Group
Here is an article which appeared in our local paper. It seems that even if
there were multiple universes, they might all turn out to look designed!
The comment at the end:
"It's still a long way from claiming there is a personal God who
cares for each and every one of us, but it's a start"
is IMHO not a bad summary of the relationship of ID to Christianity.
Steve
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14 THE WEST AUSTRALIAN TODAY MONDAY OCTOBER 23 2000
[...]
God makes a comeback
Brave new world Graham Phillips
IF YOU'RE after a bit of guidance on the meaning of life! you probably
shouldn't ask a scientist for some inspirational pearls of wisdom.
Inquire about humanity's place in the greater scheme of things and you're
likely to be told we're just another species. We may have technology and
wear clothes, but really we're no more than apes in capes.
In tact, if you asked eminent American biologist Stephen Jay Gould, it's
likely you'd be told we're not even one of the better species on the planet.
Humans and their relatives have been around for only a few million years.
What sort of success is that? Those dumb dinosaurs dominated for more
than 100 million years. And bacteria have survived for billions.
No, humanity is just another tiny twig on the tree of life.
In fact, Gould insists, if we could somehow wind back time and start the
process of evolution again, humans would never appear second time round.
We were just a giant cosmic fluke in the first place. If that asteroid hadn't
accidentally bumped into Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs, we mammals
would never have arisen. We owe our existence to a chance encounter with
a chunk of space junk.
And physicists are even worse. They say the universe could easily have had
no intelligent life, or indeed no life at all.
Given science doesn't see anything particularly special about humanity, it's
no wonder few scientists believe in God. After all, even a minimalist's God
usually treats humans as special in some way.
But have scientists had it wrong all these years? If some new thinking in
physics turns out to be right, God might be back in the equation after all.
The fresh approach is a new theory on reality known as string theory.
The conventional thinking is that the universe's building blocks are tiny
particles: small balls, if you like. For instance, every object is made of
atoms- miniature balls. The atoms themselves are made up of protons and
electrons: even smaller balls.
But according to string theory, deep down balls are out; it's tiny strings that
are the ultimate building blocks.
Of course, these guys are physicists, so they're not talking about strings like
you and I keep in our bottom drawers. Theirs are nine-dimensional
vibrating things, but long and skinny, nonetheless.
While the details of string theory are yet to be worked out, many physicists
think the theory might lead to a remarkable conclusion: that there is only
one logically consistent possible universe, and that's the one in which we
live.
This would be remarkable because our universe seems to have been set up
for us. In several ways, it has been fine-tuned to make human existence
possible.
For example, the explosive power of the initial Big Bang was incredibly
well matched to the weight of all the matter in the cosmos. A mismatch of
just one part in a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion would have created a
universe without stars or planets, and, therefore, without intelligent life.
And there are many other "coincidences" that make the universe fit for
human habitation.
In the past, physicists have got around these embarrassing little problems
by claiming there were parallel universes out there with an infinity of
different properties.
Of course, we find ourselves in the one best suited to us; there's no need
for a God to have specially designed something.
But string theory looks like putting a hole in this argument. If there is only
one possible universe, and it is tailor-made for intelligent life, it is much
harder to keep God out of things.
It's still a long way from claiming there is a personal God who cares for
each and every one of us, but it's a start.
- Graham Phillips is an ABC-TV producer in the science unit. [...]
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"Contemporary religious thinkers often approach the Argument from
Design with a grim determination that their churches shall not again be
made to look foolish. Recalling what happened when churchmen opposed
first Galileo and then Darwin, they insist that religion must be based not on
science but on faith. Philosophy, they announce, has demonstrated that
Design Arguments lack all force. I hope to have shown that philosophy has
demonstrated no such thing. Our universe, which these religious thinkers
believe to be created by God, does look, greatly though this may dismay
them, very much as if created by God." (Leslie J., "Universes," [1989],
Routledge: London, 1996, reprint, p22)
Stephen E. Jones | Ph. +61 8 9448 7439 | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
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