The teleological argument observes the following characteristics of our universe:

  1. The universe is not simple or static
  2. The universe is not chaotic
  3. The universe is intricately balanced and fine-tuned
  4. Disorder precedes order

And yet, given what we know about our universe, physics would predict that static or chaotic universes are much more probable. Without intelligent intervention, physical processes stagnate or become chaotic. An “explosion” as intense as the Big Bang could easily have produced a big gas cloud expanding forever or a recollapse into an infernal fireball bt it produced neither. Instead, stars and galaxies formed, planets and solar systems emerged and in one of these (as far as we know) a planet of the right size, compostion and distance from it’s star (the sun) formed which cooled and almost immediately produced life.

If we simulate universes with different initial conditions and values and ratios of natural constants we discover:

  1. Without intelligent intervention disorder follows from order
  2. The fundamental constants describing our universe are finely-tuned for life

Left to themselves physical processes run down and stop. In scientific terms this is known as the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics which states that usable energy decreases over time. Thus a universe will burn out eventually as the molecules and energy become evenly distributed. This is a further nail in the coffin of any claims that the universe is eternal (see the Cosmological Argument) – old universes are dead universes and eternal universes are, by the second law, essentially void of usable energy.

Biological life is so complex and fragile that it is improbable that it “just happened” – almost all efforts at producing organic life from inorganic material (Chemical Evolution) have been abandoned – and yet here we are. With all our technology we cannot produce the basic building block of life – the human cell. Yet, we are to believe that it “just evolved” and was immediately able to process energy, reproduce, mutate, defend itself and pass on hereditary information.

Life exists as the fine line between stagnation (death) and chaos. Even with an energy source you do not necessarily get the kind of order which produces life. What is needed is intelligent intervention – life = energy + intelligence. You can’t create a Boeing 747 with all the energy in the universe without a design plan and an intelligent agent to direct that energy and assembly. Our universe is like an explosion in a scrap metal factory producing a functional Boeing 747. It is more than miraculousm, it boggles the mind.

One who believes the universe just popped into existence must also believe that it happened to have the exact initial conditions in order to produce life. To say “it had to have these values or we wouldn’t be here to ask the question” is just to evade the question.

Related Posts