenesis) has been estimated at around 1 x 1040,000 Thus, the probability of life forming anywhere in the cosmos is miniscule. 4 Furthermore, in the process of reacting in some prebiotic chemical soup, the reactants often need to be isolated from their environment at just the right time and reintroduced at just the right time for the reaction to continue. This is achieved in the lab by investigator interference, but it is difficult to conceive of a mechanism to do this in nature and to do it at just the right time.
1. Davies, God and the New Physics, P. 189. 2. See Davies, God and the New Physics, pp. 177-89; The Accidental Universe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); John Wiester, The Genesis Connection (Nashville: Nelson, 1983), pp. 27-36, 47-50; hn Leslie, "Anthropic Principle, World Ensemble, Design," American Philosophical Quarterly 19 (Aprfl ):141-50. 3. Wiester, The Genesis Connection, pp. 42-43, 47-50. 4. For examples of these estimates, see Thaxton, Bradley, and Olsen, The Mystery of Life's Origin, pp. 113-66, 218-19; Pierre Lecomte du Noiiy, Human Destiny (New York: The New American Library of World Literature, 1949), pp. 30-39; Robert Shapiro, Origins (New York: Summit, 1986), pp. 117-31; Henry M. Morris, ed., Scientific Creationism (El Cajon, Calif.: Master, 1974), pp. 59 69
Not even talking about young earth Biblical Creationism. So Manny, over or under post ten for some one to lay a "knuckle dragging fundie" on him? ;-)
Don't really mind the idea of a master watchmaker- just don't care for the idea that "He" did it all by pulling rabbits out of the hat- i.e., there were seven days of 24 hours etc..
I would be much more impressed by a deity that could, working within the constraints you laid out above, set the whole ball of wax rolling, and come up with this specific result.
but that's about all i have to say about it.
A meaningless question, of course, since "existence" is strictly a human concept.
So are "life" and "death" and "time" and "distance"....
There is a fine line that we all walk here, but God must and cannot be ruled out by the minority activists.
Please do not get me wrong here, I agree wholeheartedly with you in teaching your children. It is the conflict in school that bothers me.
The flag as well.
this is debated every/other day around here...
He did. Evolution, tho HE created it.
The existence of God is made through discovery, not belief. And since we work on the concept of linear time, we cannot possibly understand anything outside of that. Through quantum physics, we will, and then, we SHALL make the discovery of His existence on a collective level. Those who have discovered through personal revelation are the mystics and sages. They have had an undeniable brush with the Creator. Yet, how can that be scientifically proven? It is our scientists, and through their aim to dis-prove, that He will be discovered on a level that passes objective mustard. Simple belief, one way or another, is not enough to prove or dis-prove. It is discovery, whether subjective or objective, that proves His existence. The objective is to come.
Do not just throw out the "watchmaker" label.
The meaning of life is to exist, collect things and die?
If not - what?
(Subtext for the obtuse: apparent fine-tuning problems are a strong indication of an underlying physics principle that has yet to be discovered.)
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