Is our solar system weird? The current odds (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, July 11, 2016, 12:58 (3057 days ago) @ David Turell

David's comment: I've not copied the illustrations. Take a look. We know the Earth has many special attributes that support conditions for life. We know Jupiter in its position sweeps up lots of asteroids and other objects that could strike the Earth if loose. So far the evidence is our solar system is rare but not an impossibly rare outliner. Turned around, it appears the presence of life does obviously require some very special conditions.
From the article: " astrobiologist Caleb Scharf in his 2014 book The Copernicus Complex. “But a big piece of the puzzle, a very big piece, seems to come from sheer, blind, unadulterated chance.'” 
Or God is the engineer. Take your pick.-I don't think even the most vehement of atheists would deny that life requires very special conditions. But since the universe contains billions of solar systems, and since for all we know there may have been comings and goings of solar systems for ever and ever (even if the Big Bang happened, we do not know what preceded it), one could argue that eventually sheer, blind, unadulterated chance was bound to come up with at least one solar system conducive to life. You have summarized the dilemma perfectly: the choice lies between chance and God, and there are arguments for both hypotheses. And you and I have spent eight and a half years discussing them!