The Anthropic Principle

1
The Anthropic Principle
Is God Dead?
2
References

• Patrick Glynn, God, The Evidence, (1997)
• Gerald L Schroeder, The Science of God (1997)
• Newsweek magazine, July 27, 1998, Science finds
  God
• Time magazine, December 4, 1995, Evolutions Big
  Bang
• Various articles from the Internet (Google
  produced 2,553 articles when searching on
  Anthropic Principle) and CD-ROM encyclopaedias

3
Evidences in Creation

• For since the creation of the world, His
  invisible attributes are clearly seen, being
  understood by the things that are made, even His
  eternal power and Godhead, so that they are
  without excuse. (Romans 120)
• His eternal power - as seen in the
  cosmos
• His Godhead - as seen within man

4
Man - the Final Cause
So God created man in His own image
in the image of God He created him
male and female He created them. . . . .Then God
saw everything that He had made, and indeed it
was very good. So the evening and the morning
were the sixth day. (Genesis 127, 31)

• Man made to reflect Gods glorious image
• Gave man dominance over His Creation
• Then God rested - man is the final cause, the end
  product, the crowning achievement

5
Man the centre of Creation

• What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the
  son of man that You take care of him? You have
  made him a little lower than the
  angels You have crowned him with glory and
  honor, And set him over the works of Your hands.
  You have put all things in subjection under his
  feet. (Hebrews 26-8)

6
The Anthropic Principle

• First coined by Brandon Carter, an ex-student of
  Stephen Hawking at Cambridge, at the 1973
  International Astronomical Union commemoration of
  the 500th birthday of Copernicus

Large Number Coincidences and the Anthropic
Principle in Cosmology
Anthropic Greek word meaning tending to bring
about the existence of human beings
7
What it is

• Carters paper does not specifically address the
  question of God or a Designer, but with the
  coincidences that led to Mans existence
• Addresses the question of whether they are truly
  coincidences, and how they relate to mans
  existence and how to interpret them
• When there are billions  and billions and
  billions of coincidences, they are no longer
  coincidences.
• For theists, there really is no random universe

8
A Problem of Paradigms
The Atheist Paradigm
The Theist Paradigm
How to interpret the existence of Large Number
Coincidences
9
The Theists Paradigm
10
What the coincidences show

• In order for life to occur, everything has to be
  pre-planned, all the right conditions and laws
  must be pre-determined before the beginning,
  before the Big Bang
• Otherwise far too little time during
  the event for the right combination
  to be struck through random
• Certain conditions have to be known by 10-43
  seconds into the Big Bang event
• No trial and error - no room for errors

11
What the coincidences show

• Not only pre-planned but fine-tuned too
• All the laws in the universe have been fine-tuned
  for the universe and for life to occur - before
  they came into existence
• One tiny variation in any of thousands
  of factors would have prevented the universe
  from forming - and hence life itself
• In short, the random universe is expressly
  designed for life - more specifically, for man

12
Amazing Precision

• The precision is as if one could throw a dart
  across the entire universe and hit a bulls-eye
  one millimeter in diameter on the other side.
  (Michael Turner, Astrophysicist, University of
  Chicago)

13
Amazing Precision

• Life as we know it would be impossible if any
  one of several physical quantities had slightly
  different values. (Steven Weinberg)
• The really amazing thing is not
  that life on Earth is balanced on a
  knife-edge, but that the entire universe is
  balanced on a knife-edge, and would be total
  chaos if any of the natural constants were off
  even slightly. (Dr Paul Davies, Professor of
  Physics, University of Adelaide)

14
Precarious Balance

• Physical, chemical and biological laws of
  nature so fine-tuned that they could not
  have occurred by chance
• Delicate balance of nuclear forces that allowed
  nuclei of atoms to form
• Size of the sun is just right so that it
  supplies the right amount of energy
  at the right rate
• . . . . and many many more

15
Astonishing Luck

• On the likelihood of having usable energy in the
  universe
• This is an extraordinary figure. One could not
  possibly even write the number down in full, in
  our ordinary denary (power of ten) notation it
  would be one followed by ten to the power of 123
  successive zeros! (Roger Penrose, Professor of
  Mathematics, University of Oxford)
• That is a million billion billion billion billion
  billion billion billion billion billion billion
  billion billion billion zeros.

16
Unanswered Science Mystery

• The odds are heavily stacked against the
  occurrence of the entire universe and life if
  chance were the rule
• How is it that so much matter managed to
  survive? . . . . Why is there something rather
  than nothing? (Scientific American, 1993)

17
Constants in a ConstantlyChanging Cosmos
18
Natural Constants
Constant Symbol Value
(approximate) archimedes' constant p 3.1415926
535897932385... natural logarithmic
base e 2.718281828... golden
mean F 1.618033989... ramanujan-soldner
constant µ 1.4513692349... speed of light in a
vacuum c 2.99792458 10 8 ms -1 gravitational
constant G 6.67259... 10 -11 m 3 s -2
kg universal gas constant R 8.314510... Jmol -1
K avogadro constant N A 6.0221367... 10 23
mol -1 boltzmann constant k 1.380658... 10
-23 JK -1 stefan-boltzmann constant s 5.67051..
. 10 -8 Wm -2 K 4 molar volume of ideal gas at
STP V m 2.241409... 10 -2 m 3 mol
-1 permittivity constant e 0 8.85418781762 10
-12 Fm -1 permeability constant µ
0 1.25663706143 10 -6 Hm -1 elementary
charge e 1.60217733... 10 -19 C plank
constant h 6.6260755... 10 -34 Js electron
mass m e 9.1093897... 10 -31 kg proton
mass m p 1.6726231... 10 -27 kg
19
More Natural Constants
Constant
Symbol Value (approximate) ratio of
proton mass to electron mass m p /m
e 1836.152701... electron charge-to-mass
ratio e/m e 1.75881961... 10 11 Ckg -1 neutron
mass m n 1.6749286... 10 -27 kg muon mass m
µ 1.8835326... 10 -28 kg electron magnetic
moment µ e 9.2847701... 10 -24 JT -1 proton
magnetic moment µ p 1.41060761... 10 -26 JT
-1 bohr magneton µ B 9.2740154... 10 -24 JT
-1 nuclear magneton µ N 5.0507866... 10 -27 JT
-1 bohr radius r B 5.29177249... 10 -11
m rydberg constant R 1.0973731534... 10 7 m
-1 electron compton wavelength ? C 2.42631058...
10 -12 m magnetic flux quantum F
0 2.06783461... 10 -15 Wb fine-structure
constant a 7.29735308... 10 -3 classical
electron radius r e 2.81794092... 10 -15
m electron magnetic moment in bohr magnetons µ e
/µ B 1.001159652193... proton magnetic moment in
nuclear magnetons µ p /µ N 2.792847386... faraday
constant F 96485.309... Cmol -1
20
Amazing Constants

• Consider some of the physical constants
• Why are there so many natural constants? Why
  do they assume the values they have?
• Not invented by men, but are there in the natural
  order and discovered by men
• Consider the mathematical beauty in them
• Consider the diverse areas they appear in
• Consider the intelligence
• Consider the chaos if they changed

21
Constant Coincidences

• p ( 3.141) is found in mathematics of circles,
  but it also appears in numerous equations
  unrelated to circles
• F (1.618) can be mathematically
  described and can be found in
  clouds, in the galaxies, in
  plants, in sea-life, in art, in man

C
A
B
For more on p and F
AB BC
22
Constant Coincidences

• Einsteins famous E mc2 - matter and
  energy are inter-related and the speed of light
  determines that relationship!
• Forces binding certain particles are related
  mathematically to the age of the universe
• Question
• Why are these relationships there?

23
Finely Tuned Constants

• The Butterfly Effect demonstrates just how
  fine and delicate the balance is
  in Creation
• It states that even a seemingly negligible
  infinitesimal change of one factor in a stable,
  predictable system can lead to a very different
  state, even chaos
• No room for error!

24
nth Degree Precision

• Ratio of gravity to the weak nuclear force has to
  be adjusted to the precision of one part in
  10100 for the cosmos not to suffer swift
  collapse or explosion.
• The sun's luminescence would fall sharply, and
  hence too cold, were electromagnetism very
  slightly stronger (Brandon Carter)
• Changes either in electromagnetism or in gravity
  by only one part in 1040 would spell catastrophe
  for stars like the sun. (Paul Davies)

25
nth Degree Precision

• Were gravity ten times less strong, it would be
  doubtful whether stars and planets could form (R
  Bruer, 1983)
• If the neutron-proton mass difference were not
  about twice the mass of the electron, elements
  would not exist (Stephen Hawking)
• An electron-proton charge difference of more than
  one part in ten billion would mean that no solid
  bodies could weigh above one gram. (Rozental)

26
nth Degree Precision

• Atoms could not exist if the electromagnetic
  constant were not just a small fraction
  (Barrow Tipler)
• If the electric charge of the electron
  had been only slightly different, stars would
  have been unable to burn hydrogen and helium, or
  else they would not have exploded (Stephen
  Hawking)
• The fortuitous positioning of nuclear resonance
  levels in carbon and oxygen (Fred Hoyle)

27
nth Degree Precision

• Formation of carbon - another vital element for
  life - also due to astonishing coincidence
• If ratio of strong nuclear force to
  electromagnetism were just slightly off, its
  synthesis in an extremely short window of 10-17
  seconds would be impossible
• The list goes on . . . . literally endlessly!
• No universe today if any of these varied.

28
A Delicate Balance

• Facts and observations supporting the
  Anthropic Principle
• Fine-tuned parameters in the universe that
  support life cannot have occurred by random
• These same parameters must be held constant in
  order to sustain the universe
• Who determined their fine-tuned values? Who is
  now holding these values absolutely constant to
  sustain the universe?

But the heavens and the earth which are
now preserved by the same word (2 Peter 37)
29
Third Rock from the Sun
30
Distance from the Sun

• Position from the sun is not where it ought to be
  if extrapolating from the positions of the other
  planets
• Position has great implications for life
  on this planet
• Perhaps other planets are there just to
  show us what it could have been like

31
Distance from the Sun

• Mercury 58 million km from Sun
• Venus 110
• Earth 150
• Mars 230
• Asteroids 440
• Jupiter 780
• Saturn 1430
• Uranus 2880
• Take natural log of distances and plot

32
Distance from the Sun
Without Earth
With Earth
Earth is NOT where it is supposed to be!
Including Earths position in the plot of
planets distances (natural log) from the sun
upsets the linear pattern
33
Just Right!

• Just the right temperature
• Position from the sun is just right
• Orbit is within 3 of being a circle, unlike
  other planets elliptical orbits - thus producing
  consistent planet temperatures
• The tilt of the earths axis ensures that climate
  for the large part of the surface is just right
• Earths crust just at the right thickness so that
  temperatures are just right

34
Just Right!

• Just the right internal radioactivity to maintain
  a molten iron core - produces the magnetic
  field that protects life from deadly solar winds
• Just the right size so that gravitational pull is
  also just right
• Enough to hold needed gases but weak enough to
  allow harmless gases to escape into space
• Produce the right weight
• Just the right atmosphere to shield us from
  countless meteorites

35
The Essence of Life
36
A Life Necessity

• Life is carbon-based, but it is also water-based
• Water covers 70.8 of the earth
• 60-90 of cell mass is water
• Seeds remain dormant until watered

37
The Water Molecule

• Consists of two atoms of oxygen and one atom of
  hydrogen - H2O

Take note of this!
38
A Unique Liquid

• V-shape angle and molecular structure of H2O give
  rise to inter-molecular bonds
• Bonds in turn give water special properties so
  essential to life
• Ice density
• Thermal properties
• Universal solvent
• Water molecules can form weak bonds with other
  molecules very important for stability in
  bio-molecules

39
One More Coincidence

• Anomalous behaviour of water - its solid
  state (ice) floats on the liquid
• First noted by Harvard biologist Lawrence
  Henderson in the 19th century

40
The Unique Property of Ice

• Vast majority of matter expand in volume when
  temperature is raised. Hence, solid state is
  more dense than liquid state. Hence, solid sinks
  in liquid.
• If above were true for water, what happens
  to the oceans, seas, lakes, rivers in
  winter? What happens to life?
• Fortunately for life, ice floats on water.
  i.e. the solid floats on the liquid

41
The Unique Property of Ice
Structure of molecular bonding in ice

• Inter-molecule bonding occurs - bond is stronger
  at lower temperatures
• But bond creates rigid structures. From 0o C to
  4o C water density actually decreases instead of
  increases like other fluids.
• Hence ice floats - and life in water is safe!

42
The Thermal Properties

• Hydrogen bonding also affects specific heat.
  Because of bonds, heat required to raise
  temperature of water is relatively high.
• Important for biochemical processes sensitive
  to temperatures
• It absorbs five times more heat than soil -
  oceans keep the planet at the cool temperature,
  providing a stable living environment to sustain
  life

43
The Thermal Properties

• Heat for vapourising water is also higher than
  for other liquids - also because of need to break
  hydrogen bonding
• Hence, serve as a good coolant to absorb heat
  from the body through perspiration

44
The Electrical Properties

• Overall electrically neutral, but uneven charge
  distribution in O-H bond produces a permanent
  dipole
• Gives it properties of being the universal solvent

Why so many important and different
life-supporting properties in the essence of
life? Coincidental?
45
The Anthropic Principle

• Ample evidence found in large numbers in
• The Cosmos
• The Earth
• The Essence of Life
• And still more . . . .
• In Medical Science
• In Human Philosophies

46
All Coincidences?

• Far too many coincidences to be random -
• Brandon Carters large number coincidences
• Confirms what has long been revealed to man
• Creation is the product of Intelligence, of
  Design - of an Intelligent Designer
• Humanity is the final cause of the universe
• The Anthropic Principle is a science-based
• principle that supports the belief in God

47
Words of a convert

• Dr Paul Davies, a former leader of the
  atheistic, materialistic worldview, who now
  believes in the Creator
• There is for me powerful evidence that there is
  something going on behind it all. . . It seems as
  though somebody has fine-tuned natures numbers
  to make the Universe. . . The impression of
  design is overwhelming.
• The laws of physics themselves seem to be the
  product of exceedingly ingenious design.

48
Man centre of Creation

• Attention once again turned to final
  cause - a return to teleological arguments
  concerning God?
• Similar, but not a re-hash - now backed by
  scientific methods, data and observations, and
  not merely philosophical discussions
• Restores man to the centre of the cosmos -
  directly contradict the Copernican theory
• Spells the end of the Copernican revolution? -
  Dont hold your breath!

49
The Atheists Paradigm
50
Rare Agreement

• Coincidences cannot be satisfactorily explained
  by random probabilistic processes
• Coincidences appear to be directed to bring
  about the existence of man (hence, anthropic)
• But no agreement concerning Design much less,
  God a paradigm issue

51
The Controversy

• Inevitable implications concerning the Designer -
  pose great difficulty for atheists
• Disliked by many physicists because of this
• Yet cannot deny coincidences and need to
  explain them
• Attempt to argue that life results not by design,
  but from what happened before
• Arguments gaining wide circulation with
  atheists accusing theists of abusing the
  Anthropic Principle

52
Carters View

• Carters interpretation of the large number
  coincidences
• what we can expect to observe in
  the universe must be restricted
  by the conditions necessary for our presence
  as observers.
• In effect, anti-theistic

53
Thats the way things are

• Barrow Tipler, The
• Anthropic Cosmological
• Principle, 1986
• We are amazed at Creation, of the very fact that
  we exist but we should not be
• Analogy Should we be amazed at the
  way a river runs its course? Why it twists here
  or turns there? Why its mouth is here, not there?
  Why it is this wide and not that? No need - all
  merely natural outcomes of how it had developed
  no design.

54
Thats the way things are

• An attitude of surprise at the delicately
  balanced features of the universe essential to
  life is inappropriate we should expect the
  universe to look this way. While this does not
  explain the origin of those features, it shows
  that no explanation is necessary. Hence, to posit
  a divine Designer is gratuitous.

55
The way things are not

• We can never observe conditions in the Universe
  that is incompatible with our existence if these
  conditions existed, we would not be here hence
  no explanation needed
• Appears to imply if things had taken a different
  course, we would not be here. If so, so what?

56
We dont see what we dont know

• We observe what we can observe but
  we are unable to observe everything
  hence, we must not conclude that there
  is a Designer because of what we do not
  yet know
• It is essential to take into account the
  limitations of one's measuring apparatus when
  interpreting one's observations. (Barrow
  Tipler)
• Eg A ratcatcher who caught no rats may say
  that all rats are bigger than six inches
  because that is the size of his traps

57

• We should emphasize once again that the enormous
  improbability of the evolution of intelligent
  life in general and Homo sapiens in particular
  does not mean we should be amazed we exist at
  all. This would make as much sense as Elizabeth
  II being amazed she is Queen of England. Even
  though the probability of a given Briton being
  monarch is about 10-8, someone must be. Only if
  there is a monarch is it possible for the monarch
  to calculate the improbability of her particular
  existence. Similarly, only if an intelligent
  species does evolve is it possible for its
  members to ask how probable it is for an
  intelligent species to evolve. Both are examples
  of WAP self-selection in action. (Barrow and
  Tipler)
• http//www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/barr
  ow.html

58
Just One Natural Outcome

• All these coincidences are not to
  be seen as such, but the conditions
  resulting from the actual, natural course
  the Universe has taken
• These eventually led to our very existence.
• Outcome could have been something else very
  different. This one just happened that way!
• So, no need to assume there was something moving
  the Universe this way or that, or that Man is the
  final cause

59
But we should be amazed

• If anyone claims not to be surprised by the
  special features that the universe has, he is
  hiding his head in the sand. These special
  features ARE surprising and unlikely. (Dr.
  David D. Deutch, Institute of Mathematics, Oxford
  University)

60
Basis for Amazement

• Serious questions exist against such
• atheistic interpretations.
• Why should there be any physical laws?
• Some scientists consider laws to be first cause
  like God not explainable
• Why should there be any constants in the first
  place? And so many? Who dictated this?
• Why should one constant exist, but affect
  multiple yet unrelated areas? (Eg p or F)

61
Basis for Amazement

• Why should constants continue to be constants?
  Why should laws or constants not evolve like
  everything else? Why not change in properties and
  values?
• If law or constants do change, even just one,
  life would vanish and the universe would collapse
• Implication there IS an end-point, a final
  cause because critical changes are absent
• Hence, we must be amazed at what or Who
  brought us here

62
More Atheistic Variations

• Several variations have arisen
• Weak Anthropic Principle
• Strong Anthropic Principle
• Final Anthropic Principle
• Including some very weird science eg the
  Participatory Anthropic Principle, and the
  Multiverse
• All attempt to argue life did not result by
  design and hence deny God

63
Weak Anthropic Principle

• The observed values of all
  physical and cosmological quantities
  are not equally probable, but they take on values
  restricted by the requirement that there exist
  sites where carbon-based life can evolve and by
  the requirement that the Universe be old enough
  for it to have already done so.

64
Strong Anthropic Principle

• The Universe must have those properties
  which allow life to develop within it at some
  stage in its history. Because
• There exists one possible Universe designed with
  the goal of generating and sustaining
  'observers'. Or...
• Observers are necessary to bring the Universe
  into being (John Wheeler's Participatory
  Anthropic Principle). Or...
• An ensemble of other different universes is
  necessary for the existence of our Universe

65
Final Anthropic Principle

• Intelligent information-processing must come into
  existence in the Universe, and, once it comes
  into existence, it will never die out.

There is really no Anthropic Principle all
along, it has always been the e-thropic
Principle!!! ?
66
And A Very Weird Science

• Atheists recognise that a fine-tuned universe
  cannot occur randomly which would imply a
  Designer
• Yet, some adamant to cling on to paradigm of a
  random cosmos which has no place for God
• Hence, postulate the multiverse
  cosmos (a.k.a. world ensemble)
  billions of universes all random,
  of course and each has its own set
  of physical constants

67
A Tale of the Multiverse

• If the Universe contains an exhaustively random
  and infinite number of universes, then anything
  that can occur with non-vanishing probability
  will occur somewhere.

68
A Tale of the Multiverse

• Hence, by chance not by design, one of these
  countless universes contain a right combination
  of physical constants with the right values to
  permit life that universe being our own
• Not limited by how many universes
  can possibly exist since none can
  be observed or measured.
  Therefore, overcome the limits that the laws of
  probability place on what random processes may or
  may not produce

69
A Tall Tale

• How many universes must there be before one such
  as our own can occur by random?
• Consider the large number of physical constants
• Consider all the other large number
  coincidences
• How scientific can it get if the rule is that we
  cannot observe or measure any one of these other
  billions of universes in existence?

70
Another Very Weird Science

• John Wheelers Participatory Anthropic Principle
  (PAP) the universe creates man, but man through
  his observations of the universe brings the
  universe into real existence
• the universe brought forth life in order to
  exist ... that the very cosmos does not exist
  unless observed.
  (George Greenstein)

71
Pure Sci-fi

• Problems
• Time never observed to travel backwards
• Topsy turvy cause/effect relationship
• Fiction due to misapplication of the laws of the
  quantum world to the macro world where Newtonian
  laws operate and plenty of imagination
• The wisdom of the world, blinded to the true
  Wisdom, resorts to fables instead just so as to
  avoid acknowledging their Creator

72
Confused?

• Science is based on facts, observations and
  experiments (Bertrand Russell, 1935) hence,
  superior to medieval theology
• But atheistic interpretations not based on fact,
  observations and experiments
• More of a philosophical argument
• More akin to the Ontological Argument of
  medieval theology
• Even mythical!
• What happened to the scientific objectivity?

73
An Objective Scientific View

• Barrow and Tipler's attempt to stave off the
  inference to divine design by appealing to the
  Weak Anthropic Principle is demonstrably
  logically fallacious unless one conjoins to it
  the metaphysical hypothesis of a World Ensemble.
  But there is no reason for such a postulate.
  Their misgivings about the alternative of divine
  design are shown to be of little significance.
• (Source British Journal for the Philosophy of
  Science 38 (1988) 389-395)

74
Words of another convert

• Fred Hoyle, a British astrophysicist, so
  impressed by the string of coincidences that
  exist between particular numerical values of
  dimensionless constants of Nature without which
  life of any sort would be excluded

75
Words of another convert

• I do not believe that any scientist who examined
  the evidence would fail to draw the inference
  that the laws of nuclear physics have been
  deliberately designed with regard to the
  consequences they produce inside the stars. If
  this is so, then my apparently random quirks
  have become part of a deep-laid scheme.

76
Which Paradigm for you?

• Response once again shows the fundamental issue
  is not concerning science it concerns whether
  one adopts a theistic paradigm or an atheistic
  one
• What is your choice? Which is more objective?