Here’s a question: What if the basic fact we “still don’t understand” is that the evidence shows that the universe is fine-tuned and that therefore, fine-tuning is not an illusion that needs explaining away? Would that simplify things? If so, how? Another question (now that we’re here anyway): How much publicly funded cosmology exists simply to promote a naturalist atheist (no fine-tuning) worldview? And what is the science rationale for that?
Fine tuning
Looking back at a 2017 paper that risks saying that ID is “not necessarily stupid”
One would feel vaguely sorry for Raymond Bergner if he found himself dealing with a horde of Darwin trolls. But it is so much easier to sympathize with people who are prepared to acknowledge facts more forthrightly and honestly.
Rob Sheldon on why string theory’s inflationary cosmos is a degenerate research program
Sheldon: The inflationary proposal has always been ad hoc. That is, a huge, faster-than-light expansion of the universe was proposed as a solution to the “flatness” problem, where the universe expands at a rate just sufficient to counter the gravitational attraction, where “just sufficient” means one part in 10^60 power. The inflationary model was invented to solve this fine-tuning problem.
A new piece of information in the question of why matter exists at all in the universe
Researchers: ” …the neutron has a significantly smaller EDM (electrical dipole moment) than predicted by various theories about why matter remains in the universe” The new find doesn’t answer the question but it enables theories to be winnowed.
Astronomers: Earth formed within 5 million years
Nothing seems to happen slower than previously thought. And the random collisions aren’t even in this version.
Sometimes physicists really have to work at ignoring fine-tuning
At Symmetry: There’s no known underlying reason for these almost exact cancellations, and insisting that “it is the way it is” is unsatisfying.
Even sperm are “fine-tuned”? What now, Darwin?
Look, if they can’t even sell Darwinism to sperm, they need PR 911 pronto.
Earth had a magnetic shield much earlier than thought
Amazing, all these accidents just happening at the same time in the same place for no reason at all. Or at least that’s the official story. Also note this vid on the probabilities of a single molecule forming by chance.
Ring-like structure in early solar system proposed to explain the inner rocky planets
One team of researchers doesn’t think Jupiter has been doing all the heavy lifting.
Crime scene investigator Warner J. Wallace vs. Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot (insignificant Earth)
Is it true that Earth is insignificant? What is the pattern of the evidence? Wallace investigates.
ID prevents dementia
Hugh Ross: I put together a 90-minute talk, much of it based on scientific discoveries published only weeks and months earlier, showing how amazingly designed Earth is for global human civilization. Several attendees told me that it was the most interesting talk they had ever heard.
Why animals are not round, Part II
More data from this rapidly emerging and revolutionary new field, featuring ground-thudding insights. With coffee. 😉
At New Scientist: Our puny human brains can’t imagine alien life
Not true! We humans more or less invented the whole idea of aliens. Without us, they probably wouldn’t exist even as a story. Just think: There would be no market for ET tales, films, and trade goods except for us humans. Don’t believe me? Try to get clams or termites interested in ET and see what happens…
Sabine Hossenfelder on why the Anthropic Principle is controversial
It’s controversial because it is sometimes used to support the idea of a multiverse. Otherwise, it should be common sense to assume that a venue in which we exist must feature conditions that allow for that. But the multiverse does not need logic, evidence, or science.
So then maybe we ARE privileged observers
Researcher: “Our analysis is data-driven but supports the theoretical proposal due to Christos Tsagas (University of Thessaloniki) that acceleration may be inferred when we are not Copernican observers, as is usually assumed, but are embedded in a local bulk flow shared by nearby galaxies, as is, indeed, observed. This is unexpected in the standard cosmological model, and the reason for such a flow remains unexplained.