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Science View, Fine Turning Of The Universe by blueAgent(m): 9:06pm On Aug 20, 2016 |
The Fine Tuning of the Universe
an article by Gerald Schroeder
According to growing numbers of scientists, the
laws and constants of nature are so "finely-
tuned," and so many "coincidences" have
occurred to allow for the possibility of life, the
universe must have come into existence through
intentional planning and intelligence.
In fact, this "fine-tuning" is so pronounced, and
the "coincidences" are so numerous, many
scientists have come to espouse The Anthropic
Principle, which contends that the universe was
brought into existence intentionally for the sake
of producing mankind. Even those who do not
accept The Anthropic Principle admit to the "fine-
tuning" and conclude that the universe is "too
contrived" to be a chance event.
In a BBC science documentary, "The Anthropic
Principle," some of the greatest scientific minds
of our day describe the recent findings which
compel this conclusion.
Dr. Dennis Scania, the distinguished head of
Cambridge University Observatories:
If you change a little bit the laws of nature, or
you change a little bit the constants of nature
-- like the charge on the electron -- then the
way the universe develops is so changed, it
is very likely that intelligent life would not
have been able to develop.
Dr. David D. Deutsch, Institute of Mathematics,
Oxford University:
If we nudge one of these constants just a few
percent in one direction, stars burn out
within a million years of their formation, and
there is no time for evolution. If we nudge it
a few percent in the other direction, then no
elements heavier than helium form. No
carbon, no life. Not even any chemistry. No
complexity at all.
Dr. Paul Davies, noted author and 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. You see,"
Davies adds, "even if you dismiss man as a
chance happening, the fact remains that the
universe seems unreasonably suited to the
existence of life -- almost contrived -- you
might say a 'put-up job'."
According to the latest scientific thinking, the
matter of the universe originated in a huge
explosion of energy called "The Big Bang." At first,
the universe was only hydrogen and helium,
which congealed into stars. Subsequently, all the
other elements were manufactured inside the
stars. The four most abundant elements in the
universe are: hydrogen, helium, oxygen and
carbon.
When Sir Fred Hoyle was researching how carbon
came to be, in the "blast-furnaces" of the stars,
his calculations indicated that it is very difficult
to explain how the stars generated the necessary
quantity of carbon upon which life on earth
depends. Hoyle found that there were numerous
"fortunate" one-time occurrences which seemed
to indicate that purposeful "adjustments" had
been made in the laws of physics and chemistry
in order to produce the necessary carbon.
Hoyle sums up his findings as follows:
A common sense interpretation of the facts
suggests that a superintendent has monkeyed
with the physics, as well as chemistry and
biology, and that there are no blind forces
worth speaking about in nature. I do not
believe that any physicist who examined the
evidence could fail to draw the inference that
the laws of nuclear physics have been
deliberately designed with regard to the
consequences they produce within stars.
Adds Dr. David D. Deutch: If anyone claims
not to be surprised by the special features
that the universe has, he is hiding his head
in the sand. These special features ARE
surprising and unlikely.
Universal Acceptance Of Fine Tuning
Besides the BBC video, the scientific
establishment's most prestigious journals, and
its most famous physicists and cosmologists,
have all gone on record as recognizing the
objective truth of the fine-tuning. The August '97
issue of "Science" (the most prestigious peer-
reviewed scientific journal in the United States)
featured an article entitled "Science and God: A
Warming Trend?" Here is an excerpt:
The fact that the universe exhibits many
features that foster organic life -- such as
precisely those physical constants that result
in planets and long-lived stars -- also has led
some scientists to speculate that some divine
influence may be present.
In his best-selling book, "A Brief History of Time",
Stephen Hawking (perhaps the world's most
famous cosmologist) refers to the phenomenon
as "remarkable."
The remarkable fact is that the values of these
numbers (i.e. the constants of physics) seem
to have been very finely adjusted to make
possible the development of life". "For
example," Hawking writes, "if the electric
charge of the electron had been only slightly
different, stars would have been unable to
burn hydrogen and helium, or else they
would not have exploded. It seems clear that
there are relatively few ranges of values for
the numbers (for the constants) that would
allow for development of any form of
intelligent life. Most sets of values would give
rise to universes that, although they might be
very beautiful, would contain no one able to
wonder at that beauty.
Hawking then goes on to say that he can
appreciate taking this as possible evidence of "a
divine purpose in Creation and the choice of the
laws of science (by God)" (ibid. p. 125).
Dr. Gerald Schroeder, author of "Genesis and the
Big Bang" and "The Science of Life" was formerly
with the M.I.T. physics department. He adds the
following examples:
Professor Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in
high energy physics (a field of science that
deals with the very early universe), writing in
the journal "Scientific American", reflects on:
how surprising it is that the laws of
nature and the initial conditions of the
universe should allow for the existence of
beings who could observe it. Life as we
know it would be impossible if any one of
several physical quantities had slightly
different values.
Although Weinberg is a self-described agnostic,
he cannot but be astounded by the extent of the
fine-tuning. He goes on to describe how a
beryllium isotope having the minuscule half
life of 0.0000000000000001 seconds must
find and absorb a helium nucleus in that split
of time before decaying. This occurs only
because of a totally unexpected, exquisitely
precise, energy match between the two nuclei.
If this did not occur there would be none of the
heavier elements. No carbon, no nitrogen, no
life. Our universe would be composed of
hydrogen and helium. But this is not the end of
Professor Weinberg's wonder at our well-tuned
universe. He continues:
One constant does seem to require an
incredible fine-tuning -- 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.
This means that if the energies of the Big Bang
were, in arbitrary units, not:
100000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000 000000000000000000,
but instead:
100000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000 000000000000000001,
there would be no life of any sort in the entire
universe because as Weinberg states:
the universe either would go through a
complete cycle of expansion and
contraction before life could arise, or
would expand so rapidly that no galaxies
or stars could form.
Michael Turner, the widely quoted
astrophysicist at the University of Chicago and
Fermilab, describes the fine-tuning of the
universe with a simile:
The precision is as if one could throw a
dart across the entire universe and hit a
bulls eye one millimeter in diameter on
the other side.
Roger Penrose, the Rouse Ball Professor of
Mathematics at the University of Oxford,
discovers that the likelihood of the universe
having usable energy (low entropy) at the
creation is even more astounding,
namely, an accuracy of one part out of
ten to the power of ten to the power of
123. This is an extraordinary figure. One
could not possibly even write the number
down in full, in our ordinary denary
(power of ten) notation: it would be one
followed by ten to the power of 123
successive zeros! (That is a million billion
billion billion billion billion billion
billion billion billion billion billion
billion billion zeros.)
Penrose continues,
Even if we were to write a zero on each
separate proton and on each separate
neutron in the entire universe -- and we
could throw in all the other particles as
well for good measure -- we should fall
far short of writing down the figure
needed. The precision needed to set the
universe on its course is to be in no way
inferior to all that extraordinary precision
that we have already become accustomed
to in the superb dynamical equations
(Newton's, Maxwell's, Einstein's) which
govern the behavior of things from
moment to moment.
Cosmologists debate whether the space- |
Re: Science View, Fine Turning Of The Universe by blueAgent(m): 9:20pm On Aug 20, 2016 |
Cosmologists debate whether the space-time continuum is finite or infinite, bounded or unbounded. In all scenarios, the fine-tuning remains the same. It is appropriate to complete this section on "fine tuning" with the eloquent words of Professor John Wheeler: To my mind, there must be at the bottom of it all, not an utterly simple equation, but an utterly simple IDEA. And to me that idea, when we finally discover it, will be so compelling, and so inevitable, so beautiful, we will all say to each other, "How could it have ever been otherwise?" In conclusion all the Scientist agree that It is impossible for the Universe to come into existence by Chance .They all believe that the world was designed and created to be Inhabited by Man. now the BIG question is who did the creation.my answer is God. Atheist should please give me Scientific facts Superior to what this Nobel award winning Scientist have said. since the very Scientist Atheist look up have said that the World could not have come into existence by Chance |
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