Per-Chance?

Our place in all of it!

Kanook – Oct-2009

I know you haven’t, at least not in your world of where’s the next event
coming from that will make my day, thought about your existence. There are
some who look around and wonder if our existence is by chance. Scary as it
may be, the human race really hasn’t got a clue, theories jump at us every
day, and religious organizations claim their truth is the only one – and as the
guy in the street watches the evening news, if he has a TV or access to the
Internet, wonders why worry? We’re here and some of us are there – what’s
the big deal?
A couple of years ago, intelligent design was a big issue – in reality some
believe it has come full circle, where our ancestors (way back) looked at the
sky and concluded that there must have been someone or something there for
our entertainment, fact of the matter is that up until the 1500s most people
believed the astronomer Ptolemy that the Earth was the center of the
Universe.
In the 16th century along came an up-start named Copernicus saying that we
revolved around the Sun, upset a lot of priests believe me, for now our home
was no longer that special, as some wise-guy astronomers peering through
their telescopes decided that a creator was unnecessary and the battle
between creationism and science was born. This despite the fact that some of
these wise-guy astronomers eventually believed that the Universe was the
work of a cosmic genius, they were very reluctant to admit to the fact that
there was a single or a group of designers that were in charge. If Copernicus
was alive he would have bashed them about the head as he was a strong
believer in God.
In the 19th century our civilization adopted the popular “Copernican
Principle”, which became the basis for a materialistic view of our world – but,
and this is a big but, 20th century evidence fell outside of the full bucket that
our home was truly unique and that is was “remarkably” fit for life. This
revelation of sorts also included that our solar system and galaxy, as well as
our entire Universe appeared designed to support intelligent life, albeit lately
some of that intelligence has been replaced by greed and the 21st century “me
first” way of life. Scientists took a step back, took and overall look and
decided that such “fine-tuning” that was involved in our planet being just the
right place was just not unlikely, but it was virtually impossible.
An article in U.S. News & World Report1 stated, “So far no theory is even close
to explaining why physical laws exist, much less why they take the form they

1
Gregg Easterbrook, “Before the Big Bang,” U.S. News & World Report, special edition, 2003,
16.
do. Standard big bang theory, for example, essentially explains the propitious
Universe in this way: ‘Well we got lucky’”
How lucky? Real lucky according to Donald Page of Princeton’s Institute for
Advanced Study who calculated that the odds against our Universe randomly
taking a form suitable for life is one out of 10 followed by 124 zeros, yep an
astronomical number, one number that befuddles the imagination.
Take a try, exercise the bowl of noodles resting on your shoulders, where you
imagine all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world, then take one
grain and encrypt a “special code” known only to you, and bury it on one of
those beaches and take a vacation let’s say to NYC. Now the chance that a
blindfolded man would ever discover that “one grain” of sand on their first pick
is one out of 10 followed by 20 zero’s or one chance in 100 billion billion, now
go back up to that 10 followed by 124 zero’s. Still think we’re an accident?
Some scientists say that the likelihood of a “big bang” creating a Universe able
to support life like ours is many times more improbable.
Considering the astronomical odds of our life, Dr Robin Collins said, “Over the
past thirty years or so, scientists have discovered that just about everything
about our basic structure of the Universe is balanced on a razor’s edge.”2 It is
noted that there are a minimum of thirty-five different characteristics of our
Universe and its physical laws that must be as precise as anything found for
physical life to be possible.3 I have listed only six – keep you from falling
asleep, but a number just to jingle your imagination.
1) A large enough expansion rate. The birth of the Universe had to
begin with enough force, or life could not exist. Steven Hawking4 states,
“If the rate of expansion one second after the ‘big bang’ had been smaller
by even one part in a hundred million-million, the Universe would have re-
collapsed before it ever reached its present size.”
2) A controlled expansion rate. Although the expansion rate had to be
great enough for the Universe to avoid a big crunch, if its outward force
had been even a fraction greater, that would have been too much for
gravity to form stars and planets. Life could never have been possible.5
3) Force of gravity. If the gravitational force were altered by 1 preceded
by 37 zero’s (in front of the 1) percent, neither Earth nor our Sun would
exist, and you would not be reading this.6
4) The balance of matter and antimatter. In the formation of the
Universe, the balance between matter and anti-matter, and the excess of
matter over anti-matter, needed to be accurate to one part in ten billion
for the Universe to come to be.
2
Quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004), 131.
3
Hugh Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos, 3rd ed. (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2001), 224.
4
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam, 1990), 121–122.
5
John D. Barrow and George Silk, The Left Hand of Creation: The Origin and Evolution of the
Expanding Universe (New York: Basic, 1983), 206.
6
Lawrence M. Krauss, “The End of the Age Problem and the Case for a Cosmological Constant
Revisited,” Astrophysical Journal 501 (1998): 461–466.
 5) The mass density of the Universe. For physical life to exist, the mass
density of the Universe must be fine-tuned to be better than one part in a
trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion (or) 10 with 60 zero’s behind it – in
other words the mass contained in all dark matter and visible matter,
including the stars, is essential for the existence of the Universe.
6) Space-Energy density. The space-energy density of the universe
requires much greater precision than the mass density. For physical life to
be possible, it must be fine-tuned to one part in 10120.

According to the “big-bang” theory all of these 6 specifications, plus 29

others were programmed into the initial conditions of the first micro-second of
the explosion that began our Universe. In other words at that very instant the
rate and ratios of expansion, mass, density, matter, anti-matter, etc., were set
in place, which eventually led to the creation of a habitable planet called Earth.
Our “Blue Marble”. Whereas all the numbers produced just the right set of
circumstances resulting in our Milky Way galaxy, or Solar System and lastly
our planet, some kind of program you think!
On Monday the 19th of October, 2009
it was announced that European
astronomers had found 32 new planets
orbiting stars outside our solar system;
they believe that their discovery means
that 40% or more Sun-like stars have
such planets.
The planets range in size from about
5-times the size of Earth to about 5-
times the size of Jupiter, they went on
to state that more have been discovered promising more announcement later
on in the year. This discovery brings the total of what is labeled exo-planets to
about 400, said Stephane Udry of the Geneva Obseratory in Switzerland. He
also said, “Nature doesn’t like a vacuum so if there is space to put a planet it
will put a planet there.” Their discoveries put all the 400 inside our Milky Way,
good thing for them as it meets a few parameters that must be met for life to
exist in a galaxy.
Little reference material here, galaxies are formations of from millions to
perhaps trillions of stars. It is unknown how many galaxies the Universe
contains our latest estimation is for over 100 billion in the space we can see.
Our Milky Way Galaxy is estimated to have 100-400 billion stars, pretty wide
estimation in my opinion. Our solar system sits about 26,000 +/- 1,400 light
years from the Milky Way Galaxy center – it is written that the entire galaxy is
at least 100,000 light years across and has an estimated age (based on the
oldest star found) of 13.2 billion years, or nearly as old as the Universe.
It has been calculated that it takes our Solar System about 225-250 million
years to complete one-orbit of the Milky Way (they call this a galactic year -
which calculates into 650,237 years in a galactic day) and it is thought it has
completed 20-25 orbits during the lifetime of the Sun, or approximately 1/1250
of a revolution since man has walked on the Earth. The stated orbital speed of
our Solar System about the center of the Milky Way is around 136.7 miles per
second, approximately 492,125 mph. At this speed it takes around 1,400
years for the Solar System to travel a distance of 1-light-year, or 8-days to
travel 92,956,000 miles or what we call a astronomical unit (“AU”) which is the
distance of Earth (on average) to the Sun. In other words our Solar Systems
takes 8-days to travel an AU and it takes the light from the Sun approximately
8-minutes to reach the Earth.
Earthlings have established a few criteria for life to exist within a galaxy,
whereas there are three basic conditions or characteristics for life in the
galaxy.
1) Shape of the galaxy. The spiral type is thought to be the most capable
of supporting human life, so of the three elliptical, irregular and spiral
once again we won the lottery of life.
2) Not too large a galaxy. The Milky Way is pretty big, 100,000 light-years
from end-to-end, however it is believed that if it were a bit larger, too
much radiation and too many gravitational disturbances would prohibit life
like ours
3) Not too small a galaxy. Likewise it is thought that a stable Earth orbit,
being necessary for life, could not exist if our galaxy was slightly smaller,
whereas a smaller galaxy would result in inadequate heavy elements,
such as iron and carbon, essential for life.

Looking closer to home, our chances (odds) of winning the lottery of life get a
little bigger – even Copernicus’s theory that the Earth spun around the Sun
appears to relegate our planet to an ordinary status in the Universe, but, if the
Earth was the center of our Solar System as Ptolemy and the 16 th century
Catholic Church leaders had taught the known world, it is evident we wouldn’t
be here – naturally at that time none of them understood that conditions had
to be just so in order for life to exist on our “Blue Marble”. In fact, scientists
today exclaim that even our neighbors in the Solar System, like Mars and
Jupiter protect us somewhat of potential catastrophic bombardments of
comets and meteors, albeit some have sneaked through in our early history
slamming into the Earth and promoting disastrous changes in the life on-
board.
And others point out that even our moon is critical to our survival which
swings the tides and seasons – these facts and others make our life here more
certain.
1) The Solar Systems distance from the center of the galaxy. We sit
some 26,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way, where we sit
very close to the inner rim of the Orion Arm, a pretty safe distance from
the center which is believed to have a very large mass with an intense
 radio source called Sagittarius A, in other words a confirmed super-
massive black hole.
2) The Sun’s mass not too large. It is known that if the mass of the Sun
(1.98892×1030 kg) were a very small percentage greater, it would burn
too quickly and erratically to support life – bingo another win for us in the
lottery of life. By the way it is about 332,950 times the mass of our Blue
Marble.
3) The Sun’s mass not too small. Conversely if it were too small, it is
believed its greater flaring would disrupt our Earth’s rotation rate.
4) The Sun’s Metal content. According the experts only 2% of all stars
have sufficient amounts of metal content to form planets, whereas too
much will allow too many planets to form, based on this theory our Sun is
said to have just the right amount for planets to form safely. In 2003 the
SETI gang determined there were approximately 19,000 potentially
habitable star systems that could produce life – they narrowed this list
down by determining the life of the star whereas stars less than 3 billion
years old and had masses there were more than 1.5 times the mass of
our Sun and metal contents that were at least 40% of that of our Sun,
knowing that stars that had more than 1.5 times the mass of the Sun tend
to burn out before life can emerge and stars with low-metal contents
probably formed clouds that did not have sufficient heavy metals to make
rocky planets.
5) Effect of the Moon. As you know the moon today stabilizes the Earth’s
tilt and is responsible for our seasons, scholars today believe that if this
wasn’t so our tilt could swing widely over a large range, making our
winters a hundred degrees colder and our summers a hundred degrees
warmer. Some scientist and scholars today believe that our current 23.5°
tilt of the Earth’s axis is a left-over of an oblique collision deep in our past
that produced the moon and strongly believe that the moon’s presence
through a large part of geological time has stabilized the axial tilt or the
obliquity of the Earth. In fact, this has had important ramifications for life
on Earth as major and frequent shifts in this obliquity would have led to
significant and rapid changes in our climate due to changes in insolation
values at the poles and equator. Whereas the current moderate axial tilt
ensures that the difference in heating between the poles and equator is
sufficient to promote a healthy and diverse range of climatic zones
without veering from one extreme to another – a fact that set the stage
for the emergence of mammals, including man.

Some believe that aliens planted life here on Earth from a far distant galaxy
while other believe that the governments of the world, like ours is hiding
something extraterrestrial such as in Area 51, with other simply believing that
there is undoubtedly intelligent life on other planets. Regardless, we have
been raised on the assumption that given enough time, intelligent life will
spring up anywhere in the cosmos – yet some base the new evidence from
cosmology as really saying the opposite. By know you can’t help buy agree we
live on an extremely rare planet, positioned with precision in an extremely rare
Solar System, and ideally located in an extremely rare galaxy within in a highly
improbable Universe – how rare is our planet?
1) Water. Earth has an abundance of water, which we all know is essential
for life. We now believe that Mars once had water and therefore ‘might’
have harbored life, but water is the basic requirement for life.
2) Oxygen. Earth is the only planet in our Solar System that contains
sufficient oxygen that we can breathe, breathing on Mars and Venus
without the assistance of manufactured oxygen, we’d suffocate, where
Mars has virtually no atmosphere and Venus is mostly carbon dioxide and
no oxygen.
3) Earth’s distance from the Sun. If the Earth was just 1% closer to the
Sun, our oceans would vaporize – zip no more life. On the other hand if
we were just 2% farther from the Sun, our oceans would freeze and no
evaporation would happen, no rain, again, zip no life.
4) Plate tectonic activity on Earth. Scientist have determined that if
Plate Tectonic activity were greater, human life could not be sustained as
greenhouse-gas reduction would over-compensate for increasing solar
luminosity, conversely if the activity was less, life’s essential nutrients
would not be recycled adequately and greenhouse-gas reduction would
not compensate for increasing solar luminosity.
5) Ozone level in the atmosphere. Life on Earth survives because our
ozone level is within the safe range of habitation; it shields us from the
harmful effects of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation, whereas a severe
decrease in the concentration of ozone would lead to some pretty harmful
effects. In other words if it were either much less or much greater, life,
especially plant growth would be inadequate for human life to exist.
You get the picture! We exist because the conditions needed for life are met
with precision and just maybe with some forethought. University of
Washington professors Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee conclude that the
conditions favorable for life must be so rare in the Universe that “not only
intelligent life, but even the simplest of animal life is exceedingly rare in our
galaxy and in the Universe” a reviewer in the New York Times of their book
“Rare Earth” commented, “Maybe we are alone in the Universe, after all!”
Michael Denton, senior research fellow in human molecular genetics at the
University of Otago in New Zealand said, “No other theory or concept imagined
by man can equal in boldness and audacity this claim…that all the starry
heavens, and every species of life, that every characteristic of reality exists for
mankind…And today, four centuries after the scientific revolution, the doctrine
is again re-emerging. In the last decades of the 20th century, its credibility is
being enhanced by discoveries in several branches of fundamental science.”
He was referring to intelligent design.
 Man’s mind today finds it ludicrous to claim that life exists on only one tiny
speck in a Universe of ten billion trillion stars, the thought that Earth sits alone
in a hostile Universe that appears devoid of life doesn’t keep too many of us
awake at night, but to a few that think life sprang up through natural
processes on Earth, wonder why when they peer into the vastness of the
Universe they see an environment devoid of life.
Steven Hawking observes, “The remarkable fact is that the values of these
numbers seem to have been finely adjusted to make possible the development
of life.”

I say no more, the numbers, which we base so much on, seem to be in favor
of some grand manipulator setting them to a grand design, but then again I’ve
been wrong more than once in my life.

Kanook