God's Fingerprints

In many ways modern science affirms the existence of a cosmic intelligence. As science writer Sharon Begley notes in her introduction to the book, The Hand of God, "The cosmos seems fine-tuned for existence, in an almost too-good-to be-true manner. To some, this 'fine-tuning' of the laws that govern the universe is no less than proof of a designer." The intro goes on to mention several examples of these proofs.

For instance, if the strength of gravity were slightly greater the clouds of gas that condensed into life giving stars would have collapsed into lifeless black holes. If gravity were slightly weaker, stars like the sun would be unable to hold a solar system in orbit.

Another example is found in the catylitic nature of the subatomic particle known as the nutrino. The necessity of the nutrino in the creation of our universe lies in the volitility it creates in collapsing stars. The heavier elements necessary for life as we know it, elements such as oxygen, lithium, carbon and iron, are formed in burning stars. But these elements would be trapped in the intense gravity of a collapsing star were it not for the nutrino. If the nutrino interacted slightly less with other matter it could not create the vast explosions necessary to project the heavier metals beyond the grasp of a doomed star's gravity. Then those elements would not be available to form the gas clouds, planets, atmospheres and eventually the living beings we enjoy today (so try to enjoy these precious phenomenon a little more today, please). Without our beloved little nutrinos there would be nothing but hydrogen and helium floating around beyond the event horizons of black holes and the cosmos would be a very wispy place indeed.

Also of note is the mysterious formation of carbon— the element upon which all life on this planet is based. British astronomer Fred Hoyle discovered the extremely delicate situation required for such an occurrance, an infintesimally chancy simultaneous collision of three helium nuclei. But the chance is significantly increased when the carbon exudes a strange kind of energy called "resonance". Hoyle deemed the phenomonon "a monstrous series of accidents." He suggested "the laws of nuclear physics have been deliberately designed with regard to the consequences they produce inside the stars." and mused that the universe appeared to be a "put up job."

Three more ways in which scientific discovery has increased the body of evidence supporting cosmic intelligence. Add them to evidence discussed in previous posts. And yet one's individual universe will always be formed more by the limits of one's assumptions and perceptions than it will by actual facts and figures.

Buddha said, "Think and the world arises." How has your world arisen? What do you think? Is your universe the product of incredibly dumb luck that somehow dialed itself into "being" after an eternity of misfires? Or are the phenonena of the physical universe just too miraculous, its laws too concisely honed to produce life to be the product of mere dead mechanics somehow lining up the numbers perfectly on a million different levels? The simple fact that we're here lends creedence to intelligent design (Of course I'm not talking about the fundamentalist coersion of the term). The purely-by-chance falling together of all the bizarre physical laws required for existence suggested by The Theory of Dumb Luck certainly seem most likely to be the product of unfounded assumptions and a blind faith in Almighty Chaos the Ungod of Nihilism.