Cosmic Creation

8/11/2019 Cosmic Creation

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Cosmic Creationism

Vic Stenger

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What does sciencesay (tentatively)

about the origin ofthe universe?

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time

space

Quantum mechanics saysthere was no singularity

Hawking 1988 Earliest moment:Planck time

= 10-44second

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What about the big bang?

our time

prior time

space

"nothing"

time imaginary

Our universe couldhave tunneled from aprevious universe.

Scenario worked

out mathematically.

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Multiple universes suggested

by modern cosmology

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timenow-!

infinite

time

Is the universe eternal?

timenow-10100

finite

time

years

The eternal universe had no beginning.Not a beginning an infinite time ago.

How is that possible?

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Is The Universe Fine-tuned For Us?

Anthropic principle.

If the constants of physics had beenslightly different, life as we know it

would not have evolved.

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Dinesh DSouza quotes Stephen Hawking:

If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had

been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand

million million, the universe would have collapsed before

it ever reached its present size.

A Brief History of Timep. 121

Also used in debates by apologist William Lane Craig

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The galactic space around Earth is not teemingwith complex life

Earth is only known planet with life

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Wasted Space

Distances are immense

Nearest star: 4.22light-years

Nearest galaxy: 2.44 millionlight-years

Galaxies within our horizon are up

to 40 billion light-yearsaway

Universe beyond horizon: 10 to the10 to the 100 times bigger

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Wasted time

Universe 13.7 billion years old

Earth 4.5 billion years oldModern humans 150 thousand years old

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Wasted Matter

Most of the matter of the universe is notatomicthe component of life

Visible atomic matter in galaxies: 0.5% ofmass of universe.

Total carbon: 0.02%

Dark matter: 26%

Dark energy: 74%

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Wastedenergy

Only two photons ofevery billion emitted bysun are used to warmEarth

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Yet, most of universe is in random motion

Cosmic microwave background

Photons are a billion times more numerous than atoms

Random to one part in 100,00017


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A tiny pocket of

complexity

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The underprivileged planet

Earth is not all that wellsuitedfor human life

!ocean

We are restrictedtosurface

Atmosphere doesnotblockUV

Natural disasters, disease,famine killthousandsyearly

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Humans in space

Humans cannot live in spaceor on any known planet ormoon without extensive lifesupport.

Cosmic radiationprevents humans fromspending years in space.

Even so-called earth-likeplanets are not likelyto be ableto support human life.

Humanity will never expand to the stars

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An intelligentdesigner with

special regard forhumanity wouldhave done a muchbetter job.

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Some other formof life might bepossible with manyother variations of

physical constants.2222


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Recall DSouza and Craig quote fromStephen Hawking:

If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had

been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand

million million,the universe would have collapsed before

it ever reached its present size.

A Brief History of Timep. 121

Claim:

Fine-tuned to 1/100,000,000,000,000,000,000

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The rate of expansion of the universe [in the inflationarymodel] would automatically become very close to the critical

ratedetermined by the energy density of the universe. This

could then explain why the rate of expansion is still so close to

the critical rate, without having to assume that the initial rateof expansion of the universe was very carefully chosen.

Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time,p. 128:

But they ignore the rest of thestory (7 pages later)

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Fine-Tuning Summary

Some parameters have values they do bydefinition(c, h, G).

Some parameters have exactly the values they have basedon standard modelsin physics and cosmology.

Remaining parameters not fixed by standard models havevalues within rangesexpected by those models.

Only the cosmological constant remains arguable, butplausible explanationsare available.

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The universe shows no evidence ofbeing designed with humans in mind

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Out in April

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Cosmic Creation