\u201cThis is the first picture of a sunlike star with multiple exoplanets: Unlike our solar system, this one has two massive gas giants with far-out orbits\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I share a couple of passages from Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith<\/em> (Downers Grove: IVP and Nottingham: Apollos, 2011) that caught my attention a while back:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[American philosopher Robin] Collins is particularly impressed with the value of \u201cthe cosmological constant.\u201d\u00a0 He believes that the inference to design from fine-tuning can rest on the value of this factor alone if it cannot be explained naturalistically.\u00a0 The cosmological constant is the part of Einstein\u2019s equation of general relativity that deals with the expansion rate of the universe.\u00a0 Physicist Stephen Weinberg, an atheist, notes that the cosmological constant \u201cdoes seem remarkably well adjusted in our favor.\u201d\u00a0 Although it could have been any value \u201cfirst principles\u201d suggest it would have been very large, either positive or negative.\u00a0 In fact, had this been so, life would not have been possible.\u00a0 Collins states that if the \u201ccosmological constant were not fine-tuned to within an extremely narrow range \u2014 one part in 10 to the 53rd or even 10 to the 120th of its \u2018theoretically possible\u2019 range of values \u2014 the universe would expand so rapidly that all matter would quickly disperse, and thus galaxies, stars, and even small aggregates of matter could never form.\u00a0 According to Collins, the likelihood of this constant occurring by chance is that of randomly hurling a dart from outer space and hitting a bull\u2019s-eye on earth that is less than the size of one atom.\u00a0 As [American physicist Stephen] Barr says, \u201cThis is one of the most precise fine-tunings in all of physics.\u201d (252-253)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fine-tuning of the universe suggests this argument:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- The fine-tuning data are the result of either (a) chance, (b) natural law, (c) the combination of chance and natural law, or (d) design.<\/span><\/li>\n
- They are not the result of chance or natural law, or the combination of both, since the data are contingent, complex and specified.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Therefore, (a) the data are the result of design.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Therefore, (b) there is a Designer.\u00a0 (254)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 First, here\u2019s a fun bit of science news:\u00a0 \u201cThis is the first picture of a sunlike star with multiple exoplanets: Unlike our solar system, this one has two massive gas giants with far-out orbits\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 I share a couple of passages from Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical […]<\/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":[10121,548,1137,71,132,11767,545,10534,14441,14447,14444,10130],"class_list":["post-87193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anthropic","tag-anthropic-principle","tag-cosmological-constant","tag-cosmology","tag-einstein","tag-expansion","tag-fine-tuning","tag-general-relativity","tag-robin-collins","tag-stephen-barr","tag-stephen-weinberg","tag-universe"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>