Now the Design Evidence. Everything appears to be designed. This is the Teleological argument. Teleo means design. A design infers designer.
Design means a designer.
I’m going to use one of J. Warner Wallace’s approaches. We are going to address the design issue from a magnitude perspective.
- The Cosmos or universe level. the shear vastness of the universe That is everything level.
- The Galactic level is our galaxy the Milky Way
- The more regional level would be our solar system.
- The local level, our planet earth
- Personal level, life itself both macro things like different animals and micro things like cell or even the components of the cells themselves
- Last the smallest known components of the universe or subatomical level with subatomic particles and energy.
At every level in every way, our universe is highly designed and finely tuned far beyond any conceivable probabilities.
This is just a short list of parameters which must be finely tuned to make the universe possible.
- Gravitational force. 1060
- Electromagnetic forces. 1037
- Cosmological Constant. 10120
- Mass Density of Universe (1059)
- Expansion Rate of Universe (1055)
- Initial Entropy (10^10123).
And others like the
- Strong nuclear force constant,
- Weak nuclear force constant,
- Mass excess of a neutron over proton,
- Initial distribution of mass energy,
- Ratio of masses for protons and electrons,
- Velocity of light,
- and another 120 or so other finely tuned parameters that we know of, and others will probably be discovered.
I want to go back to this Webb telescope image for a moment. Scientists are baffled that as we peer deeper into the universe, it’s not what they expect. Their concepts of time, origins, even matter and gravity are being shaken. The universe appears as though the constants we just discussed could not have been constant at the beginning. Or our theories cannot explain what they see.
News flash, there is a reason. When God suddenly brought everything into being at once. There is no mathematical theory for that. That is why the creation of everything from nothing requires intelligence.
Okay back to our math and the most widely accepted and tested science. And I know math might not be your thing. So let me try and give you an idea.
This is probably a good time to talk a little bit about probabilities. In my industry we consider 1 out of 10 pretty good odds so we can avoid a dangerous situation.
- A person is generally about that good. Presented with the exact same situation, about 1 time out of ten, the person will choose poorly. Some of us are better, most probably worse.
- Our most sophisticated computer control protection systems have a probability to fail of demand of about 1 in 1000 to 1 in 10,000 demands. ~104
- Our nuclear power plants have protective system in 1 in 10,000,000 or ~107
Astronomers predict that there is 107 chance earth is hit by an extinction event asteroid.
Think about all the fine tuning. Like the,
The gravitation force must be fine-tuned to the 1060
that is one trillion plus then 50 more zeros.
The cosmological constant is fine tuned to 10120 To put this is perspective, Physicists estimate the universe only has about 1090 particles. These constants are so finely tuning it is almost impossible to imagine any image that would represent it properly. Anything you can think of, well these are way less likely than that.
We I was young I liked this game call Yahtzee.
- Rolling a six is a 1 in 6 chance or about ~101
- Rolling 2 sixes in a row 1 in 36 chance or about ~102
- Rolling 6 sixes in a row 1 in 46,000 chance or about ~105
- Rolling 10 sixes in a row ~108
The gravitational constant force is like grabbing a crate of dice and dumping them out on the floor and they all come up six. Remember probabilities multiply, so when I add the next constant to the mix, I’d need a ship load of dice to all land on six to approximate the likelihood. If I add another constant, you just run out of possibilities. This is just at the universe scale, the fine tuning is beyond our ability to calculate the odds, chance of this configuration. It is essentially impossible to get there by chance or multiverse, only with a designer.
And we have not even looked closer yet.
It is already very reasonable to believe that at least at the universe level, it looks like everything is designed. Now some claim that there is a necessity for these constants to be exactly the way they are. But Science actually does not support that. There appears to be no reason why the constants could not be different. Other than if any were even slightly different, nothing would be here. No galaxies, no planets. Just space and matter and time, but no possibility for life.
Now for full disclosure purposes, there are some scientists who are proposing that none of these constants are constant, but if this is true then science can no longer be done. So, if scientists are using science to disprove science, then let the chaos begin. Well, it can’t be based on the scientific method, rather it becomes a faith which cannot be observed or tested. This again is a desperate attempt to prove there is not God, but they need much more faith than I have to believe what is not logical or reasonable or scientific. Design points to designer. A more chaotic universe with fluctuating constants points toward more chaos, not order.
Next let’s look at the Galactic level.
This the picture of a spiral galaxy named M101. It is much like the one we live in the Milky Way. Our galaxy is exactly the right shape, size and density to support life. It has the exact right number of stars, size and intensity of stars, distances between stars. It spins at exactly the perfect speed. And all the many many specific parameters give rise to what Astronomers call the “Goldilocks Zone”. Pretty cool huh.
The Goldilocks zone means there is a specific region right about here where life supporting solar systems can possibly exist. Out of all the vastness of space and the unnumbered trillions of galaxies. Life could only exist in this small area of a specific type of galaxy. Just like exactly where we are right now. Is it more reasonable to believe it is just chance, when statistically the probabilities are far beyond what we would call impossible for anything else.
Next let’s look at our regional level. The Solar System level. This the remarkable.
This picture is only conceptual drawing. It is not really to scale.
So, the solar system is “just right”, The sun is the right size and type, earth is in perfect position, tilt, rotational speed, orbit, perfect size and location of moon, Gas giants are perfectly placed and sized. And just in case some scientist says it has to be this way. The rotation and orbits are all different. Uranus rotates from top to bottom instead of side to side.
Earth is in the perfect location relative to our sun. What Astronomers refer to as the habitable zone. It’s not too hot and it’s not too cold. It’s just right. Again, just like Goldilocks. Now to be sure, people argue about what this zone is and how big it is. But one thing is for sure Earth is in a finely tuned habitable zone. Or we would not be here.
And each of these details makes life on earth possible.
Next let’s look at our local level. The Planet level. Earth
This picture shows how amazing and beautiful our rock is.
So many details need to be perfect for life to have a chance. Now I don’t believe in chance, or luck, or coincidence. I believe in God. It actually is more probable God made it this way, than thousands of improbable accidents all happened perfectly as we needed them for life to exist on Earth.
So yes again the complexity and perfect configuration, composition, etc of our planet is beyond probabilities. No matter what they say in the news, earth is a one of kind in the universe.
This is the end of How to Defend your Faith Session 5: Evidence for God Teleological Argument (Part 2 of 4)
