Sunday, December 18, 2005

 
The Fool in His Own Heart Says "Multiverse"

I saw this piece on William Dembski's blog.

An opponent of Intelligent Design is greatly troubled that the universe is fine-tuned to expand from the big bang. The desired solution? Multiple universes.
Second was the discovery that the value of the cosmological constant - the energy of empty space which contributes to the expansion rate of the universe - seems absurdly improbable, and nothing in fundamental physics is able to explain why. I remember when Steven Weinberg first suggested that the cosmological constant might be anthropically determined - that it has to be this way otherwise we would not be here to observe it. I was very impressed with the argument, but troubled by it. Like everybody else, I thought the cosmological constant was probably zero - meaning that all the quantum fluctuations that make up the vacuum energy cancel out, and gravity alone affects the expansion of the universe. It would be much easier to explain if they cancelled out to zero, rather than to nearly zero. The discovery that there is a non-zero cosmological constant changed everything. Still, those two things were not enough to tip the balance for me.

This guy isn't alone. God's existance is a major problem for them.

So postulate multiple universes which can't be experimentally verified. Talk about a blind leap of faith.

Comments:
Great post title! It spins off Biblical knowlege, cosmology, and Science Fiction in a great three-bank shot.
 
I thought the judge's ruling today on ID was really over the top. Apparently teachers can't even talk about ID in class? Why aren't 1st amendment people up in arms about this? He said ID was creationism in disguise which also isn't true...crazy..

chris
 
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