Tuesday, April 17, 2012

This finely tuned universe we live in

This is a finely tuned universe.
         ^not

Let's talk about probability.  Imagine that you see a shooting star.  What are the odds that it would fall right then, where it was?  What are the odds that you'd be there to witness it?  What are the odds that it would happen at all?  I wouldn't be of an inclination to point to the sky and say "There!  There will be a shooting star at x time in this location." and bet on it.  The odds are (no pun intended) astronomical.

For another analogy, a shorter one to your relief.  Image you've got a dice which has pseudo-infinite sides.  Those are the odds of a planet in the space to support life, with all conditions given.  The odds are 1 in pseudo-infinite.  If the dice misses the mark, the life-supporting planet does not happen and no one is there to contemplate it.

Now I move on a bit.  In dismantling a creationist argument, I'll use the Bible (talk about ballsy).  Take the parable of the sower.  The number of seeds is the number of "candidate" planets for life in my analogy.  Those odds are in error, because several dump trucks (or more) full of incredibly small seeds would be required for the odds to be correct.  Anyway the seeds which are sown in inhospitable environments die, the same with the "candidate" planets.  Then there's the one (group) of seeds which lands in the right place, there's a "candidate" planet which winds up in the right place.

A candidate planet would be one with the chemicals needed for life.  It would require an atmosphere.  It would require to be the correct distance from a star.  These are but some of the requirements for any planet which could support a carbon-based life form.

There are only a few place on earth which are naturally suited to human life.  I live in Maine, annually we get a fair bit of snow.  It would be a harsh environment for humans to survive in.  Several people each year die in the snow.  If a god made this planet for life, it did a poor job of it.

That's all only on our planet.  As has been flouted by many people, the Andromeda galaxy is moving toward our own and will collide with ours in about 4.5 billion years.  If that's finely tuned, then the god is malevolent.

The one problem we in the educate- I mean, secular community have is the origin of life.  The difference however is that we're not interested in just slapping a 'magic' label on everything which we don't understand. Imagine where science would be without skeptics - it wouldn't be.

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