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A finely tuned universe that points to a God.

Smidlee

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I doubt that Collins thinks that.
But it's always nice to see how far oponents of somebody or something have to distord the actual thing they attack. It gives you a good idea about how absurd their position, because you usually only have to misrepresent an oposing position, if your own can't hold up on its own.

That's clearly how I see him when he believe 98% of our DNA were junk. As of now he seem to have back off from the junk DNA idea.
 
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JimFit

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Hmm...
Are you going to be consistend with that? We can't observe it, therefore it's farytale?
Ok, good. Nice to see that you acknowledge the non-existence of any gods.
But of course, for that you needed to be internally consistend with your argument, which I don't expect you to be.
As I've explained: It's not as much a question if the multiverse actually exists or not, it's a question about if it works, if there are models that would make it concievable and if these models hold up.
You say that whenever the multiverse comes up, you don't have to consider it anymore, because it can't be demonstrated... and that seems to be your reason for actually making an additional step, to say that it actually doesn't exist.
And I'm glad that this also settles the entire debate about god and a fine-tuning, because I hate to break it to you, even if your assesment of the multiverse were absolutly correct, it would also apply to any fine-tuner or any fine-tuning of the universe...
Which closes this argument with you.
Thanks for playing :thumbsup:

You can't have the same argument about God because God created the Universe, the Creation is proof of a Creator because the Universe is Finite, Deterministic and Fine Tuned and that shows intention and not chance and of course i have a Mind therefor i know from first place that a Mind exist , i know from first place what a Mind is to deny it, the different between my Mind and God's Mind is that God's Mind is omniscience and since Jesus said that i can reach perfection just like God it gives me the option to think like God.

The Multiverse is a fairy tale that doesn't even explain the Fine Tuning even if it existed, watch the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3jvfvho3CE
 
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JimFit

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Uh...ok. Let's say this real slowly...

It is only fine tuned if it IS fine tuned and gauging that depends on how you formulate the calculation for how probably or otherwise it is. The method used that you brought up is shaky at best, and there are numerous other ways to think about the problem, wherein the fine tuning problem doesn't exist.

Are you talking about the Cosmological Constant or all the other Constants? Please show me how the Cosmological Constant isn't a constant, your first paper didn't answered the question.
 
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JimFit

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There are other ways of formulating the problem that lead to the order of magnitude being 52 times higher instead of 107 or 120, and still others that have no problem at all.

There are numerous ways around this particular issue, detailed best in

http://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-th/0012253v1.pdf

There is a paper from the astronomer Luke A. Barnes about the Fine tuning of the Cosmological Constant and the order of magnitute here

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1112/1112.4647v1.pdf


Victor Stenger responds to calculations showing the need for fine-tuning by speculating that future calculations will overturn the ones we have now:
The Cosmological Constant, Lambda
The cosmological constant problem is described in the textbook of Burgess & Moore (2006) as “arguably the most severe theoretical problem in high-energy physics today, as measured by both the difference between observations and theoretical predictions, and by the lack of convincing theoretical ideas which address it”. A well-understood and well-tested theory of fundamental physics (Quantum Field Theory – QFT) predicts contributions to the vacuum energy of the universe that are [approx.] 10^120 times greater than the observed total value. Stenger’s reply is guided by the following principle:


Any calculation that disagrees with the data by 50 or 120 orders of magnitude is simply wrong and should not be taken seriously. We just have to await the correct calculation. [FOFT p. 219]


This seems indistinguishable from reasoning that the calculation must be wrong since otherwise the cosmological constant would have to be fine-tuned. One could not hope for a more perfect example of begging the question. More importantly, there is a misunderstanding in Stenger’s account of the cosmological constant problem. The problem is not that physicists have made an incorrect prediction. We can use the term dark energy for any form of energy that causes the expansion of the universe to accelerate, including a “bare” cosmological constant (see Barnes et al., 2005, for an introduction to dark energy). Cosmological observations constrain the total dark energy. QFT [quantum field theory - VJT] allows us to calculate a number of contributions to the total dark energy from matter fields in the universe. Each of these contributions turns out to be 10^120 times larger than the total. There is no direct theory-vs.-observation contradiction as one is calculating and measuring different things. The fine-tuning problem is that these different independent contributions, including perhaps some that we don’t know about, manage to cancel each other to such an alarming, life-permitting degree. This is not a straightforward case of Popperian falsification. (pp. 34-35)
 
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RichardParker

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You can't have the same argument about God...

Special pleeding.
"Let me set up this rules, that have to apply, until they become inconvenient for me. Then we can ignore them."
I really wish that I was surprised, but sadly, I had been more surprised, if this didn't show up eventually.


You can't have the same argument about God...
...because God created the Universe, the Creation is proof of a Creator...[/quote]

Actually, no.
Reality is proof of a realter.
Word-games like that are fun, aren't they? ;)
Unfortunatelly, it falls flat, because I can simply reject your assertion that it is "creation".

...because the Universe is [...] Deterministic...
Some quantum physisists might want to have a word with you on that.

...and Fine Tuned
Assertion without evidence.

...and that shows intention...
Assertion without evidence.

...and not chance...
I never said it was based on chance, so now your just making up stuff you want your oponents to hold, instead of what they actually think.

... and of course i have a Mind therefor i know from first place that a Mind exist...
Sure... if you have a mind, a mind exists. Hey, I have a hand, therefore hands exist. Tautologies are not arguments.

...i know from first place what a Mind is to deny it, the different between my Mind and God's Mind is that God's Mind is omniscience and since Jesus said that i can reach perfection just like God it gives me the option to think like God.

Aaaand we end with a huge number of unsuported claims that don't even fallow from anything you've said before.
This must be a new record or something.

The Multiverse is a fairy tale that doesn't even explain the Fine Tuning even if it existed

It also doesn't explain dragons, unicorns and the great and powerfull Oz.
I'm not concerned that a model doesn't explain things that are just asserted without any evidence.
Unless you demonstrate that the universe is fine tuned, the multiverse doesn't need to explain it.
And again, you seemed to miss the point I've made when talking about the universe, but that's ok...
Given your rambeling here, I'm not even sure you've read anything anybody here has writen, or that you don't even care if any of your statements are even part of a coherent argument.
I guess that's it with that.
 
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davidbilby

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There is a paper from the astronomer Luke A. Barnes about the Fine tuning of the Cosmological Constant and the order of magnitute here

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1112/1112.4647v1.pdf

And Stenger wrote a lengthy rebuttal, which Barnes didn't reply to (I believe).

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.4359v1.pdf

Stenger's essential (correct) point - the universe is not anywhere near as fine-tuned as theists pretend - nowhere near - and Barnes fails to disprove that assertion. Alas, we won't have any more papers from Stenger as he passed away a month ago...a great shame
 
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Kylie

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This is something I don't get from someone like Francis Collins. In Language Of God he believed the fine-tuned universe as evidence of God yet believed our DNA was full of junk because of his faith in evolution. It's like the example atheist once gave it's like a water puddle thinking the pothole was made for it. Collins would used the fact the water puddle was a perfect fit for the hole was evidence of God while I would say the fact the water puddle was thinking would be the greater evidence.
It's not fine-tuned universe itself is the evidence of God but it's the thinking water puddles debating online about the fine-tuned universe is the evidence. Yet Collins thinks his thoughts are the results of an unknown blind unguided natural force acting on a stupid mythological ape-like creature.

So you are saying:

We can think, therefore God?
 
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JimFit

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Finely tuned for humans to live on less than 2% of the earth's surface.

Sounds legit.

This is the ideal Universe for you.

article-2282764-1831F369000005DC-688_964x641.jpg
 
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JimFit

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And Stenger wrote a lengthy rebuttal, which Barnes didn't reply to (I believe).

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.4359v1.pdf

Stenger's essential (correct) point - the universe is not anywhere near as fine-tuned as theists pretend - nowhere near - and Barnes fails to disprove that assertion. Alas, we won't have any more papers from Stenger as he passed away a month ago...a great shame

He did here.

In Defence of The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life | Letters to Nature
 
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Eudaimonist

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This is the ideal Universe for you.

article-2282764-1831F369000005DC-688_964x641.jpg

That would be a good example of a finely tuned universe if it was the whole universe.


eudaimonia,

Mark
 
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JimFit

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Special pleeding.
"Let me set up this rules, that have to apply, until they become inconvenient for me. Then we can ignore them."
I really wish that I was surprised, but sadly, I had been more surprised, if this didn't show up eventually.


...because God created the Universe, the Creation is proof of a Creator...

God is the Mind that created the Universe, how does this apply to special pleading when humans are the images of God and they have minds that can understand the Universe? Your chance doesn't exist, get over it.

Actually, no.
Reality is proof of a realter.
Word-games like that are fun, aren't they? ;)
Unfortunatelly, it falls flat, because I can simply reject your assertion that it is "creation".

That doesn't make sense, we are here, we all live in the same Universe. Why we are here? Because the Universe was created. was our creation random or deterministic? It was Deterministic and not random.

Carbon-12 --Does Its Creation in Stars Suggest a Universe Fine-Tuned for Life? (Today's Most Popular)

Evolution Is Deterministic, Not Random, Biologists Conclude From Multi-species Study -- ScienceDaily

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/27910/title/Are-mutations-truly-random-/

If something is Deterministic it proves a Creation, if it didn't Atheists wouldn't propose a mindless Mother Universe that C R E A T E S Universes. You can't have a Deterministic event from a Random Event.


Some quantum physisists might want to have a word with you on that.

Special pleading and ignorance about the quantum world, quantum physics ARE NOT RANDOM. Ask a physicist.

Q: If quantum mechanics says everything is random, then how can it also be the most accurate theory ever? | Ask a Mathematician / Ask a Physicist


Assertion without evidence.

LOL

The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life by Luke A. Barnes

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1112.4647v2.pdf

The Fine Tuning for Discoverability by Robin Collins

http://home.messiah.edu/~rcollins/Fine-tuning/Greer-Heard%20Forum%20paper%20draft%20for%20posting.pdf

Where is your peer reviewed paper about chance?


Assertion without evidence.

Either we are here by chance or by intention, the Fine Tuning shows intention and not chance, you have no evidence about chance, i have evidence for intention.


I never said it was based on chance, so now your just making up stuff you want your oponents to hold, instead of what they actually think.

If we are not here by intention by definition we are here by chance, there is no third way, if there is let me hear it.

Sure... if you have a mind, a mind exists. Hey, I have a hand, therefore hands exist. Tautologies are not arguments.

If Minds DO exist how can God doesn't exist? The difference you have with God is that He is Perfect, that doesn't mean that you can't be also perfect. Jesus is clear that we can reach God if we follow his teachings about humility, patience, love, forgiveness and so on and so forth...


Aaaand we end with a huge number of unsuported claims that don't even fallow from anything you've said before.
This must be a new record or something.

My argument isn't that hard to understand, if our Minds can reach perfection how can you exclude a Mind that it is already perfect? The fact that our Minds can became better and better and better is proof that there is a higher principle.

It also doesn't explain dragons, unicorns and the great and powerfull Oz.
I'm not concerned that a model doesn't explain things that are just asserted without any evidence.
Unless you demonstrate that the universe is fine tuned, the multiverse doesn't need to explain it.
And again, you seemed to miss the point I've made when talking about the universe, but that's ok...
Given your rambeling here, I'm not even sure you've read anything anybody here has writen, or that you don't even care if any of your statements are even part of a coherent argument.
I guess that's it with that.

The Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life by Luke A. Barnes

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1112.4647v2.pdf

The Fine Tuning for Discoverability by Robin Collins

http://home.messiah.edu/~rcollins/Fine-tuning/Greer-Heard%20Forum%20paper%20draft%20for%20posting.pdf

Wilczek: life appears to depend upon delicate coincidences that we have not been able to explain. The broad outlines of that situation have been apparent for many decades. When less was known, it seemed reasonable to hope that better understanding of symmetry and dynamics would clear things up. Now that hope seems much less reasonable. The happy coincidences between life’s requirements and nature’s choices of parameter values might be just a series of flukes, but one could be forgiven for beginning to suspect that something deeper is at work.
Hawking: “Most of the fundamental constants in our theories appear fine-tuned in the sense that if they were altered by only modest amounts, the universe would be qualitatively different, and in many cases unsuitable for the development of life. … The emergence of the complex structures capable of supporting intelligent observers seems to be very fragile. The laws of nature form a system that is extremely fine-tuned, and very little in physical law can be altered without destroying the possibility of the development of life as we know it.”
Rees: Any universe hospitable to life – what we might call a biophilic universe – has to be ‘adjusted’ in a particular way. The prerequisites for any life of the kind we know about — long-lived stable stars, stable atoms such as carbon, oxygen and silicon, able to combine into complex molecules, etc — are sensitive to the physical laws and to the size, expansion rate and contents of the universe. Indeed, even for the most open-minded science fiction writer, ‘life’ or ‘intelligence’ requires the emergence of some generic complex structures: it can’t exist in a homogeneous universe, not in a universe containing only a few dozen particles. Many recipes would lead to stillborn universes with no atoms, no chemistry, and no planets; or to universes too short-lived or too empty to allow anything to evolve beyond sterile uniformity.
Linde: the existence of an amazingly strong correlation between our own properties and the values of many parameters of our world, such as the masses and charges of electron and proton, the value of the gravitational constant, the amplitude of spontaneous symmetry breaking in the electroweak theory, the value of the vacuum energy, and the dimensionality of our world, is an experimental fact requiring an explanation.
Susskind: The Laws of Physics … are almost always deadly. In a sense the laws of nature are like East Coast weather: tremendously variable, almost always awful, but on rare occasions, perfectly lovely. … [O]ur own universe is an extraordinary place that appears to be fantastically well designed for our own existence. This specialness is not something that we can attribute to lucky accidents, which is far too unlikely. The apparent coincidences cry out for an explanation.
Guth: in the multiverse, life will evolve only in very rare regions where the local laws of physics just happen to have the properties needed for life, giving a simple explanation for why the observed universe appears to have just the right properties for the evolution of life. The incredibly small value of the cosmological constant is a telling example of a feature that seems to be needed for life, but for which an explanation from fundamental physics is painfully lacking.
Smolin: Our universe is much more complex than most universes with the same laws but different values of the parameters of those laws. In particular, it has a complex astrophysics, including galaxies and long lived stars, and a complex chemistry, including carbon chemistry. These necessary conditions for life are present in our universe as a consequence of the complexity which is made possible by the special values of the parameters.
Guess who?: The most commonly cited examples of apparent fine-tuning can be readily explained by the application of a little well-established physics and cosmology. . . . ome form of life would have occurred in most universes that could be described by the same physical models as ours, with parameters whose ranges varied over ranges consistent with those models. … . My case against fine-tuning will not rely on speculations beyond well-established physics nor on the existence of multiple universes.

 
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RichardParker

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God is the Mind that created the Universe, how does this apply to special pleading when humans are the images of God and they have minds that can understand the Universe? Your chance doesn't exist, get over it.

YOU said, that the multiverse doesn't exist, because we can't prove that it does. The same for god. But for god, you make an exeption and say that he can exist even though we can't demonstrate him.
Special pleading.

That doesn't make sense, we are here, we all live in the same Universe. Why we are here? Because the Universe was created.
Assertion. Calling it "creation" already assums a creation. And unless you can, calling it "creation" is unjustified.

...was our creation random or deterministic? It was Deterministic and not random.

I don't know.
And I don't know that these two are the only options. If you said "was it random or not random", THEN we would have a proper dichotomy, but the way you set it up is unjustified.
Also: Even if I said "deterministic", this would NOT point to a creator. "Deterministic" does NOT mean "deliberatly set up".


Thanks for the "Evolution is deterministic" article, btw.
Because this proves my point.
Here they say that it is deterministic and not random... and yet they DON'T say that therefore it is intelligently guided or deliberatly set up. Because being "deterministic" and "set up", or "deliberate" or anything you need to claim intention are NOT the same.

If something is Deterministic it proves a Creation,...

Nope. Not at all. There is nothing about something being deterministic that even IMPLIES a creation, let alone proves one. I could just as well say "everything that is green proves that it doesn't have a creator". It's the same nonsensical connection between two unrelated features.

...if it didn't Atheists wouldn't propose a mindless Mother Universe that C R E A T E S Universes.

COMPLETE non-sequitor.
Also, this isn't proposed by "atheists", this is proposed by some cosmologists... and I have no idea how you connect this to any god claim, because even if this "mother universe" was reality, it would neither prove, nor disprove a god.
Sure, it would make a god unnecessary as part of a hypothesis... but he already is. So this proposition makes no sense on many levels.

You can't have a Deterministic event from a Random Event.

So? I never proposed any random event. So this statement is pointless.


Special pleading and ignorance about the quantum world, quantum physics ARE NOT RANDOM. Ask a physicist.

Never said they were. Go back and read my comment.
Also, even if I did: This would NOT be a special pleading fallacy. It would be a fallcy, but not special pleading. Learn your fallacy, before you use the labels.

"If Quantum Physics is random, how come... etc, etc..."

I never said it was random. Strawman-fallacy.
See, THAT'S an actual fallacy that applies to what you've said.
You claim that I've said something, which I haven't, just to attack this made up position, because it's easier to attack that, than my actual position.;)


Where is your peer reviewed paper about chance?

Strawmen-fallacy. I've never said anything about chance.
Also, where is the peer reviewed stuff about the fine-tuning?
Your papers don't seem to qualify, as far as I can tell.


Either we are here by chance or by intention...

False dichotomy.

... the Fine Tuning shows intention and not chance, you have no evidence about chance, i have evidence for intention.

Then present it.
And stop telling me that I have to present evidence for a position I don't take.

If Minds DO exist how can God doesn't exist?

I never said he couldn't.
But your argument seems to be again a non-sequitor...
Why would the existence of mind point to a god? Just because he is also a mind? Well, big deal! Fairies also have minds! This does not mean that the existence of our minds points to fairies!

The difference you have with God is that He is Perfect, that doesn't mean that you can't be also perfect.


Assertion. Also, perfect by what standard? His own?
Big deal! I'm also perfect by my own standard, this means that god can't be perfect... by my standard.
Nonsensical!

My argument isn't that hard, if our Minds reach perfection better how can you exclude a Mind that is already perfect?

I don't know what you mean by "perfect".
And even if you could describe something that might hypothetically be a perfect mind, this would not automatically mean, that it also had to exist!

Sorry, but you've made fallacies at pretty much each corner. Not one sentence actually seems logically sound.
Please try again.
 
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bhsmte

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God is the Mind that created the Universe, how does this apply to special pleading when humans are the images of God and they have minds that can understand the Universe? Your chance doesn't exist, get over it.



Now, all you have to do, is support that God is the mind that created the universe, that humans are indeed the image of this God.

If you have objective evidence that supports this directly, please share. By the way, I have no issue with your beliefs if you simply state; you believe it on faith.
 
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Loudmouth

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That's clearly how I see him when he believe 98% of our DNA were junk. As of now he seem to have back off from the junk DNA idea.

Then how does Collins explain the fact that around 90% of our genome is collecting mutations at a rate consistent with neutral drift?
 
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Smidlee

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Then how does Collins explain the fact that around 90% of our genome is collecting mutations at a rate consistent with neutral drift?

You mean "the assumption" (The Neutral Evolution). This is a problem with evolutionist, they like to claim their assumption as facts.
Those in favor of Neutral Evolution are oppose to those who think natural selection plays a major role in evolution.
 
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Loudmouth

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You mean "the assumption" (The Neutral Evolution).

Negative selection can be detected using Ka/Ks rates and other methods. These are not assumptions. We are not assuming that there is a lack of evidence for negative selection in 90% of the genome. The EVIDENCE is that there is no evidence for negative selection in 90% of the genome.

Apparently, you can't deal with that evidence.

Those in favor of Neutral Evolution are oppose to those who think natural selection plays a major role in evolution.

The majority of change in genome sequences is due to neutral mutations. There is still the question of whether or not the majority of mutations that change phenotype are neutral or not.
 
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Smidlee

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Then you got someone like James Shapiro who think the mutations aren't random at all and he seems to have data to backup his view.

It's does make sense though the human genome has been degenerating since creation and will probably continue to do so in the future. Evolutionists also believe mankind is becoming less fit and their solution to the problem is death of the weakest.
 
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Loudmouth

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Then you got someone like James Shapiro who think the mutations aren't random at all and he seems to have data to backup his view.

I have dealt with Shapiro's work as well. His salesmanship falls way short of the reality. His claims about "non-random" mutations boil down to the strategy of poor people buying more lottery tickets than rich people as an example of a non-random lottery.
 
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