just to discern more clearly the wisdom of our own age and appreciate it more
fully but to make us aware of defects in our own attitudes, thought and culture.
The creators of Downton Abbey went to great lengths to make it a faithful
depiction of life in post-Edwardian England, including physical features
such as clothing fashions and cars, but also attitudes and manners. We might
congratulate ourselves on the superiority of our modern culture in some
respects, but we should also take note of virtues which we may have lost sight
of.
(WEO)
is science finally getting religion?
Eric Metaxas, author of the current best-seller, Miracles, had an encouraging
article recently in The Wall Street Journal: “Science Increasingly Makes the
Case for God.”
He noted that 50 years ago Time magazine ran the provocative and
infamous cover story: “Is God Dead?” Smug scientists were more and more
thinking they didn’t need God to explain the universe. Coincidentally, that
same year renowned astronomer Carl Sagan concluded that there were only
two criteria for a planet to support life: the right kind of star, and a planet the
right distance from that star. Metaxas says: “Given the roughly octillion – 1
followed by 27 zeroes – planets in the universe, there should have been about
septillion – 1 followed by 24 zeroes – planets capable of supporting life.”
Mind-boggling stuff. So scientists set up a vast radio telescopic network
– certain they would hear voices or at least signals from at least some of the
millions of aliens out there. The silence has been deafening.
Well, humbled scientists have been learning much more about the universe.
Now they say there are at least 200 parameters for a planet to support life.
And it’s not just a chance thing. Unless every one of those parameters is met
precisely the whole thing falls apart. Actually, Metaxas says, “The odds against
life in the universe are simply astonishing.” And that includes our own earth.
For instance, “Without a massive planet like Jupiter nearby, whose gravity will
draw away asteroids, a thousand times as many would hit the earth’s surface.”
What are the chances really for all 200-plus parameters being perfect by
accident? “At what point,” Metaxas asks, “is it fair to admit that science suggests
we cannot be the result of random forces?”
In fact, the fine-tuning necessary for life to exist on a planet is nothing
compared to what’s required for the whole universe to exist at all. The four
fundamental forces known to astrophysicists, he says, were determined less
than one-millionth of a second after “the big bang.” “Alter any one value and
the universe could not exist.”
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