On Sun, Oct 4, 2020 at 12:09 PM Lawrence Crowell < [email protected]> wrote:
>>If the universe really is fine-tuned (a very big if) then an explanation >> for that fine-tuning needs to be found, but the God Hypothesis is a very >> poor explanation for two reasons. > > 1) It does not say or even give a hint as to how God created the universe. >> 2) It does not say or even give a hint as to how God came into existence >> other than to say He has always existed, but if you're going to do that >> you might as well just say the universe always existed and save a step. >> > > > *The issue is whether fine tuning means a fine tuner. A fine tuner is a > necessary condition, but probably not sufficient. * > I don't see why a fine tuner is necessary or sufficient. > > *In the multiverse setting there may be a vast array of cosmologies* > Exactly. And it's no more surprising that we happen to be living in a universe that is compatible with carbon based life then it's surprising that even in this universe we live in a very atypical place. The average place in this universe only contains about one atom per cubic meter, but that's not where we live. > > It is also possible I think that many of these other cosmologies are > off-shell conditions in a cosmological path integral. Cosmologies with > larger vacuum energy densities may not be physically real, but quantum > amplitudes off-shell from a physical cosmology. This may reduce the number > of actual physical cosmologies, and that could mean just one. > As far as I know there is no evidence for that, but even if it turns out to be true it wouldn't help because then God Himself would be asking pretty much the same question that we do, "Why do I, God Almighty, exist in a universe that allows me to always have existed?". So the God Hypothesis brings us no closer to solving the mystery, it just kicks the question upstairs and tells us not to ask any more questions about the enigma or even to think about it again. Another problem with the theory, in addition to the two that I already mentioned, is it assumes a universe that has the physical constants ours does is the only one that would allow large scale data processing. But we don't know that, there could be universes that, despite having radically different physical constance than ours, allow for structures of some sort that can process data; structures that have nothing to do with what we would call biology or electronics or even mechanics but can nevertheless use their type of physics to process information and ask "Why are things the way they are?", because I think it's just a brute fact that consciousness is the way data feels when it is being processed. John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv2u%2BWFGAnAq%3D1WULj_7xjyuNNHgpA5XL6hRp1mpG%2BFeBw%40mail.gmail.com.
