How Modern Physics Reveals Purpose in the Universe

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Science, Philosophy, Astronomy, Society & Culture, Life Sciences

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Scientists agree that our universe is finely tuned for the existence of life. But is the fine-tuning a happy accident or the result of foresight? On this ID The Future, host Brian Miller continues his conversation with Rabbi Elie Feder and Rabbi Aaron Zimmer, hosts of the Physics to God podcast. Feder has a PhD in mathematics and has published articles on graph theory. Zimmer has training in physics, and has studied mathematics, philosophy, and psychology. Both men also have extensive rabbinical training. Through their podcast, Feder and Zimmer invite both secular and religious listeners on a journey through modern physics as they offer rational arguments for an intelligent cause of the universe. In the conclusion to their discussion, Feder and Zimmer explain why the cosmological constant is one of their favorite examples of fine-tuning. They also share the importance of exploring the teleological causes, or purposes, of natural phenomena. To help listeners grasp the difference between efficient causes and teleological causes, they give the example of a carpenter who builds a table. Is the carpenter the cause of the existence of the table? Or is the idea of the table in the carpenter's mind the cause? Or both? Using modern physics, say Feder and Zimmer, an objective justification for the purpose of the universe can be made. Enjoy this provocative and illuminating discussion! Don't miss Part 1 of the conversation, available here: https://idthefuture.com/1787/

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0:00.0	ID the future,
0:05.0	future, a podcast about evolution and intelligent design.
0:10.0	Welcome to ID the future. I am your host Brian Miller. This is part two of my
0:17.4	interview with Rabbi Aaron and Zimmer and Rabbi Ellie Feder about their
0:21.8	podcast Physics to God which can be found at Physics to God.com.
0:27.0	Do either of you have a favorite example of fine tuning that you like to quote? Is there particularly one that you find really makes this point very clear?
0:36.7	You know, the one that really impacted the scientific world was the cosmological constant.
0:41.8	It was in 1998 when scientists met the the
0:43.2	cosmological constant. It was in 1998 when scientists met the distant supernovae and they realized
0:46.7	that the universe is in fact not only expanding but it's actually accelerating.
0:50.6	And this was really due to a constant in general relativity called the cosmological constant. And it turns out that this constant has to be fine tuned to about 120 decimal places.
1:02.5	And if had it been different by a couple
1:04.8	decimal places less or more, the universe
1:07.3	would have contracted right away after the Big Bang.
1:10.0	You never have galaxies developed,
1:12.0	or would have expanded way too quickly. Again, you would never have galaxies developed or would have expanded way too quickly.
1:13.7	Again you never have galaxies developed or or anything else for that matter.
1:18.3	So until this point there was a lot of other constants that were kind of fine-tuned.
1:23.0	And as scientists gained more and more knowledge about the constants,
1:26.0	they started to realize they're more and more fine-tuned.
1:28.0	But it wasn't until 1998 where the cosmological constant was measured,
1:32.0	and they realized that this was
	...

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