Note: Some of the material found below contains somewhat advanced logic and physics notations. We encourage you to work through or, if necessary, skip over that which confuses you to catch the main ideas.

Since the discovery of anthropic coincidences in the 1970s that continue regularly, many skeptics of a distinctly designed universe have taken a second look. Anthropic coincidences are astoundingly minuscule factors of probability concerning everything from neutrons and electrons to supernova eruptions in space, outside of which carbon-based life would be impossible. Yet others have countered that no supernatural or outside-the-universe intellect is required to explain these phenomena. Indeed, some hold that our observance of life in a universe seemingly balanced on a razor’s edge is no cause for surprise whatsoever.

For perspective, described below is just one of the 26 known anthropic coincidences (or, necessary conditions for life as we know it), listed in Hugh Ross’ The Creator and the Cosmos:

“Unless the number of electrons is equivalent to the number of protons to an accuracy of one part in 10³⁷, or better, electromagnetic forces in the universe would have so overcome gravitational forces that galaxies, stars, and planets never would have formed.

One part in 10³⁷ is such an incredibly sensitive balance that it is hard to visualize. The following analogy might help: Cover the entire North American continent in dimes all the way up to the moon, a height of about 239,000 miles. (In comparison, the money to pay for the U.S. federal government debt would cover one square mile less than two feet deep with dimes.) Next, pile dimes from here to the moon on a billion other continents the same size as North America. Paint one dime red and mix it into the billion piles of dimes. Blindfold a friend and ask him to pick out one dime. The odds that he will pick the red dime are one in 10³⁷. And this is only one of the parameters that is so delicately balanced to allow life to form.”*

Why would the cosmological constants of the universe, like the one above, be so fine-tuned for life? What can explain the number of such so-called coincidences? Are such questions a valid pur

suit, or are there, for example, an infinite number of universes, rendering one just like ours inevitable? Many scientists have long resisted the possibility of a supernatural explanation for both the universe’s beginning and its incredible accommodation of life. Yet, most scientists now concede that the Big Bang Theory is all but certainly correct in pointing to a starting point and time for the universe–a discovery certainly compatible with the Bible. In our Special Focus, several scientists and philosophers likewise argue for the theistic explanation for anthropic coincidences–or as theists often state it, the fine-tuned universe–that our universe looks exquisitely tailored-for-life because it, in fact, is.

Their messengers said: Is there doubt about Allah, the Maker of the heavens and the earth? He invites you to forgive you your faults and to respite you till an appointed term. They said: You are nothing but mortals like us; you wish to turn us away from what our fathers used to worship; bring us therefore some clear authority. (Al-Quran)

Deep connectedness

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