{"id":13,"date":"2009-05-04T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-04T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-road-less-travelled.html"},"modified":"2014-05-19T09:16:39","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T13:16:39","slug":"the-road-less-travelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/05\/the-road-less-travelled.html","title":{"rendered":"The Road Less Traveled"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"fine-tuning<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

What is the most fascinating question in all of science? <\/p>\n

My vote goes to the meaning of the so-called “anthropic principle,” and, judging from the traffic to www.biologos.org<\/a>,
\nthe apparent design of the universe intrigues a lot of people. The
\n“anthropic principle” derives from a profound recognition on the part
\nof science in the past few decades that our universe does not appear to
\nhave been an accident but rather fine-tuned for life. But what exactly
\ndoes “fine-tuned” mean? <\/p>\n

As science developed in the past few centuries, a most astonishing
\ninsight emerged: Everything going on in the universe — from the swirl
\nof thoughts in your head to the chirping of the bird outside your
\nwindow to the exploding of a distant star in some far-off galaxy — is
\nempowered by just four different interactions: the familiar forces of
\ngravity and electricity, including magnetism, and two nuclear forces,
\none responsible for the fusion reactions in stars like our sun and one
\nthat causes radioactivity.\n<\/p>\n

Physicists
\nhave studied these four interactions extensively, and they are now well
\nunderstood. The particular strength of each interaction is perhaps
\ntheir most interesting feature. You have probably played with magnets
\nand noticed that the magnetic force is much stronger than gravity,
\nwhich certainly cannot pull apart magnets that are stuck together. In
\nthe formulas for these interactions, a number called a “constant of
\nnature” specifies their strength. If you increase the value of this
\nconstant, the interaction — or force –grows larger, and vice versa. <\/p>\n

\nFor many years these forces were just numbers, part of the physicists’
\nboring formulas. But in the past few decades all this has changed.
\nComputer modeling makes it possible to see how the values of these
\nnumbers affect the structure of the universe, from the formation of
\ngalaxies to the structure of DNA. <\/p>\n

\nConsider the strength of gravity. When the Big Bang occurred billions
\nof years ago, the matter in the universe was distributed randomly.
\nThere were no stars, planets or galaxies; there were just atoms
\nfloating around in the dark void of space. As the universe expanded
\noutward from the Big Bang, gravity pulled ever so gently on the atoms,
\ngathering them into clumps that eventually became stars and galaxies.
\nBut gravity had to have just the right force. If the force had been a
\nbit stronger, it would have pulled all the atoms together into one big
\nball, and the Big Bang — and our prospects for life — would have ended
\nquickly in a Big Crunch. If gravity was a bit weaker, the expanding
\nuniverse would have distributed the atoms so widely they would never
\nhave been gathered into stars and galaxies. The strength of gravity has
\nto be exactly right to get stars to form. But what do we mean by
\n“exactly”? <\/p>\n

\nIt turns out that if we change gravity by even a tiny fraction of a
\npercent — enough that would make you 1 billionth of a gram heavier or
\nlighter — the universe changes so much that stars, galaxies and planets
\ndo not exist. And, of course, without planets there would be no life.\n<\/p>\n

The
\nother constants of nature possess this same feature. Change any of them
\nand the universe — like Robert Frost’s traveler — moves along a very
\ndifferent path. Remarkably, every one of these different paths leads to
\na universe without life in it. Our universe is friendly to life but
\nonly because the last 15 billion years have unfolded in a particular
\nway that led to a habitable planet with liquid water and rich
\nchemistry.\n<\/p>\n

People who have reflected on this have many different reactions. Some
\nspeculate there must be an infinity of different universes with every
\nimaginable combination of properties; we just lucked out to be in a
\nuniverse capable of having people in it. My favorite response to the
\nfine-tuning of the universe, though, is that of Freeman Dyson, former
\nphysics professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton
\nUniversity and one of the most brilliant and interesting
\nastrophysicists living today. “The more I examine the universe and the
\ndetails of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe
\nin some sense must have known we were coming,”writes Dyson in his 1979
\nautobiography, Disturbing
\nthe Universe<\/i><\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nI asked Dyson if 30 years later, he still feels the same way about his oft-quoted phrase.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Yes,” he said, “though I hate the word `anthropic’ because that refers exclusively to humans.” The Greek anthropos means a man or a human. “What it says is that the universe has to be built in such a way that intelligent creatures can ask questions about
\nit. It doesn’t mean the universe was designed for humans. That’s not
\nwhat I intended to say. What it means is that the universe seems to be
\nconstructed in a way that it is hospitable to life and intelligence. I
\nstill think that’s true.”<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(The full text of this interview
\nis available at www.biologos.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The fine-tuning of the universe is a perfect example of the BioLogos
\nperspective: God is working continually within, through and behind the
\nunfolding patterns of nature to bring about God’s intentions and
\npurposes. Such a claim goes beyond science. Even Dyson, with
\ncharacteristic modesty, is reluctant to claim too much. But reality is
\nmore than just science, and as Christians, we can celebrate in worship
\nthe marvelous character of the world that science has unfolded for us.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nShare<\/a>
\n|<\/span>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the most fascinating question in all of science? My vote goes to the meaning of the so-called “anthropic principle,” and, judging from the traffic to www.biologos.org, the apparent design of the universe intrigues a lot of people. 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He was the founding editor of Science & Theology News, the leading publication in its field until it ceased publication in 2006, and editor-in-chief of Science & Spirit magazine from 2003-2006. He has published over a hundred articles, reviews, and essays, both technical and popular, and written four books: Worlds Apart: The Unholy War Between Science and Religion (1993), Species of Origins: America's Search for a Creation Story (2002, with Don Yerxa), Oracles of Science: Celebrity Scientists Versus God and Religion (2007, with Mariano Artigas), and Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution (2008). His 5th book, The Anointed: America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Evangelical Experts (with historian Randall Stephens) is under contract with Harvard University Press. Dr. Giberson has written for Salon.com, Edge.org, Discover, Perspectives on Science & Faith, Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Journal of Christian History, Zygon, and others. He has given invited lectures on science and religion at many venues, including Oxford University, the Etore Majorana Center in Sicily, as well as colleges and universities in the United States. His primary research focus is the history and sociology of the creation-evolution controversy and in 2006 he lectured at the Vatican on \"America's Ongoing Hostility to Darwinism.\" Saving Darwin was recognized by the Washington Post as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Best of 2008\u00e2\u20ac\u009d book. Dr. Giberson has been on the faculty of Eastern Nazarene College since 1984, where he teaches interdisciplinary honors seminars and the history of science. He is also the director of the Forum on Faith and Science at Gordon College, and co-director of the Venice Summer School on Science & Religion.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/author\/kgiberson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":834,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}