When Faith and Science Clash

[Reasonable_Jeff]

Why? I can (when I get home) provide information that seems pretty clear to indicate intelligent design on the part of our universe.

The following is copied from Reasonable Faith's website:

Let me give some examples of fine tuning because physics abounds with examples of fine tuning. But before I do so, let me give you some numbers to give you a feel for the delicacy of the fine tuning because otherwise the numbers are so large they become meaningless to us. The number of seconds in the history of the universe, from the very beginning of the universe, is about 10^17. That is a 1 followed by 17 zeroes. Just an incomprehensible number – but that is the number of seconds in the universe. The number of subatomic particles in the entire known universe is around 10^80.

With those numbers in mind, consider the following. The atomic weak force which operates within the nucleus of the atom is so finely tuned that an alteration of even one part out of 10^100 would have rendered the universe life-prohibiting. In order to permit life, the weak force has to be fine tuned to one part out of 10^100. Similarly, the so called cosmological constant, which drives the acceleration of the universe, has to be fine tuned to within one part out of 10^120 in order for the universe to be life- permitting. Here is a real corker: Roger Penrose of Oxford University has estimated that the initial entropy condition – the entropy level of the early universe – has to be fine tuned to one part out of 10^10^(123) – a number which is so incomprehensible that to call it astronomical would be a wild understatement.

It is not just one of these numbers that must be fine tuned but all of them. So you multiply these probabilities together until our minds are just reeling in incomprehensible numbers. Having an accuracy of even one part out of 10^60 would be like having a range the size of the entire visible universe – 20 billion light years across – and in order for life to exist, a randomly thrown dart would have to land in an area one inch square. And that is just one part in 10^60! We are talking about numbers that are just unimaginably greater than that.

These are just some of the examples of fine tuning. The examples of fine tuning are so many and so various that they are unlikely to disappear with the further advance of science. Like it or not, the fine tuning of the universe for life is just a scientific fact which is well-established.

Read more: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/defenders...z272yV1YIK

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These number/conditions are incredible!

This would be like if you were put before a firing squad of a few hundred trained marksmen and you hear them say, "Ready, Aim, Fire!"

You open your eyes and you see that all of the bullets have somehow missed you.

Would you conclude that they all missed by chance and be satisfied to leave it at that or would you conclude that they missed on purpose?

I would conclude that they missed on purpose.

The comparison to rocks is a strawman.

Tobie Disagrees

The strawman is you saying that atheism is, at it's core, "a deep faith in one's own cognitive abilities and their ability in determining truth." Atheism is no such thing. It's simply not having faith in the ages-long build-up of various extraordinary claims that is modern religion.