20. THE ANTHROPIC UNIVERSE

Over and over throughout the universe, there are countless circumstances perfect for the existence and continuance of life on Earth.
 
We could not be alive for another second were it not for the billions of coordinated events that occur so perfectly in our bodies. Outside the body, throughout the universe synchrony must also occur for us to exist. The universe is put together so perfectly, so anthropically, as it is called, to accommodate us.
 
A few examples:

• Protons and neutrons are held together by strong nuclear forces. A weaker force would have meant no atoms could ever have formed. A two percent reduction in the strong nuclear force would mean the only atom in the universe would be hydrogen. If the force were stronger, all the free protons in the universe would have been mopped up, preventing the formation of atoms—and us.
  
  
• If electrons did not spin and hold their negativity, or nuclei did not hold their precise positive charge, all atoms would either collapse or fly apart. (By the way, what powers an atom and what happens to it when it runs out of power—and when does that happen? Just asking. I don't know and apparently, nobody else does either. We just take these little miraculous nano- perpetual motion machines for granted.)
  
  
• If gravity were not extremely weak compared to nuclear forces and electromagnetism— 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1X1040) times weaker—life could not exist.
  
  
• Life is impossible toward the center or heel of our galaxy. It can only happen two-thirds the distance to the center of a galaxy, such as the place where Earth is.
  
  
• The sun must be of a certain size. If it's too big and hot, it incinerates life. If it's too small, it is not hot enough to accommodate life.
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• If Earth was closer to the sun, the tidal forces would break the rotational period, and life would not be possible. That's what makes Mercury and Venus inhospitable. Their rotational periods are several months, due to their proximity to the sun.

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• If the Earth required more or less than 24 hours to rotate on its axis, life would not be possible. A quicker spin would yield too many hurricanes and tornados. A slower spin would make the planet too frigid at night and too hot during the day. At present, it is spinning at 1,000 mph, yet we don't fly off.
  
  
• Our moon is just the right size and distance from Earth to stabilize its rotational axis to 23.5 degrees, making the ideal conditions for life to exist. Any change in any of these lunar-tidal-Earth circumstances and life on Earth would not be possible.
  
  
• If Jupiter was not present, was not so massive, was not five times more distant from the sun than us, the gravitational pull of Jupiter would not shield the Earth from most cosmic collisions.
  
  
• Earth experiences just the right amount of rain, winter, summer, volcanoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural phenomena to create a planet environmentally diverse and regenerating, yet stable enough for life to exist.
  
  
• The exact position of Earth in the galaxy is necessary for it to have enough heavy elements for life. For example, fluorine, an essential element, requires a very special galaxy (like ours) that has a white dwarf binary star (like ours).
  
  
• If there was a Big Bang, and it had been a billionth more powerful, galaxies and life could not exist.
  
  
• If the rate of the universe's expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in 100,000,000,000, it would have collapsed into a fireball . . .

 
That is only the beginning of such a list.
 
The interconnected intricacy of the universe, like the interconnected intricacy of living things, is irreducibly complex; it cannot evolve piecemeal.
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The countless ongoing events to accommodate existence as we know it, are not only impossible (materialistically), they are terrifying. Just think, as you read this, that you are on a spaceship ball hurtling through space at 1.5  million miles per hour surrounded by countless galaxies, black holes, nebulas, stars, planets, moons, and rocks going at a similar speed. Our situation is so precarious. It is miraculous that we all don't just vanish at any second. But we don't, and we haven't.

And a final thought as I look out my window at the ice on our pond. It floats. Unlike other liquids that become denser with cold, water becomes less dense. If that were not the case and water behaved like other liquids, ice would sink, crushing not only all the life in my pond but in every other body of water subject to freezing. The spinoff effect would be catastrophic for all life on the planet.

Humility, not hubris is in order when we come to understand that this phantasmagoric Earth and universe machine that no human can claim any credit for hums along for a second, much less for billions of years.

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