{"id":85660,"date":"2020-06-05T13:05:05","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T19:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=85660"},"modified":"2020-06-06T11:52:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T17:52:29","slug":"if-there-is-fine-tuning-does-that-imply-a-fine-tuner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/06\/if-there-is-fine-tuning-does-that-imply-a-fine-tuner.html","title":{"rendered":"If there is fine-tuning, does that imply a fine-tuner?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Photograph by Rogelio Bernal Andreo of Simeis 147. Also known as the Spaghetti Nebula and cataloged as Sharpless 2-240, this filamentary structure can be found in the constellation Taurus, close to the border of Auriga, in roughly the same line of sight as the star Elnath. Approximately 3000 light years away, the nebula stretches about 150 light years across.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0David Wilkinson, God, Time and Stephen Hawking: An Exploration into Origins<\/em> (London and Grand Rapids: Monarch Books, 2001), a \u201cmajor unanswered question for the Big Bang model is how does the universe come to be so finely tuned in so many respects. \u00a0What do we mean by this?\u201d (89). \u00a0Wilkinson is both Methodist clergyman and theologian and a scientist with a doctorate in cosmology:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

First of all, the universe on the basis of the microwave background radiation is extremely smooth on a large scale. \u00a0Its temperature is very close to 2.7K whichever direction you look in the sky. \u00a0In the early 1990s, results from the COBE satellite suggested that the temperature of the microwave background varies across the whole sky by less than one part in 100,000. \u00a0How does this come about, especially for regions which have not been in causal contact? \u00a0That is, in winding our model back to when the microwave background was produced we find that regions that are today at exactly the same temperature are separated by a distance which is greater than that which could have been covered by information travelling at the maximum speed, the speed of light. \u00a0How did one region know what temperature the other region was to match its temperature so exactly? \u00a0Did the universe have to start off in such a uniform condition? \u00a0(89-90)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wilkinson goes on to give several examples of \u201ccosmic fine tuning,\u201d which I will share here in the coming days. \u00a0But he has already posed one of the inevitable attendant questions:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The question for some in the light of this is whether God is needed to \u2018fix\u2019 the initial conditions of the universe? \u00a0(89)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

More astronomical fun, including some \u201cGee whiz!\u201d stuff:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGalaxy clusters and a beautiful illusion\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA century ago, astronomy\u2019s Great Debate foreshadowed today\u2019s view of the universe:\u00a0The argument between Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis was ultimately settled by Edwin Hubble\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh-speed gas collisions prevent star birth in galaxies\u2019 bars:\u00a0Simulations of a barred spiral galaxy explain why its bar fails to sparkle with newborn stars\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sun is less magnetically active than similar stars, and we don\u2019t know why:\u00a0Why our star seems so different from its stellar kin is a mystery\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 According to\u00a0David Wilkinson, God, Time and Stephen Hawking: An Exploration into Origins (London and Grand Rapids: Monarch Books, 2001), a \u201cmajor unanswered question for the Big Bang model is how does the universe come to be so finely tuned in so many respects. \u00a0What do we mean by this?\u201d (89). \u00a0Wilkinson is both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIf there is fine-tuning, does that imply a fine-tuner?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    According to\u00a0David Wilkinson, God, Time and Stephen Hawking: An Exploration into Origins (London and Grand Rapids: Monarch Books, 2001), a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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