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Anthropic Principle:

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Title: Anthropic Principle:


1
Anthropic PrincipleScientists call it the
Goldilocks story. Alone among planets, earth
supports human life, because it is not too hot
and not too cold, not too hard and not too soft,
but just right. Prof. Nathan Aviezer, Society
Today 16 Feb. 2005Most material adapted
directly from Norman Geislers Bakers
Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Grand
Rapids Baker, 1999), 26-29.
  • What is the Anthropic Principle?
  • II. Supporting Evidence
  • Comments
  • Conclusion
  • Supplement (technical definitions)

2
I. What is the Anthropic Principle?
  • The anthropic principle (Gr. Anthropos, human
    being) states that the universe was fitted from
    the very first moment of its existence for the
    emergence of life in general and human life in
    particular.
  • For if there were even the slightest variation
    at the moment of the big bang, making conditions
    different, even to a small degree, no life of any
    kind would exist. In order for life to be
    present today an incredibly restrictive set of
    demands must have been present in the early
    universe-and they were.

3
I. What is the Anthropic Principle?
  • Or stated another way, the anthropic principle
    states that in our own universe, all these
    seemingly arbitrary and unrelated features of the
    physical world-the distance of the earth from the
    sun, the physical properties of the earth, the
    structure of an atom-have one thing in common
    they are precisely what is needed so that the
    world can sustain life. The entire biophysical
    universe appears to have been thought out and
    designed-intelligently designed.
  • Charles Colson in forward to William Dembskis
    work, The Design Revolution.

4
II. Supporting Evidence
  • Not only does the scientific evidence point to a
    beginning of the cosmos, but it points to a very
    sophisticated tuning of the universe from the
    very beginning that makes human life possible.
    Thus, for life to be present today an incredibly
    restrictive set of demands must have been present
    in the early universe.
  • Consider the following

5
II. Supporting Evidence
  • 1. Oxygen comprises 21 of the atmosphere. If it
    were 25, fires would erupt, if 15, humans
    would suffocate.
  • 2. If the gravitational force were altered by 1
    part in 1040 (thats 10 followed by 40 zeroes),
    the sun would not exist, and the moon would
    crash into the earth or sheer off into space.
    Even a slight increase in the force of gravity
    would result in all the stars being much more
    massive than our sun, with the effect that the
    sun would burn too rapidly and erratically to
    sustain life.
  • 3. If the centrifugal force of planetary
    movements did not precisely balance the
    gravitational forces, nothing could be held in
    orbit around the sun.
  • 4. If the universe was expanding at a rate one
    millionth more slowly than it is, the
    temperature on earth would be 10,000 degrees C.

6
II. Supporting Evidence
  • 5. The average distance between stars in our
    galaxy of 100 billion stars is 30 trillion
    miles. If that distance was altered slightly,
    orbits would become erratic, and there would be
    extreme temperature variations on earth.
    (Traveling at space shuttle speed, seventeen
    thousand miles an hour or five miles a second,
    it would take 201,450 years to travel 30
    trillion miles).
  • 6. Any of the laws of physics can be described
    as a function of the velocity of light (now
    defined to be 299,792,458 miles a second). Even
    a slight variation in the speed of light would
    alter the other constants and preclude the
    possibility of life on earth.
  • 7. If Jupiter was not in its current orbit, we
    would be bombarded with space material.
    Jupiters gravitational field acts as a cosmic
    vacuum cleaner, attracting asteroids and comets
    that would otherwise strike earth.

7
II. Supporting Evidence
  • 8. If the thickness of the earths crust was
    greater, too much oxygen would be transferred to
    the crust to support life. If it were thinner,
    volcanic and tectonic activity would make life
    untenable.
  • 9. If the rotation of the earth took longer than
    24 hours, temperature differences would be too
    great between night and day. If the rotation
    period was shorter, atmospheric wind velocities
    would be too great.
  • 10. Surface temperature differences would be too
    great if the axial tilt of the earth were
    altered slightly.
  • 11. If the atmospheric discharge (lightning)
    rate were greater, there would be too much fire
    destruction if it were less, there would be too
    little nitrogen fixing in the soul.
  • 12. If there were more seismic activity, much
    life would be lost. If there was less,
    nutrients on the ocean floors and in river runoff
    would not be cycled back to the continents
    through tectonic uplift. Even earthquakes are
    necessary to sustain life as we know it.

8
III Comments
  • 1. Robert Dicke states, that in fact it may be
    necessary for the universe to have the enormous
    size and complexity which modern astronomy has
    revealed, in order for the earth to be a possible
    habitation for living beings J. D. Barrow, The
    Anthropic Cosmological Principle (New York
    Oxford University Press, 1986), 247.
  • 2. Likewise, the mass, the entropy level of
    the universe, the stability of the proton, and
    innumerable other things must be just right to
    make life possible Norman Geisler, Bakers
    Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Grand
    Rapids Baker, 1999), 27.

9
III Comments
  • 3. The anthropic principleseems to say that
    science itself has proven, as a hard fact, that
    this universe was made, was designed, for man to
    live in. Its a very theistic result Robert
    Jastrow, A Scientist Caught between Two Faiths
    Interview with Robert Jastrow, CT, 6 August
    1982, 17.
  • 4. Astronomer Alan Sandage states the world
    is too complicated in all of its parts to be due
    to chance alone. I am convinced that the
    existence of life with all its order in each of
    its organisms is simply too well put together.
    Each part of a living thing depends on all its
    parts to function. How does each part know? How
    is each part specified at conception. The more
    one learns of biochemistry the more unbelievable
    it becomes unless there is some kind of
    organizing principle-an architect for believers
    A Scientist Reflects on Religious Belief,
    Truth (1985).

10
III Comments
  • 3. The anthropic principleseems to say that
    science itself has proven, as a hard fact, that
    this universe was made, was designed, for man to
    live in. Its a very theistic result Robert
    Jastrow, A Scientist Caught between Two Faiths
    Interview with Robert Jastrow, CT, 6 August
    1982, 17.
  • 4. Astronomer Alan Sandage states the world
    is too complicated in all of its parts to be due
    to chance alone. I am convinced that the
    existence of life with all its order in each of
    its organisms is simply too well put together.
    Each part of a living thing depends on all its
    parts to function. How does each part know? How
    is each part specified at conception. The more
    one learns of biochemistry the more unbelievable
    it becomes unless there is some kind of
    organizing principle-an architect for believers
    A Scientist Reflects on Religious Belief,
    Truth (1985).

11
IV Conclusion
  • The Anthropic Principle is an updated
    Teleological Argument for Gods existence based
    upon the most recent astronomical evidence for
    His existence.

12
V Supplement
  • 1. Weak Anthropic Principle (WAP) the
    observed values of all physical and cosmological
    quantities are not equally probable but they take
    on values restricted by the requirement that
    there exists sites where carbon-based life can
    evolve and by the requirement that the Universe
    be old enough for it to have already done so.
    page 16 of Barrow.
  • 2. Strong Anthropic Principle (SAP) the
    Universe must have those properties which allow
    life to develop within it at some stage in its
    history. page 21.
  • 3. Participatory Anthropic Principle (PAP) Not
    only that the Universe had to develop humanity
    (or some other intelligent, information-gathering
    life form) but that we are necessary to its
    existence, as it takes an intelligent observer to
    collapse the Universes waves and probabilities
    from superposition into relatively concrete
    reality.
  • 4. Final Anthropic Principle (FAP) States
    that once the Universe has brought intelligence
    into being, it will never die out.
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