![\"Earth](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/04\/704px-Earthrise_over_Compton_crater_-LRO_full_res.jpg\")
<\/a>(NASA \/ Goddard Space Flight Center \/ Arizona State University)
Wikimedia Commons public domain image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I carry on now with my appropriation, for my own undoubtedly wicked purposes, of material drawn largely (though not quite entirely) from the online \u201cList of Fine-Tuning Parameters\u201d<\/a> compiled by Jay W. Richards<\/a>.\u00a0 (My first entry taken from his list, and explicitly dependent upon it, was this one:\u00a0 \u201cAn initial survey of the \u201cfour fundamental forces\u201d and the \u201ccosmological constant.\u201d\u201d<\/a>). My second was \u201c\u201cInitial Conditions and \u2018Brute Facts.\u2019\u201d<\/a>)\u00a0 As I said in both of those blog posts, I claim no originality for these entries, and I repeat that statement here.\u00a0 Moreover, although I intend to expand and rework what I\u2019ve begun in this regard, I may never<\/em> claim any originality on the topic.\u00a0 (It\u2019s not, after all, exactly my area of special expertise.)\u00a0 I do, however, intend to eventually rework these notes in successive stages as I draw upon and incorporate materials from other sources for a much larger project that I have in mind).\u00a0 Dr. Richards follows his list of five \u201cCosmic Constants\u201d with a list of four \u201cInitial Conditions and \u2018Brute Facts\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 Those were, respectively, the topics of my previous two entries.\u00a0 In this blog post,\u00a0 I\u2019ll briefly list and summarize at least a few of what he terms \u201c\u201cLocal\u201d Planetary Conditions\u201d:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Even in a universe that is arguably fine-tuned overall, at the cosmic level, conditions can and do vary dramatically from one far distant location to another.\u00a0 Life exists on Earth, of course, but almost certainly not on Jupiter or Mercury or in the asteroid belt.\u00a0 Even in this fine-tuned universe \u2014 as critics of cosmic fine-tuning delight in pointing out (a point, in fact, to which I will respond at some future time) \u2014 the vast majority<\/em> of places in the universe, to say nothing of space itself, are unsuited for life. In an interesting book entitled The Privileged Planet<\/em>, astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and his co-author, Jay Richards himself, identify twelve broad, widely recognized fine-tuning factors that appear to be required to build a single, habitable planet.\u00a0 (A quite distinct book on a closely related subject \u2014 I own and have read both it and Privileged Planet<\/em> \u2014 is Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe<\/em> [2003], by paleontologist Peter D. Ward and astrophysicist Donald Brownlee, both of the University of Washington.)\u00a0 <\/span>As it happens, every one of the dozen factors listed by Gonzalez and Richards can be found together in the Earth.\u00a0 And there may well be many more such factors. In fact, observes Richards, most of them could reasonably be split out to make sub-factors, since each of them contributes in multiple ways to the habitability of a planet:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n And yes, by the way, I\u2019m well aware of the late Douglas Adams\u2019s \u201csentient puddle\u201d spoof of fine-tuning arguments.\u00a0 I\u2019ll post a response to it in the very near future.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n P.S.\u00a0 I notice that the exceptionally mendacious person to whom I\u2019ve occasionally referred as my \u201cMini-Stalker,\u201d one of my lesser critics over at the Peterson Obsession Board, has just announced with breathless excitement that the blog entry above, like its two predecessors (mentioned above), depends to a large degree upon a piece by Jay Richards of the Discovery Institute.\u00a0 I thought that I had said that very thing pretty clearly above and in the two prior posts, but perhaps I should repeat it here, even more clearly:\u00a0 This blog entry, like its two predecessors (mentioned above), depends to a large degree upon a piece by Jay Richards of the Discovery Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n My Mini-Stalker also seeks to discredit the late biochemist Lawrence Henderson, whom I mention above, on the grounds that he is an associate<\/em> of the Discovery Institute, a group that, Mini-Stalker triumphantly points out, many people disdain.\u00a0 Alas, though, Professor Henderson, who taught at Harvard Medical School (and who was, by the way, evidently a religious agnostic), died in early 1942, and his book The Fitness of the Environment<\/em>, which I own and have read in a reprint edition and which I also mention above, was published in 1913.\u00a0 (A German edition followed in 1914.)\u00a0 However, the Discovery Institute was founded in 1990.\u00a0 Presumably, Professor Henderson isn\u2019t affiliated with them or on their payroll.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 I carry on now with my appropriation, for my own undoubtedly wicked purposes, of material drawn largely (though not quite entirely) from the online \u201cList of Fine-Tuning Parameters\u201d compiled by Jay W. Richards.\u00a0 (My first entry taken from his list, and explicitly dependent upon it, was this one:\u00a0 \u201cAn initial survey of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34218,34215,34185,1525,10127,545,8313,1760,34191,34194,34176,34179,34182,16418,34209,34212,2866,6861,34188,32262,29788,34206,34203,34197,34200,34221,14270,1905],"class_list":["post-98616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-discovery-institute","tag-donald-brownlee","tag-douglas-adams","tag-earth","tag-fine-tuned","tag-fine-tuning","tag-galactic","tag-galaxy","tag-guillermo-gonzalez","tag-henderson","tag-jay-richards","tag-jay-w-richards","tag-lawrence-henderson","tag-michael-denton","tag-peter-d-ward","tag-peter-ward","tag-plate-tectonics","tag-privileged-planet","tag-puddle","tag-rare-earth","tag-seattle","tag-spiral-arm","tag-subduction","tag-the-fitness-of-the-environment","tag-the-wonder-of-water","tag-university-of-washington","tag-washington","tag-water"],"yoast_head":"\n\n