DAVID: Cosmology: milky way size is enormous (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, June 29, 2019, 22:29 (1975 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Our galaxy seems very special, but the current scientific opinion among cosmologists is that our universe is at its basis fine-tuned for life to appear somewhere.

dhw: If all galaxies among an infinity of galaxies are different, a cosmologist could argue that eventually one of them is sure to come up with the right tuning for life. Perhaps that is why so many scientists do not see any need for a designer.

DAVID: You have circled our discussion back to the anthropic principle.

dhw: A vague reference to the “anthropic principle” does not provide any enlightenment at all, I’m afraid. You claimed that the entire universe is fine tuned for life. I claim that the only galaxy we know of that is fine tuned for life is our own. That is why I keep asking why you think your God would have specially designed all the galaxies extant and extinct that are/were not fine tuned for life.

DAVID: There are many aspects of the universe that seem to confuse you. I just accept it as it is. Your questioning is like the previous criticisms of the backward upside down human retina. We have found the reasons that explain it. I have no idea why the universe is expanding like it is. Does that have a purpose? And then you might ask, if God made life, why will the Earth be destroyed in five billion years when the sun explodes? Perhaps another galaxy will have life by then. Applying human reasoning to God's reasoning doesn't work, but that is your constant attempt in your agnosticism.

dhw: I’m sorry, but I am applying my human reasoning to YOUR human reasoning. You tell us that the whole universe is finely tuned for life. The only life we know of is that which exists in our galaxy. I therefore maintain that the argument can only be that our galaxy is fine tuned for life. You tell us that your God designed the whole universe in order to create H. sapiens. I then ask why, in that case, would he design billions of non-life-bearing galaxies. You don’t know. So maybe it is your human interpretation of your God’s reasoning that is at fault! You don’t know his reasoning any more than I do, but because of your fixed beliefs you constantly attempt to impose your reasoning on him and object if I point out its unreasonableness.

Our galaxy was made under the primary rules that created the universe. The fine tuning applies to the whole universe according to the cosmologists. The Milk Way happens to have a special adaptation for the position of the Earth which also happens to be a very special planet, but life could not appear without the initial conditions of the universe which allow life. As for my conclusions about God being in charge. If I conclude, and I have, that God creates by evolution, as I've stated for the universe, for the Earth and for life, then He is seen by me as in charge, and the history of each evolution represents what God did. Your argument is then what God did was wrong. You are arguing with God, not me. I am consistent within my beliefs, starting with He runs things..