The astronomer author of Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth, writing at Scientific American, “suggests that the evolution of life on Earth may have been affected in important ways by a black hole called SgrA* that has been found at the center of the Milky Way. ”
The irony here is that while the discovery that a black hole may have influenced evolution of life on earth is indeed great science and may well serve as the basis for (another) Nobel Prize, the massive amount of evidence for an intelligent designer in life and in evolution is completely ignored.
Intelligent design deniers would argue that a black hole is a natural object, whereas an intelligent designer (if He happened to be God) is outside of the purview of science. But the parallels between an intelligent designer and a black hole as valid objects of scientific inquiry are quite close.
Both an intelligent designer (assuming we’re talking about God) and a black hole are supernatural, in the sense that they are not objects in the natural world. This may not surprise you about God, but it is also true of black holes. Black holes are singularities in Einstein’s equations of general relativity, which means that from the standpoint of physics they are undefined, just as the ratio of any number to zero in mathematics is undefined. So black holes are supernatural, and are not objects in nature. They have effects in nature, due to their enormous gravitational fields, but it is the effect, not the black hole itself, that is natural.
Michael Egnor, “Is the Designer a Black Hole?” at Evolution News and Science Today
as to this from the SciAm article,,,
So their thesis is that complex multicellular organisms were only able to randomly evolve on earth once the earth was far enough away from the damaging damaging X-ray and Ultraviolet (XUV) radiation of black hole at the center of the Milky Way?
And their main evidences for this thesis is that the earth ‘may’ have been closer to the galactic core in the past, and the fact that complex multicellular organisms, and the oxygen levels needed to support the metabolic activity of those complex multicellular organisms, only occurred a few billion years after life first appeared on earth?
And this thesis is being batted around as being worthy of a Nobel Prize?
Color me unimpressed with what is being considered worthy of Nobel Prizes nowadays.
If this thesis, all by its lonesome, is seriously being considered worthy of a Nobel Prize, then the previous work of people like, Guillermo Gonzalez, ‘The Privileged Planet’, Donald Brownlee, ‘Rare Earth’, David Waltham, “Lucky Planet” , and Hugh Ross, ‘Improbable Planet’, who have already shown that many independent characteristics are required to be fulfilled for any planet to be able to host advanced carbon-based life in this universe, then their previous work should have already been awarded multiple Nobel Prizes!
For instance, in the following article, Hugh Ross, and his team, have shown that there are many independent characteristics required to be fulfilled for any planet to be able to host, not just advanced carbon-based life in this universe, but also host ‘simple’ single celled organisms.
And as to damaging X-ray and Ultraviolet (XUV) radiation in particular being harmful to life on earth, Guillermo Gonzalez, i.e. ‘The Privileged Planet’, and others have already shown that most of the electromagnetic spectrum (light) is harmful for life and that only a small sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum (light), which just so happens to be crucial for life, is allowed through the atmosphere. As they state in their video, “These specific frequencies of light (that enable plants to manufacture food and astronomers to observe the cosmos) represent less than 1 trillionth of a trillionth (10^-24) of the universe’s entire range of electromagnetic emissions.”
And in the following article entitled, “The electromagnetic spectrum, fine tuned for life”, it is stated that, “The amazing thing is that all this radiation is limited to a 1/10^25 interval of the whole electromagnetic spectrum yet it is sufficient to keep us warm, see, and allow all the chemical reactions necessary for life to take place.”
And here is an article by Dr. Bradley entitled, “Is There Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God? How the Recent Discoveries Support a Designed Universe”, in which Dr. Bradley also goes over the details of fine tuning of the fundamental universal constants, light, and biological life for each other.
In the paper Dr. Bradley also lists four graphs. At the bottom of the four graphs he states:
As well, in the following article, Michael Denton quotes the Encyclopaedia Britannica which states “Considering the importance of visible sunlight for all aspects of terrestrial life, one cannot help being awed by the dramatically narrow window in the atmospheric absorption…and in the absorption spectrum of water”
Moreover, as to the oxygen levels on earth that are necessary to sustain the metabolic activity of complex multicellular organisms, first off, we have good evidence that oxygenic photosynthesis has been taking place on earth since life first appeared on earth,,
Secondly, the main reason why the oxygen levels of the early Earth’s atmosphere remained so low for so long is because oxygen readily reacts and bonds with many of the solid elements making up the earth itself, and since the slow process of tectonic activity controls the turnover of the earth’s crust, it took photosynthetic bacteria a few billion years before the earth’s crust was saturated with enough oxygen to allow a sufficient level of oxygen to be built up in the atmosphere so as to allow for the metabolic activity of complex multicellular life:
So, to repeat, if their thesis entails that blackholes suppressed complex multicellular life on earth by preventing the early rise of oxygen on earth, and their thesis is supposedly seriously being considered worthy of a Nobel Prize, color me unimpressed with what is being considered worthy of Nobel Prizes nowadays.