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Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God
wsj.com/ ^ | Eric Metaxas

Posted on 12/27/2014 4:52:35 AM PST by RoosterRedux

The fine-tuning necessary for life to exist on a planet is nothing compared with the fine-tuning required for the universe to exist at all. For example, astrophysicists now know that the values of the four fundamental forces—gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the “strong” and “weak” nuclear forces—were determined less than one millionth of a second after the big bang. Alter any one value and the universe could not exist. For instance, if the ratio between the nuclear strong force and the electromagnetic force had been off by the tiniest fraction of the tiniest fraction—by even one part in 100,000,000,000,000,000—then no stars could have ever formed at all. Feel free to gulp.

Multiply that single parameter by all the other necessary conditions, and the odds against the universe existing are so heart-stoppingly astronomical that the notion that it all “just happened” defies common sense. It would be like tossing a coin and having it come up heads 10 quintillion times in a row. Really?

Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who coined the term “big bang,” said that his atheism was “greatly shaken” at these developments. He later wrote that “a common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology . . . . The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”

Theoretical physicist Paul Davies has said that “the appearance of design is overwhelming” and Oxford professor Dr. John Lennox has said “the more we get to know about our universe, the more the hypothesis that there is a Creator . . . gains in credibility as the best explanation of why we are here.”

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: anthropic; anthropicprinciple; design; ericmetaxas; god; metaxas; science
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To: C. Edmund Wright
He appears to be gambling that there is no Creator God

God will decide based on what's in his heart, not what's in his hand. And only God knows that.

What I'm not gambling on is that I'm smart enough or righteous enough to think I know that too.

61 posted on 12/27/2014 7:44:26 AM PST by tacticalogic
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To: tacticalogic

If Jesus knocks, let him in.


62 posted on 12/27/2014 7:49:02 AM PST by reasonisfaith ("...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thessalonians))
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To: reasonisfaith
If Jesus knocks, let him in.

He did, and I did. But I'm still not qualified to decide the disposition of other men's souls.

63 posted on 12/27/2014 7:53:33 AM PST by tacticalogic
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To: jocon307

Googling works fine if you select the correct link.

Try a couple.


64 posted on 12/27/2014 7:54:12 AM PST by G Larry (Amnesty imposes SLAVE WAGES on LEGAL immigrants & minorities)
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To: RoosterRedux

If the big bang did happen how did water exist after all that heat has to be a better answer than the bang.


65 posted on 12/27/2014 8:00:08 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: Honorary Serb

“Thou shall not covet other people’s goods.” If you want it pay for it. Hardly atheistic if it falls in line with the ten commandments.


66 posted on 12/27/2014 8:15:21 AM PST by CMAC51
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To: RoosterRedux

How was God created?


67 posted on 12/27/2014 8:40:35 AM PST by Nota particle (Born yesterday in Biblical terms)
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To: Nota particle
How was God created?

The question assumes that God is a creature. God is categorically different from Creation, since His Essence (What He is) is Being Itself.

We can know this from the following argument.

1) Assume that every thing owes its existence, or being, to a previous being.

2) This chain cannot regress forever, since that would require the completion of an infinite series. A completed infinite series cannot exist in actuality; it would not be infinite or unending.

3) There must then exist a Being which does not owe Its existence to any other being.

4) We call this Being, God.

68 posted on 12/27/2014 8:53:56 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: jsanders2001

Maybe the athiests and intellectuals aren’t nearly as bright and open minded as they think they are...


They never are.


69 posted on 12/27/2014 9:18:15 AM PST by SaraJohnson
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

I usually cite mathematics as evidence for God, in that the universe (at least as we perceive it) requires sequencing of fields and particles that even here, billions of years later, has us looking back at that sequencing through the concept of number with remarkable understanding and derivative predictive power.


70 posted on 12/27/2014 9:26:14 AM PST by onedoug
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To: C. Edmund Wright
The theory is that time is infinite so there is no problem with having “enough” time or chances to accomplish something improbable

Lottery is just a tiny example of people not comprehending probability in large numbers. Infinity even dwarfs the probability of finding one atom in one grain of sand on the entire planet.

I think the earth is far more rare than the 747 event but both are possible *IF* the Universe and time is proven to be infinite (or close to it).

I believe in some type of creation at a higher level but believe our physical realm will eventually appear to be pure randomness from our limited perspective. Some will say the events are evidence of intelligent intervention while some will say they are pure random chance. There will be no way to prove either way and it will show that our understanding of reality beyond our limited perspective is nothing but faith.

71 posted on 12/27/2014 9:31:30 AM PST by varyouga
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To: onedoug
Numbers are quite mysterious. Scientists largely take them for granted, like the laws of nature.

Yours seems to be one of the many arguments from design, which is actually the only philosophical argument found in the Bible.

72 posted on 12/27/2014 9:36:59 AM PST by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
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To: CMAC51; Honorary Serb

“Thou shall not covet other people’s goods.”

LOL!

Fitting response considering this is a column about God.


73 posted on 12/27/2014 9:40:24 AM PST by Balding_Eagle (The Gruber Revelations are proof that God is still smiling on America.)
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To: Sam's Army

Fine tuning as the article states, the rarity of the Earth, the rarity of life; the awesomeness of the conscious experience, mathematics, and the laws of physics. I’m not saying it’s conclusive evidence, but it is evidence.


74 posted on 12/27/2014 9:42:16 AM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: lonevoice

ping!!!


75 posted on 12/27/2014 10:08:23 AM PST by Pride in the USA
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To: EEGator

David Limbaugh has a book out as well. I haven’t read it yet but plan to.

RUSH: We welcome back to the program my brother, David, well-known author and agent for many highfalutin personalities and celebrities, as well as lawyer, and he’s the author of... This is probably the book that he was intended to write his whole life. This is the one he’s been building up to. Jesus on Trial: A Lawyer Affirms the Truth of the Gospel. This is a pretty risky subject. You’re dealing with people’s faith here, and, in many cases, faith is all people have to sustain them. And you know, one of the refrains is that it can’t be proved. That’s the test. So why’d you decide to do it? Why’d you decide to write the book?


76 posted on 12/27/2014 10:32:48 AM PST by kvanbrunt2 (civil law: commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong Blackstone Commentaries I p44)
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To: RoosterRedux; All

Divine Science of the Bible has been discovered, proved and demonstrated almost 150 years ago.


77 posted on 12/27/2014 10:45:04 AM PST by Isara
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To: G Larry

I’ve tried several to gain access to the complete article but they all take me back to needing an account.


78 posted on 12/27/2014 10:53:53 AM PST by rapture-me
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

God derived the function we discovered as mathematics.

Happy New Year!


79 posted on 12/27/2014 11:10:13 AM PST by onedoug
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To: C. Edmund Wright

If you suggest in liberal company that God was ‘smart’ enough to have incorporated an evolutionary mechanism in Creation, you get laughed out of the joint.

They can’t think beyond the matter they’re trapped in.

-JT


80 posted on 12/27/2014 11:11:23 AM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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