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Sunday, March 28, 2010

The "Just So" Universe - Fine Tuned For You And Me

Lee Strobel once again pointing to how the universe has a certain "just so" element to it which subsequently causes it to support life on our earth, the only planet we know today which supports it.  It's no wonder that it is said that mathematics is the language of the universe.  There are so many constants in place that this flies in the face of a random universe just coming into play.  It is as though the Universe has been fine tuned for us.  While scripture makes it clear that we need faith to please God one can believe in him solely on the evidence alone.  This is why I am a Christian, because of the evidence I find when I look at Archeology, Astronomy, Biology and History.  They all point to the Creator.  The only thing that separates us on the subject is due to our presuppositions.  Enjoy the video and note the constants and the precision which is needed to support life on our planet that if even one element is slightly altered, life on earth would be impossible.  It takes a great deal of faith to believe that something like this occurred by chance and random processes.

4 comments:

Born Again, Bible Believing Darwinist said...

I'm sorry to say I couldn't watch the video. I'm behind a web filter. I enjoy the accountability.

Anyhow, without seeing the video, I would like to comment nonetheless.

Being an absolute novice at science, it is pretty awesome how earth is in just such a position to support life. Scientists have theorized that Mars might somehow be able to support life under the right conditions. However, nothing got the ball rolling there.

The argument that everything is too perfect for evolution is pretty weak. You'll convince your friends who have a shallow understanding of evolution, but no one else. Evolution tailors species to their environment. The finches that landed on an island in the ocean within a matter of generations become adapted and specialized to live on the island. Over long periods of time, change accumulates, and then you've got Darwinian evolution. I think you're preaching to the choir and educating them using straw men to boot. (COMBO: Triple idiom score!)

I found a website for people of my mindset. I think you'll find it interesting, though I don't think you'll find it persuasive: www.biologos.org. It's helmed by an atheist-turned-Christian who worked on the human genome project.

In case I don't comment again this week, in all seriousness: He is risen!

George said...

I'd recommend you watch this.

Joe Sirianni said...

I find it interesting that you consider yourself a novice in the field of science but can speculate that my friends are too shallow to understand the complexity. C.S. Lewis referred to your "mindset" as chronological snobbery.

Why do you find the precision of the universe to support life on one known single planet amongst billions and billions of stars and galaxies "weak"? You have a major lack of understanding yourself just how coplex the universe and galaxy truly is. The entire universe is extremely rational and should be utterly chaotic and irrational if stellar evolution is true and the big bang really did occur. The odds are too great to ignore as a man of science and mathamatics would tell you.

I think you would have an extremely difficult time (as I have asked you before) to show how Christians can reconcile the evolutionary theory with the bible. You have to reconcile the contradictions between how scripture (which is divinely inspired by God himself) and how God says he did it and what evolution teaches. The two are irreconcilable.

I would like to refer you to some of my earlier post that show crucial evidence that God did not use the method of evolution to bring about his creation and then say "it is very good" after everything finally stopped dying off from disease and mutating.

‘He could have done it that way … couldn’t He?’ (Operation: Refuting Compromise (ORC))
http://www.answersingenesis.org/us/newsletters/0204lead.asp

Why wouldn’t God use evolution?
http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/feedback/2005/1223.asp

Did the Creator use Evolution?
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v11/i2/evolution.asp

What’s the problem with theistic evolution?
http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/feedback/2005/0520.asp

And your reference "Evolution tailors species to their environment." Though I wouldn't put it in those words, no Christian argues about "natural selection" What you are forgetting is how did that species arrive their in the first place? And what other species or kind did it come from? And where is the fossil evidence for that transition? etc..

Darwin's finches only had differences in the millimeters when it came to the different lengths of their beaks. This is not a case for Macro evolution (one animal turned into a completely different animal. This doesn't prove they evolved from other animals. It only proves that they adapt to their environment hence natural selection, weak ones die off and strong ones go on but they turn into different animals. Natural selection is not a mechanism to push any animal into becoming something different. It doesn't add anything to their genome to acquire the new traits of the next animal it is about to evolve into.

Talk about weak arguments. My friend, you jumped from Finches landing on the Galapagos islands and adapting to going over long periods of time and then change accumulating and then bam! we have Darwinian evolution. And all of this with zero evidence. You are purel speculating on the subject

Sorry my friend. You believe all of that on pure faith and nothing else because science does not support that. It's not even scientific. You have a great stretch of the imagination to make that far jump.

Thanks for the comments


Joe

Christian Darwinist said...

Thank you, Joe, for taking the time to reply. Before I continue, on my computer the "Post a Reply" link appears to be the same color as the background. I noticed that when I last posed, too.

Forgive me for misunderstanding you, which I probably am, but you seem to be arguing from silence that, because we know of no other planet that can support life, there must be none. God sometimes makes some surprising "coincidences." In my silly, sci-fi thinking, I'd say that he could have easily made another planet elsewhere to meet all those specifications for life, whatever they are. The Lord could make life radically different from how we know it.

I was trying to say that just because the life here fits the earth perfectly doesn't exactly disprove evolution. One could say it developed/unfolded according to plan/evolved to fit the earth.

Ironic that you mentioned C.S. Lewis. From his "The Problem of Pain":

“For long centuries, God perfected the animal from which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of Himself. He gave it hands whose thumb could be applied to each of the fingers, and jaws and teeth and throat capable of articulation, and a brain sufficiently complex to execute all of the material motions whereby rational thought is incarnated [. . .] Then, in the fullness of time, God caused to descend upon this organism, both on its psychology and physiology, a new kind of consciousness which could say “I” and “me,” which could look upon itself as an object, which knew God, which could make judgments of truth, beauty and goodness, and which was so far above time that it could perceive time flowing past [. . .] We do not know how many of these creatures God made, nor how long they continued in the Paradisal state. But sooner or later they fell. Someone or something whispered that they could become as gods [. . . ] They wanted some corner in the universe of which they could say to God, “This is our business, not yours.” But there is no such corner. They wanted to be nouns, but they were, and eternally must be, mere adjectives. We have no idea in what particular act, or series of acts, the self-contradictory, impossible wish found expression. For all I can see, it might have concerned the literal eating of a fruit, but the question is of no consequence.”

I found that quote here:
http://biologos.org/questions/evolution-and-the-fall/

The above article talks about a subject I had a great deal of difficulty understanding with my fairly new evolutionist perspective. It helped me, and it may help you understand me, friend.

The problem I have with articles like "He could have done it that way" and "Why God wouldn't use evolution" is that the world speaks, it testifies of evolution. I'm not simply embracing the most reasonable or appealing philosophy. I'm accepting creation's own witness about the process its Creator used. Paul recognized that the world testified that there was a Creator.

If you want to take the time, you can read up on how Christians like me understand and interpret God's Word.
http://biologos.org/questions/category/faith/

George: I don't have access to Youtube. I'm behind an accountability filter.