RE: Dear Resident Theists
August 20, 2015 at 10:45 am
(This post was last modified: August 20, 2015 at 10:45 am by Napoléon.)
(August 20, 2015 at 10:10 am)lkingpinl Wrote: Sure, here's a quote from the article:
"The emergence of the complex structures capable of supporting intelligent observers seems to be very fragile. The laws of nature form a system that is extremely fine-tuned. What can we make of these coincidences? Luck in the precise form and nature of fundamental physical law is a different kind of luck from the luck we find in environmental factors. It raises the natural question of why it is that way."
He then goes on to explain his multiverse theory.
You're misunderstanding the point being made and taking out of context what Hawking actually has to say about fine-tuning and design. The very reason the phrase "fine-tuning" is being used this way is because of the fact people like you like to suggest that the universe appears fine tuned. This whole article is an argument against that notion.
You realise this is adapted from Hawking's book "the Grand Design"? Do you think that because he uses this term, it lends credence to the theory of design? Or does the irony fly over your head much like the point being made throughout the entire article?
If you actually read the article and understand the points, it's that the universe appears to be fine-tuned, but Hawking's point, in both this article, and his book, is that there is in fact no fine-tuning at all, and no need for a creator.
It's convenient you can read one sentence that uses the term 'fine-tuned' in a rhetorical sense, and use it to implicate that the universe must be designed, but not the very next paragraph, that utterly destroys that notion:
Quote:Many people would like us to use these coincidences as evidence of the work of God. The idea that the universe was designed to accommodate mankind appears in theologies and mythologies dating from thousands of years ago. In Western culture the Old Testament contains the idea of providential design, but the traditional Christian viewpoint was also greatly influenced by Aristotle, who believed "in an intelligent natural world that functions according to some deliberate design."
That is not the answer of modern science.
So yeah, take it out of context and misrepresent all you like. Hawking is clearly not suggesting the universe is fine-tuned, he's offering an explanation of why it appears to be so.