God's Crime SceneMuestra

Was the Universe Fine Tuned?

We were compelled to examine the evidence of tampering because of one important fact: there were dead bodies in our crime scene. In a similar way, when we look at the nature of our universe, the existence of living bodies ought to provoke an investigation.

The foundational laws of physics, the properties of our solar system, and the conditions of our planet resulted in our existence. But did this have to be the case? If circumstances had been just slightly different in Carrie’s house, no one would have died that night. The conditions had to be just so for the outcome to be death. In a similar way, if circumstances had been just slightly different in our universe, no one would be alive today. The conditions had to be just so for the outcome to be life.

…Paul Davies (who is agnostic when it comes to the notion of a Divine Designer) readily stipulates, “Everyone agrees that the universe looks as if it was designed for life.”

…The constants and proportions of the strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force, and the force of gravity must exist within very narrow ranges in order for life to exist in the universe.

…On the macro-level, the size of the universe, its rate of growth, and the nature and existence of galaxies, stars, and planets depend largely on the force of gravity. While we sometimes take gravity for granted, the precisely calibrated gravity in the universe is puzzling; it has been described as an “unexplained miracle.”

Let me give you a few illustrations to help you grasp the exactitude of these universal constants.

Imagine covering the entire North American continent in dimes and stacking them until they reached the moon. Now imagine stacking just as many dimes again on another billion continents the same size as North America. If you marked one of those dimes and hid it in the billions of piles you’d assembled, the odds of a blindfolded friend picking out the correct dime is approximately the same level of precision required in the strong nuclear force and the expansion rate of the universe.

Imagine stretching a measuring tape across the entire known universe. Now imagine one particular mark on the tape represents the correct degree of gravitational force required to create the universe we have. If this mark were moved more than an inch from its location (on a measuring tape spanning the entire universe), the altered gravitational force would prevent our universe from coming into existence.

Imagine trying to fire a bullet at a one-inch target on the other side of the observable universe. The accuracy required to accomplish such a feat has been calculated as roughly the precision required in calibrating the mass density of the universe.

Imagine comparing the universe to an aircraft carrier like the USSJohn C. Stennis (measuring 1,092 feet long with a displacement of 100,000 tons). If this carrier were as fine tuned as the mass density of our universe, subtracting a billionth of a trillionth of the mass of an electron from the total mass of the aircraft carrier would sink the ship.

Starting to appreciate the level of fine-tuning in the foundational particles and forces in the universe? If just one of these parameters were altered, critical difficulties would result at every level of the universe.