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The Fine Tuning Argument

2/27/2020

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 The argument from the fine-tuning of the universe asserts that the universe, and in particular, the earth, has just the right conditions for human life. The universe is fine-tuned for the existence of human life with such delicacy that it defies comprehension. This points to an intelligent designer.

The earth’s atmosphere is just right to support life. For example, the distance from the sun. We are just the right distance from the sun for us to live. If the earth were much closer to the sun, most water on the earth would boil. If the earth were much farther away, the water would mostly freeze, and we couldn’t survive in the earth’s environment.

Let’s talk a little more about water. Almost all molecules are heaviest in their solid form. But unlike most molecules, water is lighter in its solid form. That is why ice floats. If water got heavier in its solid form, ice would sink to the bottom of its container. This would cause a problem for lakes in the winter. If water in lakes froze from the bottom up, many lakes would freeze solid and kill most of their life. It seems like water itself was designed to make this world a better place to live.

Another example is the “weak force” of an atom. If this “weak force” was altered in its value by 1 in 10100 that would prevent a life-permitting universe. One more example: If the gravitational constant differed by 1 in 1060 life could not exist. William Lane Craig points out in his book On Guard that to have an accuracy of one part in 1060 is like firing a bullet to the other side of the observable universe (20 billion light-years away) and hitting a one-inch target. So the chances that there is no intelligence involved to design it the way it is are very remote. Dr. Craig uses the following lottery illustration to explain the odds:  Let’s say that there are billions of billions of white ping-pong balls mixed together with one black ping-pong ball, and there’s a chute that will allow one ping-pong ball out of the mix. If the one that comes down the chute is black, you are allowed to live (in a life-permitting universe); if white, you die. Sure, some ball will be picked, but what are the odds of the black one being picked? And if the black one is picked five times in a row, everyone would recognize it didn’t happen by chance.

I’ll put this another way with a reference to the state lottery. Even though the odds of being picked for a mega million jackpot is extremely low (like about 1 in 300,000,000), it is true that someone will be picked. But if the same person was picked five times in a row, you would know that it was rigged—that there is no way that it happened by chance. Theoretically, there’s a chance that the same person could be picked 5 times in a row, but there is so little chance for that to occur, that if it happened you would be foolish to think that the selection process was fair. That’s how it is with the universe.

The universe is so fine-tuned, with so many factors at once needing to be in place for the universe to be life-permitting, we know that it could not be by chance. In that sense, the universe is “rigged” for human life—intelligence is certainly involved to account for a life-permitting universe.  
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An atheist might object that there could be an infinite number of universes and therefore you would expect our universe to be among the universes. But these other universes have never been observed. There is no evidence or proof of a multiverse. This proposal is only speculated to try to get around the force of the fine-tuning argument. 

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The Cosmological Argument

2/5/2020

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The Cosmological Argument for the existence of God begins with the idea that everything must have an adequate explanation. For example, let’s say that you went to school one day and in one of your classrooms you saw a big gorilla sitting on the front row, eating a bowl of corn flakes. You would not just think that it popped out of nothing. You would wonder where it came from and how it got there. You would begin to ask questions because you know it must have come from somewhere. 

Everything must have an adequate explanation, including the universe as a whole. You may not know why it’s here, but you know there’s a reason it is here. It didn’t just pop out of nothing, and whatever produced it had to have incredible properties. An effect cannot be greater than its cause. That’s a basic law of the universe. 

The word cosmological comes from cosmos, which means “world.” The cosmological argument demands an adequate explanation for the existence of the world, or universe. One version of the argument says:

>Premise One: Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
>Premise Two: The universe began to exist.
 >Conclusion: Therefore, the universe has a cause.

Support for Premise One: Everything that begins to exist has a cause.

Our common experience shows us that this is true. If something could come from nothing, why wouldn’t things just pop in and out of existence all the time? That just doesn’t happen.
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How could nothing produce something? Nothing would have to be something already in order to produce something else. So then nothing would not really be nothing, but something, if it were going to create something else. If we say that the universe created itself, we would have to say that it existed before it existed in order to create its own existence. Something would have to be and not be at the same time and in the same respect. This is self-contradictory, and absurd.

Support for Premise Two: The universe began to exist.

One reason most scientists believe that the universe had a beginning is because of the apparent expansion of the universe.[1] Another reason to reject the idea of an eternal universe is the existence of the laws of thermodynamics. The first law states that matter/energy can neither be created nor destroyed. The second law states that the usable energy in the universe is being converted slowly into unusable energy. When you put the two laws together, you have a fixed amount of energy in the universe, but this energy is depleting (in terms of usability). What is the significance of this? The universe is slowly dying. If it has always existed as it does now (including the natural laws of the universe), the energy in the universe would already be spread out evenly. We would already be in a state of equilibrium, meaning everything would be the same temperature, and no life could exist.

So back to the syllogism itself:

Premise One: Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
Premise Two: The universe began to exist.
Conclusion: Therefore, the universe has a cause.
 
What Kind of Cause?

So we know that the universe has a cause, but could it have been an impersonal cause? A force without a mind? Let’s suppose that there was an impersonal force in the beginning and everything else arose from that. If that were the case, there would only be three factors to explain all the complexities of the universe. Francis Schaeffer identifies these factors: 

“Beginning with the impersonal, everything, including man, must be          explained in terms of the impersonal plus time plus chance. Do not let anyone divert your mind at this point. There are no other factors in the formula, because there are no other factors that exist... . No one has ever demonstrated how time plus chance, beginning with an impersonal force, can produce the needed complexity of the universe, let alone the [personality] of man.”[2]

The universe could not have come from an impersonal force, whether it be matter, energy or some other impersonal force.  This Cause had to have a mind to will the universe into existence since it had a beginning. And it had to have enough power and intelligence to produce the specified complexity of the universe. A personal, powerful, intelligent, eternal Cause provides an adequate explanation (an accounting) for the existence of the universe. 

Who Caused God?

Sometimes professing atheists raise the question: “If everything needs a cause, then who caused God?”  But we didn’t say everything that exists needs a cause; we said that anything that has a beginning has a cause. Since God doesn’t have a beginning, he doesn’t need a cause. Actually, the question, “Who caused God?” is a nonsense question, since what is really being asked is: “Who caused the uncaused Cause?” God by definition is the uncaused, eternal, self-existent Cause of everything else. 

For something at all to exist now, something must have always existed. What we are arguing is that there has to be an eternal, self-existent Being to account for the existence of anything else in the universe. There has to be an eternal, uncaused Cause because otherwise there wouldn’t be anything else at all. We call that Cause God because that Being not only has to be eternal, but he also has to be intelligent and all-powerful to bring the universe into existence.

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[1] When talking to a skeptic about this, you can ask if he agrees with the vast majority of scientists that the universe has a beginning. How most scientists interpret the beginning is wrong, but the common ground we have with them is that there was a beginning. So it is good to take advantage of that, and use that as a starting point.

[2] Francis Schaeffer, He is There and He is Not Silent, Tyndale House, Carol Stream, Illinois, pp. 7–8, 1980.


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How Christianity is Shown to be True

2/1/2020

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We can't prove Christianity is true the same way that we prove gravity exists.  Why not? Because we prove gravity by the scientific method, by having a controlled environment where an experiment is repeated again and again and observations recorded. The experiment must be repeatable. The central claims of Christianity, which are the death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus, are historical claims and cannot be repeated. You can’t take Jesus, kill and bury him, and see if he resurrects again and again and again. Specific historical events are unrepeatable. You can’t prove historical events using the scientific method. You must evaluate historical claims using the legal-historical method of proof. How would you determine whether something occurred in history? Look at the written testimony, the oral testimony, and the physical testimony. How would a jury determine whether someone was guilty of a crime? Look at the written testimony against him, the oral testimony of those who watched it and were willing to testify, and look at the physical evidence, such as fingerprints. In the same way, Christianity, being historical, can be shown to be true using the legal-historical method.

The fact that Christianity’s central claims (the death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus) can be analyzed by the legal-historical method of proof makes it different from other religions. Unlike Christianity, many other religions cannot be proven true or false using the historical method. But if Christianity is true, because of its unique historical claims, it can be demonstrated to be true, not by the scientific method, but by the legal-historical method.

This does not mean that science or the “sciences” such as archaeology or textual criticism1 cannot be used to help confirm Christianity. In fact, scientific facts do a lot to support the validity of Christianity. I am simply saying you can’t use what is called “the scientific method” to prove Christianity. You must use the legal-historical method of proof.

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    Author

    Mark Bird teaches Systematic Theology and Apologetics, among other subjects, at God's Bible School and College, a regionally accredited Bible College in Cincinnati, OH.

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