This is such great stuff Bill. I want to get the second reason for the
existence of God. As you say, the complex order in the universe points to an
intelligent designer. Explain. [Craig] scientists once thought that whatever the initial
conditions of the universe might have been, given enough time and a little luck,
eventually intelligent life forms like ourselves would evolve. But instead,
during the last 50 years or so, scientists have discovered, to their
surprise, that the existence of intelligent life in this universe
depends upon a complex and delicate balance of initial conditions given in
the Big Bang itself. In fact, it appears that the universe has been incredibly
fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent life from the very moment of
its inception. And this fine-tuning is beyond comprehension in its delicacy. To
give you an idea of the delicacy of the fine-tuning, let me just give a couple of
numbers to give you a feel for the odds. The number of seconds in the entire
history of the universe, all the way back to the Big Bang, is about 10 to the 18th
power, 10 to the 18th power, seconds in the entire history of the universe, 10
followed by 18 zeroes, a huge number. The number of sub-atomic particles in the
entire known universe is said to be around 10 to the 80th power. Now with
those numbers in mind consider the following; in order for the universe to
be life-permitting, the force of gravity and the weak force in the atom have to
be fine-tuned to the precision of one part out of 10 to the 100th power.
The cosmological constant that governs the accelerating expansion of the universe
is fine-tuned to one part out of ten to the hundred and
twentieth power. Here's a real eye popper; Roger Penrose of Oxford University has
estimated that the odds of the initial low entropy state of the early universe
obtaining by chance alone is one chance out of 10 to the power of 10 to the
power of 123, a number which is so incomprehensible
that to call it astronomical would be a wild understatement. And the examples of
fine-tuning are so diverse and so numerous that they are unlikely to
disappear with any future advance of physics. The fine-tuning is here to stay
and require some sort of explanation of its existence. And in the literature on
this subject there are basically three possible explanations that are put
forward. One would be physical necessity, that it's due to the laws of nature;
they have to have the values they do. Second would be it's just pure chance
alone. The third one would be it's the product of intelligent design;
someone has designed the universe to be life-permitting. The problem is that
those first two alternative explanations, physical necessity and chance, are just
not very plausible. There's nothing about the laws of nature that require these
constants and quantities to have the values they do, and the chances are so
remote that they cannot be reasonably faced, so that I think the most rational
explanation is intelligent design. And a number of scientists have said this as
well. For example, Paul Davies a prominent physicist, has said "Through my scientific
work, I have come to believe more and more strongly that the physical universe
is put together with an ingenuity so astonishing that I cannot accept it
merely as a brute fact." And Robert Jastrow, who was the head of NASA's
Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has said that "This is the most powerful
evidence for the existence of God ever to come out of science." So we can
summarize this first argument as follows: one,
if the universe began to exist then the universe has a cause of its beginning. Two,
the universe began to exist. Three, therefore the universe has a cause of its
beginning. We can summarize this second argument as follows: one, the fine-tuning of
the universe is due to either physical necessity, chance, or design. Two, it is not
due to physical necessity or chance. Three therefore it is due to design.