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I don't know if you are aware of it, but a huge debate is raging in the world of science. It is about the amazing level of design that indicates an intelligent designer not only in the exploding knowledge about the infinitesimal design found in the universe and in living organism, but also the delicate balancing in the laws of nature and the matter/energy levels that make up the universe. What is amazing about modern scientists, specifically microbiologists and astrophysicists/cosmologists, is that all of this seems precisely balanced—to an astoundingly delicate degree—specifically to allow for the existence of intelligent life on the earth.
Materialistic scientists do not want even to discuss this, and in fascist manner try to eliminate the voice of any scientist, no matter how prominent they may be, who might disagree with them, threatening and in fact destroying their careers, denying them tenure, and excoriating their scholarship for bringing "religion" into the scientific endeavor.
The materialistic scientists (those who believe science must restrict itself to purely naturalistic explanations for the degree of design
in the universe). They argue that design is a natural result of pure chance combined with the size and longevity of the universe itself, thus offering an infinitesimal number of opportunities for the right set of conditions for life to occur not just on earth, but many times throughout the cosmos.
There are three particularly illogical and hypocritical facets to this materialistic position: (1) both in biology and astronomy/cosmology, the modern impetus for the movement resulted from two books, one by a prominent biologist and the other by a prominent astrophysicist, both of them non-religious agnostics who wrote their bomb-shell books based on the growing discoveries in their respective sciences about how the universe and the living cell operate; (2) , their own explanations for the design in the universe are not scientific theories based on physical evidence, but rather consist of blind religious faiths; and (3) their explanations for design in the universe are demonstrated to be positions they really don't believe, but rather feigned positions desperately seized upon in order to avoid losing the debate about an intelligent designer who possibly could be a super-natural "Creator". Let's discuss each of these points briefly.
FIRST, in the area of astrophysics, or Cosmology, Paul Davies, a British physicist and noted agnostic scientist sent a warning shot over the bow of the steaming atheism of the higher echelons of the scientific community with his work, The Accidental Universe in 1982. He quickly followed that work in 1983 with God and the New Physics, a true bombshell in the scientific community which laid out a preponderance of evidence. After examing that evidence, Davies wrote in his conclusion:
It is hard to resist the impression that the present structure of the universe, apparently so sensitive to minor alterations in the numbers, has been rather carefully thought out . . .the seemingly miraculous concurrence of (these) numerical values must remain the most compelling evidence for cosmic design.
Paul Davies, God And The New Physics, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), p. 189.
The next year (1984), the same kind of bombshell hit the world of biochemistry with the release of The Mystery of Life's Origin by Thaxton, Bradley, and Olsen which overwhelmingly refuted (perhaps "annihilated") the materialistic explanations for the first development of living cells from a primordial soup. And then in 1998, a further bombshell hit the world of micro-biology and astro-biology with the publication of Michael Denton's book, Nature's Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe. Denton was a Senior Research Fellow in Human Molecular Genetics at the University of Otago, New Zealand.
In the concluding chapter of this work, Denton sums up the mounting evidence with these words:
. . .the teleological model of nature presented here is far more coherent and makes far more sense of the cosmos than any currently available competitor. The idea that the cosmos is a unique whole with life and mankind as its end and purpose makes sense and illuminates all our current scientific knowledge. . . No other worldview comes close. No other explanation makes as much sense of all the facts.
It is sometimes claimed by critics of the design hypothesis that the universe is bound to look as if it is designed for our existence because we could only be here if the universe was adapted for our existence. . . However, the conclusion to design is not based on evidence that the laws of nature are adapted to some degree for life but rather on the far stronger claim that the cosmos is optimally adapted for life so that every constituent of the cell and every law of nature is uniquely and ideally fashioned to that end. Michael J. Denton, Nature's Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose In The Universe, (New York: The Free Press, 1998), p. 385.
SECOND, the materialistic scientists, defend themselves with explanations for which there is NO scientific evidence, but rather based on religious faiths chosen over the obvious evidence of a designer. For instance they argue for the amazing order of the universe as coming from natural phenomenon such as the organization of crystals (which are based on the molecular structure of certain elements), etc.
But this ignores the clear contradiction between natural order and intelligent order as found in language or other designs by intelligent designers such as human beings, a distinction based upon clearly known criteria to modern science.
Or materialistic scientists will resort to explanations like other universes (by definition for which we can obtain no natural evidence) from which original DNA was planted into our universe, or some super advanced life from somewhere in the universe that visited earth and planted DNA in our world, but again for whom there is no evidence.
And this uniform evidential silence of intelligent life out there comes after fifty years of the aggressive research by the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) which has included Project Phoenix. That program scanned every star within 200 light years of earth that has solarlike qualities or is known to possess planets for intelligible signals as low as the power output of airport radar beams, finding nothing but silence.
For the last several years, a scientific search has been intense for planets beyond our solar system the size of Jupiter or Saturn. Though earth-sized planets are too small for us yet to discern, Jupiter and Saturn sized planets are pre-requisites for the development of advanced life forms on an earth sized planet (see my blog of June 1 at foxholedon.blogspot.com for more on this necessity). As of 2008, 280 extrasolar planets had been found orbiting 230 stars. None of them have the qualities for life on a planet in their own solar system that could support advanced life or advanced civilizations.
THIRD, and most tellingly, the materialistic scientists disclose their hypocrisy when they say that intelligent design does not require an intelligent designer. Otherwise, why would projects like the SETI project even exist? If they received a signal seemingly designed to communicate information (as opposed to a natural rhythmic signal such as that emitted by pulsars) like a binary code sequentially listing prime numbers, etc., according to their claims, that would not at all indicate it was being sent by intelligent beings.
I mean, if the universe is large enough to explain intelligent design as a mere happenstance of the bigness of the universe, then we might receive a binary signal containing the complete works of Shakespeare and it would mean nothing concerning the signal originating form some intelligent source. Or if they found a 2001 sort of monolith or an intergalactic rocket ship on a neighboring planet that too could just be a happenstance of nature.
And why do the materialists even bother to respond to articles by intelligent design advocates? The articles could just be an electronic aberration of the web on which billions of messages are being sent daily. Surely one of those messages statistically could be naturally produced by a computer glitch. This, like an electro-magnetic message from space or a highly technologically engineered monolith, would be immeasurably more likely than the delicate fine tuning of the universe to provide for life something for which our knowledge is exploding concerning the prerequisites.
It seems to me that all the huffing and puffing about the anti-intelligent design crowd is akin to the O.J. defense. When they cannot refute the evidence, they seize upon, "Some unknown mob committed these hits, and O.J. was just an innocent bystander" which of course is hypothetically possible (since anything is hypothetically possible), but for which there tellingly is no evidence.
For recent updates on intelligent design and the Anthropic principle, for astronomy see Hugh Ross's Why the Universe Is the Way It Is, and for biology see Fazale Rana's The Cell's Design.
Flipsidedon
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
DID YOU KNOW: The Unique Life Enabling Qualities Of Our Milky Way Galaxy & Our Local Group Cluster of Galaxies?
Did you know that—contrary to predictions of materialistic scientists—the earth, our solar system, and our Milky Way Galaxy are very rare in the universe. Our super cluster of galaxies is named Virgo. Our cluster of galaxies within Virgo is called the Local Group.
The Local Group exists at the outer edge of our supercluster, Virgo. If our Local Group were farther in toward the middle of Virgo, the more massive clusters within Virgo would tear apart the Local Group cluster, making life impossible.
Also, the Local Group is far smaller and more spread apart than are the vast number of galaxy clusters in the universe. and it has no nearby giant or super giant galaxies. It is common that galaxies have close to 10,000 galaxies packed in closely together. The Local Group on the other hand has only about 40 galaxies--with only two medium sized galaxies (our Milky Way and Andromeda), with the remainder consisting of small or dwarf galaxies.
This lack of interference of giant or super giant galaxies in our neighborhood that would disturb or destroy the Milky Way’s structure of arms that spiral out evenly from the center—an absolute essential for the development of advanced life (more on that at a later time)—is just one of the things that makes our location within the universe fairly unique.
Thus, contrary to the predictions of materialistic scientists, our rapidly growing technology since Carl Sagan and Enrico Fermi’s time have demonstrated that the earth, rather than being a common phenomenon repeated millions of times in the universe, instead sits in a very rare location in the universe seemingly chosen specifically to allow for the existence of an advanced culture.
As Dr. Hugh Ross, president of Reasons To Believe (reasons.org) writes in his phenomenal book, Why The Universe Is The Way It Is,
Earth appears to reside in the only neighborhood in the universe where humans can exist and thrive long enough to enjoy a global, high-tech civilization and to discover how rare they are. (2008 edition, p. 72) For further reading on this topic, see chapter 4, “Why Such A Lonely Universe”.)
I have described just one feature of our world and universe that seems to indicate intelligent design. There are virtually endless others, and we will look at many more in the future. But does the appearance of design indicate a designer? That is the big debate today. I’ll say more about this question and whether it is a question that science ought to address next time.
For now, let’s just say that the growing scientific evidence is in favor of those who believe in an intelligent designer of the universe (a personal Creator) rather than those who believe in a materialistic explanation for everything including life.
The Local Group exists at the outer edge of our supercluster, Virgo. If our Local Group were farther in toward the middle of Virgo, the more massive clusters within Virgo would tear apart the Local Group cluster, making life impossible.
Also, the Local Group is far smaller and more spread apart than are the vast number of galaxy clusters in the universe. and it has no nearby giant or super giant galaxies. It is common that galaxies have close to 10,000 galaxies packed in closely together. The Local Group on the other hand has only about 40 galaxies--with only two medium sized galaxies (our Milky Way and Andromeda), with the remainder consisting of small or dwarf galaxies.
This lack of interference of giant or super giant galaxies in our neighborhood that would disturb or destroy the Milky Way’s structure of arms that spiral out evenly from the center—an absolute essential for the development of advanced life (more on that at a later time)—is just one of the things that makes our location within the universe fairly unique.
Thus, contrary to the predictions of materialistic scientists, our rapidly growing technology since Carl Sagan and Enrico Fermi’s time have demonstrated that the earth, rather than being a common phenomenon repeated millions of times in the universe, instead sits in a very rare location in the universe seemingly chosen specifically to allow for the existence of an advanced culture.
As Dr. Hugh Ross, president of Reasons To Believe (reasons.org) writes in his phenomenal book, Why The Universe Is The Way It Is,
Earth appears to reside in the only neighborhood in the universe where humans can exist and thrive long enough to enjoy a global, high-tech civilization and to discover how rare they are. (2008 edition, p. 72) For further reading on this topic, see chapter 4, “Why Such A Lonely Universe”.)
I have described just one feature of our world and universe that seems to indicate intelligent design. There are virtually endless others, and we will look at many more in the future. But does the appearance of design indicate a designer? That is the big debate today. I’ll say more about this question and whether it is a question that science ought to address next time.
For now, let’s just say that the growing scientific evidence is in favor of those who believe in an intelligent designer of the universe (a personal Creator) rather than those who believe in a materialistic explanation for everything including life.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Did You Know That Jupiter Is Our Lead Guard?
No, not the Roman king of the Gods. The planet. You see, life on earth--and especially intelligent life such as humanity--is only possible on a planet very similar to the earth in its distance from its sun (star) and in its size. The distance from the sun keeps the earth within the temperature range required for advanced life, and its size enables earth to have a life-sustaining atmosphere rather than no atmosphere (if the planet is too small) or a heavy gaseous atmosphere alien to life such as found on gas giant planets.
But what does that have to do with Jupiter? Scientists now understand if earth is the accomplished, finely tuned quarterback who incorporates the life-game plan, Jupiter is the massive lead guard that protects earth from taking too many hits. A massive planet the size of Jupiter is indispensable to life on earth. Why? Because a solar system such as ours--positioned in precisely the safest place in the galaxy for life to exist (that's a whole other story)--experiences so many collisions with asteroids and comets that any life that did exist on a planet would be annihilated in a brief period of time.
So, how is earth different? Because of its massive size and its proximity to earth, Jupiter serves as a massive gravitational shield for earth, absorbing the blows from asteroids and comets that might otherwise hit earth. In short, Jupiter is clearing the way for us through our solar system, and it is located exactly the right distance from earth and is precisely the right size to accomplish this task. If Jupiter were less massive or more distant from earth (only the much smaller Mars lies between Earth and Jupiter), its awesome gravitational force would not be strong enough to draw fire from regular bombardment from space objects traveling at enormous speeds. On the other hand, if Jupiter were more massive, closer to earth, had a less regular orbit, or came into resonance with other massive gaseous planets, it's gravity would interfere with earth's orbit to such a degree that earth could not exist in a zone of the solar system that makes it possible to sustain life.
Well, that is probably a common feature in solar systems throughout the galaxy? Right? Well, no! Did you know that the first discovery of a planet orbiting around a stable burning star (a basic requirement for any life to exist) was in 1995, which lack of knowledge made it possible for Carl Sagan in his time to believe that there are millions of earth-like planets out there in the vastness of the universe? However, since that time hundreds of such planets have been found, most of them at least as massive as Jupiter (Jupiter = 318 earth masses). Of course, the larger planets like Jupiter are easier to find.
What is important though about the discovery of these planets is that none of them so far--not one of them--has the characteristics that Jupiter has which enable the existence of a neighboring life-support planet like earth.
Yes, a few hundred planets is not a huge sample. However, so far, the evidence goes against those who--like Sagan--explain the existence of life on earth as being a common occurrence that was bound to happen repeatedly in galaxies all over the universe. As we develop our abilities to look more and more deeply into the universe, the evidence for at least a rare earth continues to accumulate. And as one who believes in God, this is more evidence of God not only putting us on an earth home that was perfectly designed for us to live, but that in His providence He also created a big brother planet, Jupiter, to pave the way for us as we journey through our solar system.
Flipsidedon
More information on this topic can is contained in Creation as Science by Hugh Ross, President of Reasons To Believe (www.reasons.org)
But what does that have to do with Jupiter? Scientists now understand if earth is the accomplished, finely tuned quarterback who incorporates the life-game plan, Jupiter is the massive lead guard that protects earth from taking too many hits. A massive planet the size of Jupiter is indispensable to life on earth. Why? Because a solar system such as ours--positioned in precisely the safest place in the galaxy for life to exist (that's a whole other story)--experiences so many collisions with asteroids and comets that any life that did exist on a planet would be annihilated in a brief period of time.
So, how is earth different? Because of its massive size and its proximity to earth, Jupiter serves as a massive gravitational shield for earth, absorbing the blows from asteroids and comets that might otherwise hit earth. In short, Jupiter is clearing the way for us through our solar system, and it is located exactly the right distance from earth and is precisely the right size to accomplish this task. If Jupiter were less massive or more distant from earth (only the much smaller Mars lies between Earth and Jupiter), its awesome gravitational force would not be strong enough to draw fire from regular bombardment from space objects traveling at enormous speeds. On the other hand, if Jupiter were more massive, closer to earth, had a less regular orbit, or came into resonance with other massive gaseous planets, it's gravity would interfere with earth's orbit to such a degree that earth could not exist in a zone of the solar system that makes it possible to sustain life.
Well, that is probably a common feature in solar systems throughout the galaxy? Right? Well, no! Did you know that the first discovery of a planet orbiting around a stable burning star (a basic requirement for any life to exist) was in 1995, which lack of knowledge made it possible for Carl Sagan in his time to believe that there are millions of earth-like planets out there in the vastness of the universe? However, since that time hundreds of such planets have been found, most of them at least as massive as Jupiter (Jupiter = 318 earth masses). Of course, the larger planets like Jupiter are easier to find.
What is important though about the discovery of these planets is that none of them so far--not one of them--has the characteristics that Jupiter has which enable the existence of a neighboring life-support planet like earth.
Yes, a few hundred planets is not a huge sample. However, so far, the evidence goes against those who--like Sagan--explain the existence of life on earth as being a common occurrence that was bound to happen repeatedly in galaxies all over the universe. As we develop our abilities to look more and more deeply into the universe, the evidence for at least a rare earth continues to accumulate. And as one who believes in God, this is more evidence of God not only putting us on an earth home that was perfectly designed for us to live, but that in His providence He also created a big brother planet, Jupiter, to pave the way for us as we journey through our solar system.
Flipsidedon
More information on this topic can is contained in Creation as Science by Hugh Ross, President of Reasons To Believe (www.reasons.org)
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