If, for example, the strong nuclear force that holds together the protonsBenjamin Wiker, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow
and neutrons in the nucleus of atoms were a tad weaker, elements other than
hydrogen would either be unlikely or impossible; if a tad stronger, you wouldn’t
have hydrogen. Change the ratio of the mass of the electron to the proton just a
mite and molecules cannot form. If gravity were made just a bit weaker, stars
large enough to produce the heavier elements necessary for biological life would
not exist; a bit stronger, and stars would be too massive, producing the
necessary elements but burning too rapidly and unevenly to support life. Fiddle
a smidgeon with the expansion rate of the universe, and you either cause it to
collapse or exceed the ideal rate at which galaxies, and hence solar systems,
can form.
Wow! God is like soooooo smart! It's the ultimate science fair project.
On the other hand, God could have done anything He wanted to do, couldn't He? He could make the strong nuclear force anything He wanted it to be and He could make the gravititational force anything He wanted it to be. The notion that something God wanted stuck together would become unstuck because of a variation in some natural law is absurd. He could make any ratio anything He wanted. He could make pi equal sixty-two. He is not bound by any natural laws because He invented them and He can ignore them or change them as it so pleases Him.
So why would God make the universe look so orderly? Wouldn't randomly changing natural laws be a much better indication of God's existence than predicatable ones? Is He just messin' with our heads?
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Actually, some inadvertently do say he messes with our heads. Some of the YECs claim god just made everything seem like it was billions of years old. Why? I think the only answer that comes close to sensible is as a test of faith, but once again that's him messing with our heads, perhaps as part of another bet with Satan like he did with Job. Nevermind then that if that were true than all of science goes out the window since we could never trust any evidence we gather.
ReplyDeleteAs for the direction that quote is going, check Douglas Adams on this. Especially good is his puddle analogy at the end (at about 3:45).
Thanks for the link. Tom Delay clearly displays the reasoning capacity of the puddle.
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