Issue 11 - The Fine Tuning of the Universe
Apologetics
The “Fine Tuning” argument is the apologetic strategy that argues for the existence of a creator based on the implausibly large number of factors that had to align juuuust right for the universe and the life within it to exist the way they do. For example, a given force or particle may have an extremely wide range of theoretically possible values, but only an extremely narrow band within that range that allows for the formation of stars (a precursor to life). Personally, I find it to be a mixed bag. On the one hand, the fine tuning argument is so overwhelming that the only possible explanations amount to “Somebody created the universe” or “For no reason, functionally infinite universes exist and we’re just unbelievably lucky.” On the other hand, the probabilities involved are so mind-numbingly small that the brain can’t really grasp them. I’m decent at math but I have no intuitive sense of the difference between one in a million and one in 10100.
[How I feel when I start thinking the universe could’ve arisen without a creator]
Below, I lay out some fine-tuning probabilities from apologist Stephen Meyer’s “Return of the God Hypothesis” and from “A Fortunate Universe,” written by two secular astrophysicists Luke Barnes and Geraint Lewis.
Fine tuning of the universe.
Mass of up and down quark (the building blocks of protons and neutrons) fine tuned to 1 in 1021 (1 trillion9) for creating of elements necessary for life.
Force of gravity fine tuned to 1 in one hundred billion trillion trillion (1035)
Electromagnetic force fine-tuned 1 in 25; strong nuclear force (the force that holds atoms together) 1 in 200. Ratio of weak nuclear force (the force that controls radioactive decay) to strong nuclear force 1 in 10,000. Ratio of electromagnetic force to gravity 1 in 1040
Beginning entropy of the universe (the level of order versus disorder immediately after the Big Bang) fine-tuned to 1 in 1010^123 - this number has so many zeros that if you wrote “0” on each particle in the universe, you would need 1080 universes to write all the zeros!
Universes are only flat (like ours) if a critical energy density rests on a line between positively and negatively curved universes. The flatness of our universe requires initial conditions fine tuned to 1 in 1055.
The density of the universe one nanosecond after the Big Bang was 1024 kg/m3. With just one additional kilogram per cubic meter the universe would’ve collapsed by now, and with one fewer kilogram per cubic meter it would’ve expanded too rapidly to form stars and galaxies.
The Cosmological Constant of expansion is fine tuned in the range of 1 in 1090 to in 10120.
Note that each of these factors is necessary for the universe we live in. Unless there is some unknown physical rule that links these parameters for some reason, each probability is independent and therefore multiplicative. For example, the probability of flipping two heads in a row on a fair coin is 1 in 4 (1 in 2 multiplied by 1 in 2). So the probability of gravity being fine tuned to the right value, AND the other factors being fine tuned to the right value is the product of all the above numbers (and more!) which just produces a number that is even more unfathomably large. Given the evidence, the only possible explanations are
The universe had a creator.
For reasons unknown, these specific values are inherent to the universe without being imposed externally (that is, by it’s very essence the universe had to exist like this)
There exists some process for generating universes that can flip a coin enough times to land heads a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion…etc. times in a row.
Only (1) is consistent with our experience: that is, we have observed intelligent minds fine tuning processes. We have never observed anything that can generate such fine tuning spontaneously. Thus, while all 3 options require some leap of faith (since none can be proven empirically) options (2) and (3) require an even larger leap of faith based on human experience.
I will also note that this only applies to fine tuning of the universe to have the conditions for life. In a future newsletter, we’ll visit some of the evidence that life itself is fine tuned to a similarly unlikely degree.