Any old port in a storm?:
Our universe is the way it is, according to Neil Turok of the University of Edinburgh and Latham Boyle of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada, for the same reason that air spreads evenly throughout a room: Weirder options are conceivable but exceedingly improbable.
The universe “may seem extremely fine-tuned, extremely unlikely, but [they’re] saying, ‘Wait a minute, it’s the favored one,’” said Thomas Hertog, a cosmologist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.
“It’s a novel contribution that uses different methods compared to what most people have been doing,” said Steffen Gielen, a cosmologist at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.
The provocative conclusion rests on a mathematical trick involving switching to a clock that ticks with imaginary numbers. Using the imaginary clock, as Hawking did in the ’70s, Turok and Boyle could calculate a quantity, known as entropy, that appears to correspond to our universe. But the imaginary time trick is a roundabout way of calculating entropy, and without a more rigorous method, the meaning of the quantity remains hotly debated. While physicists puzzle over the correct interpretation of the entropy calculation, many view it as a new guidepost on the road to the fundamental, quantum nature of space and time.
Charlie Wood, “Why This Universe? Maybe It’s Not Special—Just Probable” at Wired (January 22, 2023)
With – in the real world – only one actual universe to go on, how do we determine what is “probable”?
“the same reason that air spreads evenly throughout a room”
This is just a lame variation of the much-regurgitated Puddle of Vomit Argument.
The Puddle of Vomit takes the shape of the basin it’s in. That’s Why.
Just make an irrelevant comparison and declare victory.
Andrew
Confirmation bias drowned to self-fool level physicists might assert that.
As they take for granted the laws/forces of nature, that are themselves part of the amazing design/creation. As is the possibility and ‘PROBAILITY’ of confirmation bias that allows for free-will to self-fool.
The reality is:
The of odds of even one physical universe without The One ready, willing and able designer/creator aka G-d of Abraham?
about as close to zero as one can get.
The odds of OUR ONE universe with G-d of Abraham? very near 100%.
reference Pearlman YeC for the alignment of Torah testimony, science and ancient civ.
How is the universe is probable?
To calculate the probability for anything, what does one need?
a. Time (actually, space-time)
b. At least one independent variable (something that can change)
c. Randomness
d. The number of possibilities
e. A number of events
f. An initiating event (even if random) i.e. causality.
Did I miss anything?
So, how did the universe, including space and time form by probability before time (and b – e) even existed?
-Q
Reminds me of a hypothetical discussion:
Hashem: Look I made a man from the dirt.
Chemist: Pshat, anyone can do that.
Hashem: Okay, show me.
Chemist: Sure. Give me some dirt.
Hashem: Get your own dirt.
-Q
. . . or better yet, “make your own dirt.”
-Q
Our universe might not be special, merely “probable”?
Whatever! People are going to believe what they want to believe. Even scientists have beliefs & worldviews.
MIGHT not be special, just probable? OK, well it also MIGHT be special and improbable so what’s your point?
As far as we know, it is improbable. Even if we were to give you that point, you still can’t get life from dead chemicals/rocks/etc. You still have to explain the uniqueness of earth and the many factors that make life possible here. You still have to explain the variety of life that exists here as well.
The idea that our universe is special is repugnant to them because of the spiritual implications.
I give their calculations little credibility because of their reliance on methodological naturalism which assumes a random natural cause for everything.
IF that assumption is wrong, much of our origins science could be wrong.
So, this is just the anthropic principle in drag.
And where did “Time” come from? Without the prior existence of Time, there are no “ticks” in any clock. There’s simply . . . nothing. Nonexistence. Sorta like the Easter bunny . . . holding a watch.
-Q
As lame as it gets in answer to evident fine tuning. We are winning on the merits.
Denyse,
If you are reading this and not aware, there is a new video series coming in two weeks on faith and science. The promotion of it is presented by a Catholic priest and sponsored by the Templeton foundation.
So I guess it will not be ID friendly. We will have to wait and see if it is theistic evolution oriented.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9xWIae_cxs
Website promoting it which is a Catholic site.
https://www.wordonfire.org/science/
Topics
Light from Light: Scientific Enigmas and Theological Mysteries
God and Nature: Traces of the Trinity
Seeds of Life: Creation, Evolution, and St. Augustine
Animals, the Human Animal, and God
A Window on Salvation: Mathematics and the Mystery of the Incarnation
Found on Jordan Peterson site who is not a Catholic but whose wife is.