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Betty

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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 – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: 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.
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