For those that don't feel like reading the whole thing, here is the basic synopsis: There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that the universe is 'finely tuned.' The phrase 'finely tuned' meaning that the PRECISE conditions exist for life. If any one thing was off by the slightest little amount, then life could not happen. For instance; your computer is finely tuned. It needs virtually every part to be in perfect running order and working together perfectly or it just won't function. Therefore the computer MUST have a creator to have made it so finely tuned. We would have to be insane to think that all the elements that compose a computer could come together naturally to create a perfectly operating computer. (Unless it's a Dell, in which case two rocks banging together would pretty much serve the same purpose.)
For those of you with any sort of experience in proving theorems, I'm sure you've already seen a million holes in that idea. Let's start with the biggest fallacy:
1. If I can do it, there must be a god.
Humans make computers. Humans make cars. Computers and cars are complicated, so therefore anything more complicated than a computer and a car must be made by something more powerful than a human.
This fallacy is silly. It's a complete reversal of logic. The fact that we can create something complicated does not mean that there is something else more complicated than us. Let's use a for instance;
- Let's say you have created a human baby in a test tube. Although this is something illegal, it is not by any means outside of our technological ability. Once the baby has been created, molded, perfected, and eventually implanted and grown into a full human we will have to sit him down and have a conversation with him. We will have to explain to him that because we humans created him, then therefore we are more intelligent, more powerful, and more divine than he is. He will not be able to refute this because WE ARE HIS CREATORS.
"Ah," you say, "but the miracle of life is driven by god. If it weren't for him then the embryo could never have developed in the first place."
No.
This is not the case. Any chemical reaction that we are able to control and reproduce puts the ability in our hands. If the miracle of life was run only by a higher being, then there would be no way for us to alter the process, interrupt the process, or destroy the process. There would also be no mistakes (i.e. birth defects, absorbed fetuses, still born babies, etc). I know, I know - it's god's will. That is a discussion for another topic.
2. How do we KNOW the universe is finely tuned?
One of the most BASIC scientific tenets is that to truly observe something fully, you have to place yourself outside of that thing's influence. You have to be outside of it. As of such, to us it seems that the universe is fine tuned, but we have no other point of reference.
How about another 'what if'?
- There is a young woman in some imaginary tribe somewhere. This woman at puberty had a forced clitoral circumcision, then immediately afterwards she was forced to engage in sex. Afterwards she was used as currency, passed around whenever one of the males needed to purchase something. After one of the males 'purchased' her and did not make good on his end she was considered tainted currency, and she was forced out of the tribe to live on her own in the wilds.
In her mind she knows that this is 'right'. She knows that this is the very best life can offer. She has no concept of a world outside her own, and therefore to her the world she lives in is very 'just' and 'fair'. Because her point of reference is based solely on what she has seen with her own experience, there is nothing to tell her that this is not how it is everywhere.
It's easy to say something is ordered and finely-tuned when we've never seen anything else to compare it to.
3. But the earth is positioned EXACTLY where it needs to be to support life! And the moon is EXACTLY where it needs to be to help support life here!
Yes indeed. And if we had developed as gas creatures in Jupiter's atmosphere then we would say that Jupiter was EXACTLY where it needed to be to support life. If we had developed as subterranean creatures in Mars' crust we would have said that it was EXACTLY where it needed to be to support life.
The fact that the Earth supports life does not mean that is what it was created for. The conditions on Earth are perfect for OUR LIFE. OUR EXISTENCE. But who's to say that's the only existence there is? Who's to say that there aren't beings out there who's development and evolution took such a widely different path that they are nothing that we can conceive of as being 'alive'. They would see our world as a useless world, not even capable of supporting even the most basic forms of life.
Again, it's easy to say that our world is 'perfect' for supporting life when we have only one frame of reference.
4. But even with that being said, our planet IS perfect for supporting life. That means that it was created for the purpose of supporting life. Therefore the universe is finely tuned else life could not exist at all!
Okay, at this point I can see you're getting frantic. Hey, don't get angry at me! I'm not the one with the silly 'finely tuned universe' theory. But let's continue.
So now we come to the crux of it all. Is the universe REALLY finely tuned? What does it mean to be finely tuned?
For something to be finely tuned, that would mean it was created and manipulated in such a way that a certain goal had to be accomplished. You wouldn't fine tune something with no purpose to the fine tuning. Therefore if the universe supports life, then it must obviously be fine tuned for life. The universe must be finely tuned for life, because it supports life.
The first problem with this is that it is INCREDIBLY egotistical. On a literally galactic scale. "We are here, therefore everything we see was created for US. There's no other purpose to anything if it wasn't created for us." It's the most modern version of the Ptolemaic Theory. Once again we have found a way to make the universe revolve around us.
The second, and perhaps biggest problem of this theory is that the universe is so obviously not fine tuned for life. It is theorized (since it's impossible to give an accurate number - although in this case we're splitting hairs with an exact amount) that there are approximately 200,000,000 stars in the Milky Way alone. This is a generally accepted estimate. Now of those stars it is estimated that the Milky Way has approximately 130 planets that could support life as we know it on Earth.
So what does that tell us? Let's do the math on it and see for ourselves:
130/200,000,000 = 6.5e-7
That means there is approximately .00000065 solar systems (providing I didn't screw up that equation) that even have the possibility of life existing on them. And there is no proof at all that of these life is definite!
So even if there was intelligent life on every single planet in every single solar system of our entire galaxy capable of supporting it, there are an IMMENSE amount of solar systems not even remotely capable of supporting life in any fashion we'd know of.
To put this into perspective: Let's say you were suddenly given 1,538,462 cars. You now are the proud owner of 1.5 MILLION cars. Of those vehicles 1 single car works. Would you now say that the factory that produced these vehicles is a very finely tuned factory? Anything that can produce that many cars, and have 1 single one capable of working is so far away from fine tuned that it would be insane to think it otherwise.
Now imagine you find that one car and there is someone sitting inside, listening to some DC Talk, and you knock on the window. When he opens up you ask him what he thinks, waving your arm at all the millions of cars around you. He smiles and says "This car is PROOF that the factory is finely tuned, and you'd be insane to think otherwise." Not only that but when you tell him that the car doesn't indeed belong to him, it belongs to someone else (in this case you) he says that you are crazy. After all, if the car works, and he is sitting in it, then it MUST have been designed for him. Why else would he be in it?
For some very interesting reading make sure to take a look at The Drake Equation.
Conclusion:
Am I saying that this is proof that there is no god? No. What I AM saying is that if you want to use the Finely Tuned Universe theory then you'd better come up with something better. For although this is not proof against a god, it is most certainly NOT proof of one.
Some other articles on the Finely Tuned Universe theory:
Non-Supportive:
The Anthropic Principle Does Not Support Supernaturalism by Michael Ikeda and Bill Jefferys
Is the Universe Fine Tuned For us? Victor J. Stenger
Supportive:
Skeptical Christian: Dawkin's Central Arguement
So Finely Tuned a Universe of Atoms, Stars, Quanta, and God.
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