{"id":50,"date":"2009-06-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-17T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html"},"modified":"2014-05-19T09:16:27","modified_gmt":"2014-05-19T13:16:27","slug":"firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html","title":{"rendered":"Firing Squads, Fine-Tuning, and the Multiverse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The history of our universe has been a fruitful one indeed, one that has given rise to numerous complicated system and organisms.\u00a0 What is more astonishing is the precisely tuned physical constants and properties that have allowed such flourishing to occur.\u00a0 If these constants had differed even slightly, our universe’s history may have instead been boring and sterile, never giving rise to life as we know it.What are we to make of such a “finely-tuned” universe then?\u00a0 John Polkinghorne considers this question in his lecture “Religion in an Age of Science.”\u00a0 Polkinghorne asks us to consider the example of bring tied before a firing squad of twelve highly-trained sharpshooters.\u00a0 However, after the shots ring out, to our surprise we are still very much alive.\u00a0 How could this be?\u00a0 Polkinghorne discusses two possiblities:<\/p>\n

“One is this. Many, many, many executions are taking place today and
\njust by luck you happen to be the one in which they all miss. That’s
\nthe rational explanation. The other explanation, is, of course, that
\nthe sharp shooters are on your side and they missed by choice. In other
\nwords there was a purpose at work of which you were unaware.<\/i>”<\/p>\n

– John Polkinghorne, “Religion in an Age of Science”<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Polkinghorne extends this example to our own finely-tuned universe.\u00a0 Perhaps there are countless different universes — just as there were many, many executions in the example — and by chance ours had just the right constants to allow for the development of carbon-based lifeforms.\u00a0 Obviously, we live in that universe, because we could not live in any other.\u00a0 This is the so-called “multiverse hypothesis.”However, perhaps there is a purpose at work, just as there may have been in the execution example.\u00a0 In that case, the finely-tuned universe is not the result of mathematical probability, but the fulfillment of a Creator’s will, whose intent it was to create such a fruitful universe.<\/p>\n

No matter which conclusion we make, Polkinghorne argues that we are searching for something that science alone cannot answer, the question of “Why?” rather than merely “How?”<\/p>\n

You can read the entirety of “Religion in an Age of Science” at the Faith Interface website<\/a>.\u00a0 For more, be sure to check out “What is the ‘fine-tuning’ of the universe, and how does it serve as a ‘pointer to God’?”<\/a> in our Questions section, as well as our other Featured Readings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

The history of our universe has been a fruitful one indeed, one that has given rise to numerous complicated system and organisms.\u00a0 What is more astonishing is the precisely tuned physical constants and properties that have allowed such flourishing to occur.\u00a0 If these constants had differed even slightly, our universe’s history may have instead been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-thoughts"],"yoast_head":"\nFiring Squads, Fine-Tuning, and the Multiverse - Science and the Sacred<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Firing Squads, Fine-Tuning, and the Multiverse - Science and the Sacred\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The history of our universe has been a fruitful one indeed, one that has given rise to numerous complicated system and organisms.\u00a0 What is more astonishing is the precisely tuned physical constants and properties that have allowed such flourishing to occur.\u00a0 If these constants had differed even slightly, our universe’s history may have instead been…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Science and the Sacred\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-17T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-19T13:16:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The BioLogos Foundation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Firing Squads, Fine-Tuning, and the Multiverse - Science and the Sacred","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Firing Squads, Fine-Tuning, and the Multiverse - Science and the Sacred","og_description":"The history of our universe has been a fruitful one indeed, one that has given rise to numerous complicated system and organisms.\u00a0 What is more astonishing is the precisely tuned physical constants and properties that have allowed such flourishing to occur.\u00a0 If these constants had differed even slightly, our universe’s history may have instead been…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html","og_site_name":"Science and the Sacred","article_published_time":"2009-06-17T08:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-19T13:16:27+00:00","author":"The BioLogos Foundation","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html","name":"Firing Squads, Fine-Tuning, and the Multiverse - Science and the Sacred","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-06-17T08:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-19T13:16:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/#\/schema\/person\/89a95c0cac850e9d1dc14b3f19a29a9e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/2009\/06\/firing-squads-fine-tuning-and-the-multiverse.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Firing Squads, Fine-Tuning, and the Multiverse"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/","name":"Science and the Sacred","description":"The BioLogos Foundation","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/#\/schema\/person\/89a95c0cac850e9d1dc14b3f19a29a9e","name":"The BioLogos Foundation","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4d1\/4d1de489def7820fba1c93cba53bea70x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4d1\/4d1de489def7820fba1c93cba53bea70x96.jpg","caption":"The BioLogos Foundation"},"description":"The BioLogos Foundation promotes the search for truth in both the natural and spiritual realms, and seeks to harmonize these different perspectives.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/author\/biologos"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","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\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":668,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/scienceandthesacred\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}