When I
consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you
have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son
of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly
beings
and
crowned him with glory and honor. (Psalm 8:3-5)
Every now and again, I see something
on the Internet that repeats a message by Carl Sagan - that we are one of
potentially millions of species that live on less than 30% of a boring, nothing
of a little rock orbiting a boring little star in an unimpressive
"backwater" arm of a galaxy that really doesn't measure up to most of
the impressive galaxies in our galactic cluster, which is only one of untold
number of clusters that make up the overall universe, which is, after all, only
one of an unimaginable number. Considering all of the grandeur around us, we
should be humble and consider our own problems and crises are insignificant.
Sagan wrote that we are "star stuff" but that "stuff"
amounts to star excrement and coffin dust that somehow, through repeated accidents
to end up as big-brained animals with delusions of godhood.
While this is the materialist's
mantra, science is showing us something different. Many of the fundamental
constants and number in the universe are finely tuned. [e.g., Speed of Light (c=299,792,458 m s-1), Gravitational
Constant (G=6.673 x 10-11 m3 kg-1 s-2), Planck's Constant (1.05457148 x 10-34 m2 kg s-2),
Planck Mass-Energy (1.2209 x 1022 MeV), Mass
of Electron, Proton, Neutron (0.511; 938.3; 939.6 MeV), Mass of Up, Down,
Strange Quark (2.4; 4.8; 104 MeV (Approx.)), Ratio of Electron to Proton Mass
((1836.15)-1), Gravitational Coupling Constant (5.9 x
10-39), Cosmological Constant (2.3 x 10-3 eV), Hubble Constant (71 km/s/Mpc (today)) and Higgs
Vacuum Expectation Value (246.2 GeV)]. Most of those probably don't mean any
more to you than they do to me, but if any one of them were changed, often by
ridiculously small amounts, the universe would not exist. If I remember
correctly, the number of these fine-tuned factors is now over 250.
Let me share a couple that more examples
of fine tuning. If we lived in the core of the galaxy, with its high population
of stars, the radiation from those stars might prohibit the existence of life.
The amount of light and dust found there would prevent observation of the rest
of the galaxy. Likewise, the lack of materials essential to life and the amount
of dust at the outer edges of the galaxy would render life and exploration
impossible. We happen to be in a
comparatively unoccupied area that is safe for the existence of a planet,
allows for the existence of life and gives us a clear view of a great deal of
the universe.
Consider that our basic understanding of
the sun was made possible because the sun and the moon are within a degree of
each other in apparent size and in the same visual plane. As a result, complete
solar eclipses are possible and it is during these that the necessary
observations could be made. Einstein's theory of relativity was also confirmed
during a total eclipse. None of the other planets in our solar system has a
moon that permits a total eclipse. Interestingly, the first exo-moon, a moon
orbiting a planet in another star system, was only found in 2014, and seems to
be orbiting a gas giant. Given the distances involved, this discovery is
understandably exciting, but could there be life on planets without moons to
stabilize them? If there could, how could they develop a basic understanding of
the stars?
The atmosphere of the earth is both thin
and thick enough to support life, and clear. Within the sun's family of
planets, 7 have atmospheres, and only the earth's can support complex life
& it's clear so that we can see the sun or stars and therefore make
scientific discoveries about space. Seemingly
everything that allows scientists like Carl Sagan to find out that we are one of potentially millions of species that live on less than 30%
of a boring, nothing of a little rock orbiting a boring little star in an
unimpressive "backwater" arm of a galaxy that really doesn't measure
up to most of the impressive galaxies in our galactic cluster, which is only
one of untold number of clusters that make up the overall universe, which is,
after all, only one of an unimaginable number - is precisely because we live on
just such a world, which means that all of those other "more
impressive" worlds, stars, systems, galaxies, clusters and universes don't
measure up to ours. It brings to mind another passage from Scripture:
Where is the wise man? Where is the
scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age?
Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? For since in the
wisdom of God the world through its
wisdom did not know him,
God was pleased through the foolishness of what was
preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks
look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified:
a stumbling block to Jews and
foolishness to Gentiles, but to those
whom God has called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom,
and the
weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
Brothers, think of what you
were when you were called.
Not many of you were wise by human standards;
not
many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
But God chose the foolish
things of the world to shame the wise;
God chose the weak things of the world
to shame the strong.
He chose the lowly
things of this world and the despised things—
and the things that are not—to
nullify the things that are.... (I
Corinthians 1:20-28)
Read more: transcript-fine-tuning-argument
View More: Privileged Planet (youtube)
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Calendar:
Birthday of Edgar Alan Poe
Anniversary of the freeing of the
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