Cosmology: milky way size is enormous (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, June 05, 2019, 18:49 (1999 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: […] With regard to galaxies, I don’t have a problem with your history of the Milky Way. I’m asking why you think he designed all the other, wrong-sized galaxies which, according to the article, are too small to produce life.

DAVID: What you are really asking is why the universe is so huge? I have no idea. In two billion years we are supposed to meet and join Andromeda. Life won't survive that.

dhw: It’s all very well to focus on the one galaxy we know has produced life, and to claim that your God must have designed it, but I am specifically asking why, if your always-in-total-control God’s sole purpose was to create H. sapiens, he specially designed vast numbers of galaxies that are too small to produce life. One of the problems we all have to face is the seemingly impersonal nature of this vast universe, with its infinite amounts of matter constantly changing, celestial bodies coming and going with no discernible purpose, for ever and ever. Even you suggest that your God is hidden. The seeming impersonality of the huge universe can also suggest that your God doesn’t exist. Hence the agnostic’s dilemma.

DAVID: We know the universe is fine-tuned for life, and it is seen that the Milky Way is also fine-tuned in its size and the safety for the Earth so far out from the dangerous center of the galaxy. Perhaps the enormity of the universe has a purpose we don't yet understand. Modern cosmology as a science is very young. Your agnosticism has to accept that your view allows is all by chance, including the appearance of our consciousness which allows you and I to have this discussion. I see design that must have a designer.

dhw: I don’t understand your first sentence. So far the only life we know of in this vast universe is ours. It would seem then that so far only our galaxy is “fine-tuned for life”. So the question remains: why would your always-in-total-control God design all the galaxies that are not fine-tuned for life if all he wanted was us? “A purpose we don’t yet understand” is not much of an answer. My agnosticism allows for chance and allows for your designer. I am unable to take firm decisions on matters “we don’t yet understand”, and your use of “yet” puts you very much on a par with Dawkins, who talks of “natural phenomena we don’t yet understand.” Both of you imply that time will reveal the truth of your subjective beliefs. He continues: “If there is something that appears to lie beyond the natural world as it is now imperfectly understood, we hope eventually to understand it and embrace it within the natural (God Delusion, p.14). I would put the atheist hope exactly on a par with the theist hope for the opposite.

You are simply describing our differences. I have chosen to believe in God because of evidence I see which is beyond a reasonable doubt. Whenever we question God's designs, research eventually shows the reasons: the retina an the appendix are two examples. I don't question the size of the universe. Do you think just our galaxy should exist?