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Tuned for life?

During the past few years, I have read where the Earth is tuned for supporting life. According to some, certain constants (like the value of the pull of gravity) in physics have to be exactly what they are to support life. Has anyone else heard this?

Grecio 7 Aug 16
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1

Fine tuning argument, been around for decades. A variation on the Watchmaker argument. Basically it's circular reasoning based on a false premise, IE there's something special about life. If the Universe was different, or conditions on Earth were different, we wouldn't be here. So? The fact that we are here means that conditions were amenable to our evolution and existence, that in no way implies that somehow these conditions were created. At this point there is every indication that we evolved naturally, no invisible superfriend required.

Well said!!

There is something special about life, I think. Living creatures (and life) run in reverse of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. The second law says that all mass tends toward disassociation. Life seems to evolve toward more complexity. Our bodies are made of inorganic chemicals like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. How did life begin so as to start replicating?

@Grecio Yes, and current thinking this is exactly why life is inevitable under the right conditions. [futurism.com]

2

The life on earth exists because it adapted to what ever the environment subjected it to from the beginning and it continues to change by way of evolution . Life as we know it could have been completely different if the earth was comprised of elements we are not aware of

How do you think life first began on Earth? Some chemicals like carbon, oxygen, nitrogen accidentally got together at the right time and place? I dunno

@Grecio As I am sure you are aware of ,Some scientists think life may have arrived by way of a meteorite .Just as I believe matter has always existed this may also include life in different forms that has also always existed but this would rely on the Big Bang Big Crunch theory in that the Big Bang was not the beginning.

@biguy12 Well said.... Do you believe in UFO's?? Just asking..

@biguy12 I agree, it seems that every cause would have a cause, and that cause would have a cause.

[futurism.com]

@Grecio I believe in them ,but I do not believe they contain alien life ,due to the fact that I see no reliable proof to indicate this .

1

Reality exists. Something that emerges from reality conforms to reality. Theist hides leap of faith by saying god must exist because only god can make reality, and were reality otherwise nothing could exist... yet never demonstrates any god exists.

1

Yeah, there are those who believe that everything (all the life) on earth could nothing have occurred simply by chance. Yet, if you consider the number of planets in the universe and the billions of years it took life to develop, it is entirely possible that it did.

Small minds will seek overly simplified solutions. However the universe is very complicated.

1

That is a religious concept, that gawd made this earth for us (Adam & Eve) exactly as we needed it. Far more likely we evolved to fit our surroundings. Get some new books & new friends!

3

Tuned? That sounds awfully like something in support of the Intelligent Design theory propounded by the Creationist lobby.

I don't support either, I am an agnostic. I was hoping to see some discussion on how some people arrive at that idea. What evidence supports the idea?

Well said.

5

What a load of crap, all the living things on earth have evolved to thrive in the earth's environment, not the other way around.

1

"According to some, certain constants (like the value of the pull of gravity) in physics have to be exactly what they are to support life."

In creationist logic it's imperative to put the cart before the horse.

0

There are many things about the planet Earth that make it especially habitable for the kind of life that lives here. You may have heard something about that and misinterpreted it as "tuned for life". That phrase sounds like some bullshit that was invented by the intelligent design cult.

I think there actually some successful scientists that support the theory.

In 1961, physicist Robert H. Dicke claimed that certain forces in physics, such as gravity and electromagnetism, must be perfectly fine-tuned for life to exist anywhere in the universe.

2

My bullshit meter says it's bunk, hogwash, nonsense.

4

the only thing that is "tuned" is our evolutionary development as it adapts to fit the existing environment

3

The orbit of the Earth swings further away from and closer to the sun then fundamentalist realize, the statement if we were an earth diameter closer or further from the sun we'd either burn up or freeze is overtly wrong.

I have read where Earth cannot support life without the moon and the moon moves away from the earth about 1 foot each year.

@Grecio More like an inch.

@Willow_Wisp How many inches does it have to move away before it breaks loose?

5

Yeah, it's nonsense. Anyone who understands evolution can see how misguided this claim is.

1

Just like the Matrix???

2

I have heard it. It is like a puddle realizing it is in a hole in the ground and thinking that the hole was made especially for it, based on how well it fit. We don't know that things were finely tuned or if this was the only way that physics could have turned out a universe, or if/how many "failed" universes there were before ours came about. It is rather limited in it's view of "fine tuned" (don't even have to get into how much of the universe isn't fine tuned for human life, but you can). What if the constants had been different, would the life forms that evolved (if any) have been different? No idea, not sure we will ever be able to answer that. It is a bit of a hail mary to say "you don't know everything so how can you say I am wrong" with a bit of extra flare.

Great comment!! Interesting about "failed universes". I have read that StringTheory supports the idea that there are multiple universes.

1

I've heard that, too.

3

Nah sounds like fringe science to me. Seriously doubt that would pass peer review.

3

WTF, IF this planet was 'tuned' for supporting life the WHY have there been so many Extinction events?
To my mind it sounds more the 'mechanic' was trying to make a a 4 cylinder car with an 1,600cc engine run like a V8 with a 6 litre engine and failed miserably.

GAAHHH!! cubic inches, please!
Many here are Muricans, and all that metric stuff scares us!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@AtheistInNC What is a Murican? A Mexican American?

@AtheistInNC Aw, so sorry about scaring you Muricans but FYI there IS a whole wide world that exists beyond those mere borders of Seppo-land.

@Grecio An impolite way of saying "American"
Larry the cable guy is a 'Murican

@Grecio, @Triphid
Well, I learned a new word today as well! Didn't know we were called seppoland. Where did that originate?

@AtheistInNC It originated from the Australian Outback.
I.e. Yanks = Septic Tanks, = Seppos since nothing good ever comes out of a Septic tank.

@Triphid That is fucking rich. 🤣🤣🤣

Like my dad used to say - life is like a sewer, you only get out of it what you put into it.

@AtheistInNC Back in W.W.II Yanks were also know as "Overs," i.e. They were Over-paid, Over-fed, Over-pampered and Over Here."
My late Uncle Arthur, served alongside a lot of Yank 'Overs' in WWII after he fought on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea.
As he'd often say, the "overs' march through the jumgles like ants at picnic and get the shit shot out of them but we Aussies were trained hard in the rainforests of Northern Queensland, learned to spread out wide, stay silent and creep up on the enemy, " we weren't the Cavalry making easy targets for the Japs, that's why the Japs feared and hated us."
He used to say, " For every 10 or so dead 'Over' there is usually a 1 or 2 dead Japs, for every LIVING Aussie there are at least 10 or more dead Japs taken by surprise."

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