The ID Report

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

A friend, Wintery Knight, who probably lives in a place as boring as I do (currently cold and dull much of the time, except for enlivening ideas!),, notes

In nature, the values of physical constants, (e.g. - the force of gravity), are set at the instant when the universe is created. Initially, atheists assumed that the constants could be any value, and life would still exist. But the progress of science has shown that if these constants were altered even slightly, then the resulting universe would not permit life. For example, physicist Brandon Carter has shown that if the force of gravity were stronger or weaker by 1 part in 10 to the 40th power, life-sustaining stars could not exist. While each possible value of the force of gravity is equally unlikely, the vast majority of these possibilities prohibit complex life of any kind. That means that any one value picked at random is as likely as any of the others, but it is overwhelmingly likely that the one picked will not permit life.

And how do atheists respond to the evidence of a universe that is finely-tuned for life? Well, there are two responses I’ve seen. The first is to speculate that there are actually an infinite number of other universes that are not fine-tuned, (i.e. - the gambler’s fallacy). All these other universes don’t support life. But, lucky us, we just happen to be in the one universe that popped into being out of nothing, and is fine-tuned to an incredible degree for life. What’s that you say? “Wintery! How can we be sure that these other universes even exist?” Why, you just have to have faith, because there is no way of directly observing these other universes. So, to be an intellectually-fulfilled atheist, you have to believe in a billions and billions of demons unobservable universes.

My own view is that atheism is dead in the water, except for its political appeal.

If there is no God, everything politicians want to do is okay.

But if there is a God, they better look out that they are not harming his people or his creation, right?

It's not hard to see why lots of people with a big agenda would prefer that there isn't really a God so - conveniently - they can't be caught by human law enforcement, when they do things they know are wrong.

I do not think that the world we live in is like that. Everything they do and everything I do matters. And it will all be brought back to tem sooner or later.

Also Wintery Knight talks about divine hiddenness - the way in which God reveals himself only somewhat - for good reason.

My sense, as a Catholic Christian, is that God does not want to force people to believe in him. Anyone can see - looking at the history of the world - that people are better off if they believe in God than if they believe in multi gods, ghosts, or superstitions that have never done good for those who believed in them.

Many people worldwide have starved who could have been fed, and many have died who could have lived, if only they had access to knowledge. Real knowledge. Not worthless propaganda.

This is what I mean by real knowledge. Knowledge that matters.

Also just up at Colliding Universes, my blog about competing materialist and non-materialist theories about our universe:

Science fiction: When the numbers run out?

Billions of Earths in our galaxy?

Science shows that the universe shows evidence of intelligent design

Science fiction: The Losting corridor

Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O'Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy. She was named CBA Canada's Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007).