Betty

1
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• Betty Cordell offer two arguments, or two
  stages of one argument
• First - based on the Big Bang theory the
  Anthropic Principle
• The Anthropic Principle was first proposed by
  Robert Dicke (Princeton) in 1961

2
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• The Anthropic Principle A universe capable of
  evolving systems as complicated as life and
  humans must have a delicate balance in the
  structure of its fundamental forces and special
  initial conditions (Polkinghorne, One World The
  Interaction of Science and Theology, 1986).

3
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• Or another statement of it If the universe were
  different in any significant way from the way it
  is, we would not be here to wonder why it is the
  way it is.

4
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• Some illustrations of the fine-tuning of the
  universe.
• The expansion rate. Stephen Hawkings If the
  rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang
  had been smaller by one part in a hundred
  thousand million million it would have
  recollapsed before it reached its present size
  (quoted in Barbour 204).

5
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• The formation of the elements. If the strong
  nuclear force were slightly weaker we would have
  only hydrogen in the universe. If the force were
  slightly stronger, all the hydrogen would have
  been converted to helium. In either case, stars
  and compounds such as water could not have
  formed.

6
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• If the nuclear force had been slightly stronger,
  carbon would all have been converted into oxygen.

7
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• This is a new design argument for the existence
  of God. (What were the old design arguments?)
• Betty Cordell, John Polkinghorne, John Leslie
  argue, on the basis of this fine-tuning of the
  evolution of the universe (the anthropic
  principle), propose that, given a universe which
  has evolved by chance and one designed by a an
  intelligent designer, the latter is more
  probable.

8
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• Some objections (raised by Betty Cordell)
• Perhaps intelligent life could have evolved in a
  different way, without hydrogen water. We are
  viewing ourselves too anthropocentrally.
• Perhaps there are an infinite number of universes
  existing alongside of each other. Given enough
  universes, the probability of one producing life
  is high.

9
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• Betty Cordells reply
• These are logical possibilities but there is no
  empirical evidence to support them.

10
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• The 2nd argument (or 2nd half of the above
  argument)
• Argue that the probability of the evolution of
  complex biomolecules (e.g., enzymes, DNA, RNA)
  is infinitesimally small.
• General conclusion The anthropic principle
  the evolution of complex biomolecules supports
  the existence of an intelligent designer.

11
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• Cautions (not in Betty Cordell)
• 1. Perhaps in the future, scientific theory will
  be able to explain the remarkable fine-tuning of
  the evolution of the universe the evolution of
  complex biomolecules. (See Barbour 207-09) The
  danger of a God-of-the-gaps argument.
• Betty Cordells response The gaps are
  becoming more resistant to scientific
  explanation.

12
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• 2. Robert Russell Any cosmology is compatible
  with the Christian notion of creation because the
  latter is not about origins but dependence.

13
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• 3. Ernan McMullin Big Bang is still relevant
  to God. What one could say . . . is that if the
  universe began in time through an act of a
  Creator, it would look something like the Big
  Bang. What one cannot say is that the Big Bang
  model supports the Christian doctrine of
  creation. The Big Bang theory is consonant with
  belief in God the creator.

14
Betty Cordell a new design argument

• Final comment on this new design argument
• Note that the argument is not an argument for God
  as the initiator of t 0, that God is the being
  who got it all going (Pope Pius XII (1952)
  physicist Robert Jastrow (1978)).
• Rather the argument is that God must exist an an
  adequate explanation of the fine-tuning of the
  evolution of the universe.