A Finely-Tuned Universe: What Are the Odds?

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Though the big bang appears to be a completely chaotic event, is there any evidence of a guiding supernatural intelligence who actually planned the specific events right down to the arrangement of stars, galaxies, supernovas, and even planets?

The Anthropic Principle

Almost by accident, astrophysicists started realizing amazing things about the physics of the big bang and how it seemed to set up a perfect environment for life on planet earth. A term for this was coined: the anthropic principle. It points to the concept that the development of the universe seems to be aimed at providing an environment suitable for human life.

One of the first things that was noticed was the rate of the expansion of the universe. It was just right for the formation of stars and galaxies. If the rate had been greater, matter would have dispersed too efficiently to form galaxies. No galaxies-then no stars, no sun, and no earth. On the other hand, had the rate been slower, matter would have clumped together so efficiently that it would have collapsed into a high-density "lump" before any stars could form. Again, no stars and no sun-no earth.

Even more significantly, just after the origin event the expansion velocity was modified by two factors:

 The cosmic mass density. Physicists have calculated that for physical life to ever be possible at any time in the universe, the overall cosmic mass density must be fine-tuned to a mere 1 part in 10⁶⁰.

 The cosmic space energy density. Likewise, physicists have calculated that the value of the cosmological constant (see page 201) must be exact to 1 part in 10¹²⁰. Shortly before the cosmological constant was discovered, astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss noted that its addition to the big-bang model "would involve the most extreme fine-tuning problem known in physics." The odds that just these two aspects of the big bang randomly happened are 1 in 10¹⁸⁰-about the same as winning 23 lotteries in a row with a single ticket for each!

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