RE: Apolotetics misusing philosophy?
March 1, 2016 at 7:47 am
(This post was last modified: March 1, 2016 at 8:14 am by The Grand Nudger.)
We could start at the top and work our way down, with "fine tuning". The simplest and most demonstrative form of this notion, that the parameters for supporting life are so specific and narrowly defined that they could not have arisen by "mere chance", revolves around the "goldilocks zone"...the CHZ. Which, for a star like ours, is somewhere between .5 and 3 AUs. AUs.....93 million miles, 8 light minutes. Try to conceptualize the volume of a sphere with that radius, and the difference in volume between .5 and 3AUr spheres.
Apparently, we're good to go all the way out to Ceres, or not......narrow and specific my ass. There's no need to bicker about the chance portion...because we can safely ignore what might have been if things were different....just taking things as they are. If things were different, if we insist on going that route, the volume of that sphere might be orders of magnitude greater...and it could be much, much smaller without ever approaching narrow, or specific.
Lay all of that aside, though, forget the math and the failure of the proposition on it's own terms. Should it surprise any creature to find that the universe it lives in, or the planet it lives on...supports it's life? I can't imagine why...if it didn't..they wouldn't be there to ask the question in the first place. Weak anthropic principle. Yet somehow, a certain subset of us feels that this is a great profundity which needs be accounted for, and further......that god, specifically, is the only sufficient explanation.
Apparently, we're good to go all the way out to Ceres, or not......narrow and specific my ass. There's no need to bicker about the chance portion...because we can safely ignore what might have been if things were different....just taking things as they are. If things were different, if we insist on going that route, the volume of that sphere might be orders of magnitude greater...and it could be much, much smaller without ever approaching narrow, or specific.
Lay all of that aside, though, forget the math and the failure of the proposition on it's own terms. Should it surprise any creature to find that the universe it lives in, or the planet it lives on...supports it's life? I can't imagine why...if it didn't..they wouldn't be there to ask the question in the first place. Weak anthropic principle. Yet somehow, a certain subset of us feels that this is a great profundity which needs be accounted for, and further......that god, specifically, is the only sufficient explanation.
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