Matt Colby – Reasons to Believe – Class 3 – The Language of Mathematics

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So in the first class last night
we we spent a lot of time

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looking at various aspects of
the sciences, seeing the stamp

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of our Creator.
We we quoted Paul from Romans

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chapter one when he said that
God should be obvious to to

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everyone simply when they look
into His creation.

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By the observation of nature we
should see the stamp of our

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Creator.
And another another.

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One way to describe science is
to say it’s simply the

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observation of nature.
So you could say that the

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Apostle Paul was saying that
when we look into the sciences

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we should see God there.
And in the last class we looked

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at evidence powerful evidence, I
hope for the the resurrection of

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Jesus.
And now in this class we’re

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going to we’re going to go back
to science.

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We’re going to look at math and
we’re going to find God there

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too.
I hope you’ll see with me and I

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wanted to start with what I
think is a really great quote

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from one of my favorite
Christadelphian writers, Brother

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Islip Collier and one of my
favorite Christadelphian books,

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Conviction and Conduct.
And he says this the only

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possible conception of God is as
the uncreate the one great

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reality, the first ’cause.
My point of fact, we are all

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bound to recognize the existence
of the first ’cause or force in

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the universe.
There can be no quarrel between

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philosophers on this point.
So he says no matter what your

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world view, you got to agree
that it all started somewhere.

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There must have been a first
’cause.

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We say either there is a God or
there is not.

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And we only state the same truth
in a slightly different way when

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we say either the first ’cause
is an intelligent conscious

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force or it is a blind force.
Incontestably, the truth lies

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with one of these two
propositions, and what is true

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now always has been true and
will remain so for all time.

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Sometimes there are more
alternatives than one, and the

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negative may be taken to imply
one of several affirmatives.

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Thus the Bible is either
entirely true, entirely false,

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or partly true and partly false.
Everyone who denies two of these

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propositions must affirm the
third.

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When you think about that,
you’ll realize the truth of that

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statement.
You got to believe one of these

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three things.
Either the Bible’s all false, or

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it’s all true, or some of it’s
true and some of it’s false.

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And if you reject two of those
things, then by default you have

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to believe the 3rd.
So he says, In view of the

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importance and prominence of the
Bible, a man who is seeking

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truth will fairly face the
responsibilities of affirmation

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and at least determine for
himself what is the most

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reasonable conclusion with
regard to such an issue.

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In the first class, we started
out by saying that the one thing

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that Christians and atheists
that Christadelphians and

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atheists have in common is this,
that we both care an awful lot

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about truth.
There are a lot of people that

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don’t fit into those categories,
agnostics who think that maybe

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there is no universal truth.
But atheists reject that idea.

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They believe in an absolute
truth, just like we do, but we

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differ on what that truth might
be.

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And so now we’re going back into
the sciences to have a look at

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that.
And we talked about science in

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the first class, and I’ll talk
about it again now.

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You see, science began because
men believed in a God.

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They expected that when they
looked at the natural world,

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they would find law and order
because they believed in a law

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giver.
If we had never believed in God,

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then science as we see it today
may have never existed, because

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we expected we’d be able to make
sense of the world.

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And Albert Einstein wrote in his
book Physics and Reality, the

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most incomprehensible thing
about the universe is that it is

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comprehensible now.
He had a friend named Maurice

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Solovine, and Maurice Sullivan
wrote him a letter and he said,

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What did you mean when you said
that?

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And Albert Einstein wrote him
back, and this is what he said.

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He said, you find it strange
that I consider the

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comprehensibility of the world
to the extent that we are

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authorized to speak of such a
comprehensibility as a miracle

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or an eternal mystery.
Well, a priori, which is a Latin

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term that means without prior
knowledge, if we didn’t have any

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other evidence, one should
expect a chaotic world which

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cannot be grasped by the mind in
any way.

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The kind of order created by
Newton’s theory of gravitation,

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for example, is wholly
different.

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Even if a man proposes the
axioms of the theory, The

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success of such a project
presupposes a high degree of

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ordering of the objective world,
and this could not be expected

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without prior knowledge.
This is the miracle which is

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constantly reinforced as our
knowledge expands.

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I imagine Richard Dawkins is a
little bit uncomfortable that

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Albert Einstein was throwing
around words like miracle and

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talking about the nature of the
universe, but do you see his

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point?
The very fact that we can

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actually comprehend the world,
that we can make sense of it,

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that we can explain the
mechanics behind how it works,

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seems impossible.
It seems crazy.

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If in fact we got here by a
series of chaotic random events,

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how are we here with minds
capable of understanding things

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that are lawful and orderly?
And yet, as we look into every

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Ave. of the sciences, we’re able
to write it down on a page to

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make sense of it.
How could that be the case if

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there was no God?
And interestingly enough around

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the world throughout human
history, we have discovered

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continue to discover more and
more every day and every year a

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language that was not created by
humans, it was always in

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existence.
And it doesn’t matter what other

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human language you speak, if
you’re a mathematician, you

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speak the language of
mathematics.

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Now this man’s name is Paul
Davies.

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I’ll say something I said in the
first class, I’m not a

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scientist.
And and I think that’s important

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to to telling you and I’m not an
expert in, in some of these

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fields that we’re talking about
in the sciences.

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And I think it’s important to
have a look at at what people

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who are at the front of their
fields have to say about them.

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Because it’s easy for you and I
to say, oh, well, that makes

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sense to us.
But we’re there.

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A lot of things we don’t know
about the sciences do the people

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who are actually at the foremost
at the front of their fields,

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are they saying the same kind of
things?

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This is what I want to show you,
But the people who are at the

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cutting edge of what we know
about the world around us really

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are coming to some of these same
conclusions.

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Now, this man is a physicist,
Paul Davies, and he’s written a

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lot of books.
He’s agnostic, but a lot of his

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books have been quoted by
Christians quite often because

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of the kind of things he says in
them.

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Things like this he wrote in his
book The Mind of God in 1992.

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Just because the sun has risen
every day of your life, there is

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no guarantee that it will rise
tomorrow.

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The belief that it will, that
there are indeed dependable

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regularities of nature, is an
act of faith, but one which is

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indispensable to the progress of
science.

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So here’s a point he’s making
that that faith is just a much a

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part, as much a part of science
as it is a part of religion.

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Science is based on being able
to do a test, see it happen, see

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it the outcome, look a certain
way, do it again, see the same

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thing again and again and again
every time we do it, until we’re

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satisfied that this is always
going to happen this way.

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But the reality is, you never
know with 100% certainty that it

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actually will until it happens.
Just like just because the sun

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has risen every single day of
your life is not proof 100% that

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it will rise tomorrow.
You won’t know that.

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So you wake up in the morning
and see it.

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And so it is with science.
You have faith that because

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something’s happened this way
every other time, it will happen

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again.
So faith, he says, is also an

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important part of science.
Now, John Pokinghorn is very

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well known for being a physicist
who put his scientific hat aside

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and became an ordained priest.
And ever since then he’s been

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his.
His role that he sort of made

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for himself has been sort of
like an ambassador between

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religion and science.
And he wrote in his book Reason

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and Reality.
He said science does not explain

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the mathematical intelligibility
of the physical world, for it is

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part of science’s founding faith
that this is so.

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Everywhere we look, in every
single Ave. of the sciences, we

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use math to decipher the things
that we’re looking at.

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How could this be the case?
How can this language be

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governing everything that we
see?

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He says.
We can’t explain it, we don’t

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know why.
So it’s part of the scientific

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faith that it’s just this way
and it always will be this way.

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Eugene Wigner won a Nobel Prize
in physics and and despite his

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work in this in the field of
physics, his most famous thing

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that he published was a paper
called The Unreasonable

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Effectiveness of Mathematics.
Back in 1960 he wrote The

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enormous usefulness of
Mathematics in the Natural

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Sciences is something bordering
on the mysterious and there is

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no rational explanation for it.
It is an article of faith, Paul

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Davies again, who recorded
before he says much of the

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mathematics that is so
spectacularly effective in

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physical theory was worked out
as an abstract exercise by

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mathematicians long before it
was applied to the real world.

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What he means by that is this.
Throughout the history of

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mathematics, mathematicians have
discovered whole new avenues of

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math and new formulas that
continue to build on each other.

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And they were all just they had
no purpose at that time.

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It was all just theory it.
And when they discovered it, it

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wasn’t useful to them at all.
And time and time again,

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eventually somewhere down the
road and one Ave. or another of

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the sciences, they realized
these formulas that we

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discovered a long time ago
actually are governing this

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aspect of the universe that we
live in.

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And they had no idea they
weren’t able to put those two

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together until eventually they
realized, oh wow, these formulas

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really do have a purpose.
They are part of the laws of

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nature.
And Paul Davies says that’s

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happened again and again and
again.

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We we come up with these
formulas and it’s not until

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sometimes generations later that
we realize they actually are

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somehow governing the the world
that we live in.

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And Savvis Demopolis, this is
from that documentary I told you

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about in the First class last
night Particle Fever, about the

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discovery of the Higgs boson.
So one of the world’s leading

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physicists, he’s was the mentor
of that other young scientist,

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Nima Arkani Hamed, who we quoted
from about the cosmological

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constant in the first class.
This man was his mentor and he

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said in the documentary, it’s
astonishing that there are any

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laws of nature at all, that they
are describable by mathematics,

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that mathematics is a tool that
humans can understand, that the

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laws of nature can be written on
a page.

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It’s the greatest of all
mysteries you see as a species.

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We started out doing science
because we believed in a God, a

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lawgiver, and we expected to
find laws in place.

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And generation after generation,
scientists have discovered more

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and more laws that are governing
the world that we can live in,

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in a language that we can
understand but that we didn’t

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come up with, that we only
continue to discover, he says.

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It’s the greatest of all
mysteries that this should be so

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that we could actually write
down the laws of the universe on

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a page.
Now come with me to John Chapter

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one, and a lot of you will know
this passage very well.

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I’m going to start reading from
verse one.

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John chapter one starting at
verse one.

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In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and

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the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with

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God.
All things were made through

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him, and without him was not
Anything made that was made In

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him was life, and the life was
the light of men.

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The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness has

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not overcome it.
Now, over and above all of the

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theological meaning that we
often go into when we read these

220
00:13:06,760 –> 00:13:09,920
verses, there’s a simple
application of these passages

221
00:13:09,920 –> 00:13:13,760
too, of these verses.
That word for word in the Greek

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00:13:13,760 –> 00:13:17,080
is the word Logos.
It simply means language.

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00:13:17,840 –> 00:13:19,600
In the beginning, there was
language.

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00:13:20,360 –> 00:13:23,320
It’s as if God used language to
create all things.

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00:13:23,440 –> 00:13:25,640
If you were to turn to Genesis
chapter one, just go through

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00:13:25,640 –> 00:13:27,920
that whole chapter of the
creation account and count how

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00:13:27,920 –> 00:13:33,760
many times it says and God said
over and over again as if God

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00:13:33,760 –> 00:13:40,040
was using language to create the
world and everything that we

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00:13:40,040 –> 00:13:44,040
know.
And you know, in all of human

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00:13:44,040 –> 00:13:51,280
experience, there’s only ever
been one thing that is capable

231
00:13:51,280 –> 00:13:55,560
of creating a language, and
that’s a mind.

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00:13:57,840 –> 00:14:00,960
And here in mathematics, we have
a language that we did not

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00:14:00,960 –> 00:14:05,760
create, that we only discovered,
and we continue to discover more

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00:14:05,760 –> 00:14:09,520
of it every single day.
And we discovered too, that it

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00:14:09,640 –> 00:14:13,720
governs all of the laws by which
this universe exists.

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00:14:14,360 –> 00:14:17,120
We see it in DNA.
We looked at genetic code in the

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00:14:17,120 –> 00:14:20,240
first class, and we realized
that that the the very code that

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00:14:20,240 –> 00:14:22,800
we’re made of is like a very
complex language.

239
00:14:22,800 –> 00:14:25,560
The human genome, 3 1/2 billion
letters long.

240
00:14:26,880 –> 00:14:29,880
We see it in the universe.
We see the cosmological

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00:14:29,880 –> 00:14:32,520
constant, which has to be an
extremely precise number.

242
00:14:32,520 –> 00:14:35,480
If it was anything else, the
universe would either fly apart

243
00:14:35,480 –> 00:14:38,840
or collapse in on itself.
Everywhere we look, we see a

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00:14:38,840 –> 00:14:41,520
language that we didn’t create.
It was already there.

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00:14:41,720 –> 00:14:43,960
And the only thing that we know
of capable of creating a

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00:14:43,960 –> 00:14:51,800
language is a mind.
And we read all about that mind

247
00:14:52,800 –> 00:14:54,720
right here in our Bibles in
front of us.

248
00:14:56,200 –> 00:14:59,840
Now, when I first gave this
series of classes, it was back

249
00:14:59,840 –> 00:15:08,120
in at the end of 2014 and on
December 25th in 2014, I was

250
00:15:08,120 –> 00:15:10,800
given a present right in the
middle of these classes in the

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00:15:10,800 –> 00:15:16,400
form of an article in the Wall
Street Journal looked like this.

252
00:15:17,880 –> 00:15:22,560
Science increasingly makes the
case for God.

253
00:15:23,240 –> 00:15:25,040
I couldn’t believe it.
This was the Wall Street

254
00:15:25,040 –> 00:15:27,200
Journal.
It’s written by a man named Eric

255
00:15:27,200 –> 00:15:32,280
Metaxas and Eric Metaxas.
I went on to to read about him.

256
00:15:32,280 –> 00:15:34,920
It turns out he’s a pretty well
known Christian apologist and he

257
00:15:34,920 –> 00:15:39,240
wrote this piece for the Wall
Street Journal, which is a major

258
00:15:39,240 –> 00:15:40,880
publication.
I was surprised to see a

259
00:15:40,880 –> 00:15:45,600
Christian apologetic work here
in such a major mainstream

260
00:15:45,600 –> 00:15:52,000
publication like the Wall Street
Journal and he he published this

261
00:15:52,000 –> 00:15:56,720
article and about a month later
very well known member of the

262
00:15:56,720 –> 00:15:59,560
New Atheist named Lawrence
Krauss who’s a physicist,

263
00:16:00,240 –> 00:16:05,160
published A rebuttal to this, to
this article and he tried to

264
00:16:05,160 –> 00:16:06,920
publish it in the Wall Street
Journal and the Wall Street

265
00:16:06,920 –> 00:16:09,800
Journal refused.
So he went and published it in

266
00:16:09,800 –> 00:16:14,600
The New Yorker instead or sorry,
I think it’s the New York Times

267
00:16:15,720 –> 00:16:17,560
and both of the articles are
really interesting.

268
00:16:17,560 –> 00:16:19,960
The first article, Science
increasingly makes the case for

269
00:16:19,960 –> 00:16:22,000
God.
And and the rebuttal article by

270
00:16:22,000 –> 00:16:24,040
the atheist Lawrence Krauss and
we’re going to look at that a

271
00:16:24,040 –> 00:16:25,680
little bit after we look at this
article.

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00:16:25,680 –> 00:16:28,160
First, this article.
You can go online and read it

273
00:16:28,160 –> 00:16:32,280
right now.
You can just search for science

274
00:16:32,920 –> 00:16:35,320
making the case for God in the
Wall Street Journal, and you can

275
00:16:35,320 –> 00:16:36,480
go right there and read the
article.

276
00:16:36,480 –> 00:16:38,800
It’s not very long.
In the first few days of its

277
00:16:38,800 –> 00:16:42,400
publication, it received more
comments online on Facebook than

278
00:16:42,640 –> 00:16:46,120
than any other article that had
ever been published by the Wall

279
00:16:46,120 –> 00:16:48,280
Street Journal.
And I went on and just browse

280
00:16:48,280 –> 00:16:50,880
through some of those thousands
of comments and you find it was

281
00:16:50,880 –> 00:16:54,440
a hotbed of controversy of
people going back and forth,

282
00:16:54,440 –> 00:16:59,040
atheists and Christians and and
and just taking shots at each

283
00:16:59,040 –> 00:17:01,080
other in the comments section of
this article.

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00:17:01,560 –> 00:17:03,800
And so I want to talk about it
for the next few minutes because

285
00:17:03,800 –> 00:17:06,520
it was what it said, I found
very interesting and

286
00:17:06,520 –> 00:17:07,920
strengthened my faith quite a
bit.

287
00:17:08,079 –> 00:17:09,560
We’re not going to read the
article itself.

288
00:17:09,560 –> 00:17:11,640
I will show you a clip from it
in a minute.

289
00:17:11,640 –> 00:17:13,560
We’re going to actually get into
what it says in a lot more

290
00:17:13,560 –> 00:17:15,680
detail than the article itself
does.

291
00:17:16,960 –> 00:17:21,040
And it starts by taking our mind
back to a time and history.

292
00:17:21,200 –> 00:17:27,440
The year was 1966. 1966 was the
year of probably the most famous

293
00:17:27,599 –> 00:17:30,120
cover of Time magazine that was
ever published.

294
00:17:30,280 –> 00:17:35,600
This one right here is God dead.
It’s the first time Time

295
00:17:35,600 –> 00:17:38,800
magazine had ever published one
of their magazines that didn’t

296
00:17:38,800 –> 00:17:40,960
have a photo on the cover.
It just had this black

297
00:17:41,040 –> 00:17:45,880
background and without even
reading the content of of this

298
00:17:45,880 –> 00:17:48,680
magazine, many people were up in
arms just from the title.

299
00:17:49,360 –> 00:17:54,800
It was the the most well read
article of of Time magazine ever

300
00:17:54,800 –> 00:17:59,040
received more letters to the
editor than than any other issue

301
00:17:59,040 –> 00:18:01,400
of Time magazine ever had at
that time.

302
00:18:02,600 –> 00:18:05,120
And it itself was.
It was very controversial.

303
00:18:05,280 –> 00:18:07,920
If you were to go and read it,
you’d find it may not be quite

304
00:18:07,920 –> 00:18:09,640
what you think.
It was more a critique on the

305
00:18:09,640 –> 00:18:11,280
state of Christianity at the
time.

306
00:18:11,880 –> 00:18:15,160
It was saying that that within
Christian culture there are are

307
00:18:15,160 –> 00:18:17,320
actually at Christian
universities, there are

308
00:18:17,320 –> 00:18:20,440
professors and there are even
priests and pastors who are now

309
00:18:20,440 –> 00:18:23,480
teaching that God is dead, that
God is no more within the

310
00:18:23,480 –> 00:18:26,720
religious Christian religious
movement and that Christian

311
00:18:26,720 –> 00:18:31,040
numbers of in their churches are
dwindling and things are

312
00:18:31,200 –> 00:18:34,360
changing that that that the God
of the Bible is no longer

313
00:18:34,360 –> 00:18:36,560
appealing to people.
And so they make some

314
00:18:36,560 –> 00:18:39,880
recommendations in the article
about what Christianity could do

315
00:18:39,880 –> 00:18:43,040
to to stop its dwindling, its
membership from dwindling.

316
00:18:43,320 –> 00:18:46,680
Things like talk less about God
and talk more about Jesus and

317
00:18:46,680 –> 00:18:49,520
how it applies to that applies
to you personally, Stuff like

318
00:18:49,520 –> 00:18:51,920
that.
So he refers us to that article

319
00:18:51,920 –> 00:18:56,480
in Time magazine in 1966.
And in that very same year was

320
00:18:56,480 –> 00:19:01,680
when as a culture we first
started to become aware of, at

321
00:19:01,680 –> 00:19:06,520
least by hearsay sightings of
UFOs.

322
00:19:08,200 –> 00:19:11,480
And now we kind of look at this
with a lot of skepticism.

323
00:19:11,480 –> 00:19:13,000
But back then this was a big
deal.

324
00:19:13,000 –> 00:19:15,360
People thought that we were
seeing alien spaceships in the

325
00:19:15,360 –> 00:19:17,640
sky.
We’d never this was not a thing

326
00:19:17,640 –> 00:19:21,480
before 1966, and people were
very afraid of it, and the

327
00:19:21,480 –> 00:19:24,680
government took it seriously.
Now, in fact, those were all

328
00:19:24,680 –> 00:19:28,640
hoaxes, the actual seeing,
seeing, seeing UFOs in the sky.

329
00:19:28,640 –> 00:19:30,960
But it was something that was a
very much a hot topic and had

330
00:19:30,960 –> 00:19:34,240
people talking.
A lot of people were scared, and

331
00:19:34,240 –> 00:19:37,880
the government set up a task
force called SETI, which stands

332
00:19:37,880 –> 00:19:39,960
for the search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

333
00:19:39,960 –> 00:19:43,440
Now trust me, this may seem off
topic, but but we’re going in

334
00:19:43,440 –> 00:19:45,840
the right direction.
This will all tie in eventually.

335
00:19:45,840 –> 00:19:54,240
You just have to believe me.
So scientists turn their eyes

336
00:19:54,240 –> 00:19:56,960
and ears to the sky to listen
for a message from

337
00:19:56,960 –> 00:20:00,160
extraterrestrial civilizations.
Because they believed that it

338
00:20:00,160 –> 00:20:02,840
was only a matter of time, that
there must be life out there.

339
00:20:03,360 –> 00:20:05,280
And there was one man on this
task force.

340
00:20:05,280 –> 00:20:08,440
His name was Carl Sagan, and he
would become the great

341
00:20:08,440 –> 00:20:11,360
Ambassador to the To the Masses
for Science.

342
00:20:11,880 –> 00:20:13,840
And he would have his own
television program called

343
00:20:13,840 –> 00:20:17,200
Cosmos, where he would explain
all that we knew about the

344
00:20:17,200 –> 00:20:22,280
universe so far, and he would be
a looming figure in science.

345
00:20:23,480 –> 00:20:28,000
And he said that there are only
two criteria for a planet, any

346
00:20:28,000 –> 00:20:30,560
planet anywhere in the Galaxy or
the universe, to be able to

347
00:20:30,560 –> 00:20:33,360
support life.
Just two criteria, the type of

348
00:20:33,360 –> 00:20:37,360
star in the solar system and the
proximity of that planet to that

349
00:20:37,360 –> 00:20:41,360
star.
So I’m going to play you a video

350
00:20:41,360 –> 00:20:44,120
clip now from that program,
Cosmos.

351
00:20:44,120 –> 00:20:46,960
You’ll see Carl Sagan.
You’ll see what people thought

352
00:20:46,960 –> 00:20:50,280
at the time about about whether
or not there was actually other

353
00:20:50,280 –> 00:20:53,080
life out there on other planets.
And I’m hoping the sound is

354
00:20:53,080 –> 00:20:54,240
working.
We’ll start playing here.

355
00:20:54,240 –> 00:20:56,560
If it doesn’t work, I’ll do the
microphone thing again like I

356
00:20:56,560 –> 00:20:59,320
did last night.
Here’s here’s Carl Sagan and

357
00:20:59,320 –> 00:21:01,880
Cosmos this.
Is one of the great questions.

358
00:21:02,240 –> 00:21:06,080
How many benefits civilizations
capable, at least in radio

359
00:21:06,120 –> 00:21:08,600
astronomy, are there in the
Milky Way Galaxy?

360
00:21:09,640 –> 00:21:13,360
Let’s call the number of such
civilizations by the capital

361
00:21:13,360 –> 00:21:17,280
letter N It’s a number depends
on many things.

362
00:21:17,760 –> 00:21:20,480
It depends on the total number
of stars in the movie way.

363
00:21:20,520 –> 00:21:23,080
Let’s call that.
In such *.

364
00:21:23,440 –> 00:21:26,000
It depends on the fraction of
stars that have planets.

365
00:21:26,000 –> 00:21:30,400
Let’s call that F sub P It
depends on the average number of

366
00:21:30,400 –> 00:21:34,120
planets in a given solar system
that are ecologically suitable

367
00:21:34,120 –> 00:21:36,480
for life.
Let’s call that and so the.

368
00:21:38,160 –> 00:21:40,160
Depends on the fraction of
suitable planets, and it’s like

369
00:21:40,480 –> 00:21:43,200
actually arises.
Call that a Sibel?

370
00:21:44,200 –> 00:21:47,080
Depends on the fraction of
inhabited planets on which

371
00:21:47,280 –> 00:21:52,560
intelligence emerges, Let’s call
it a survive, and on the

372
00:21:52,560 –> 00:21:56,160
fraction of those planets in
which the intelligent beings

373
00:21:56,160 –> 00:22:00,840
evolve a technical communicative
civilization, call it A succeed.

374
00:22:01,880 –> 00:22:06,280
Finally, it depends on the
fraction of a planet’s lifetime.

375
00:22:06,320 –> 00:22:10,240
That’s Greece.
By a technical civilization call

376
00:22:10,240 –> 00:22:17,840
that a civil if you multiply all
these numbers together, we’ve

377
00:22:17,840 –> 00:22:22,400
estimated capital N the number
of civilizations this equation

378
00:22:23,040 –> 00:22:26,960
do mainly to Frank Drake and
Cornell is only a sentence, the

379
00:22:26,960 –> 00:22:32,040
verb is equals.
So let’s try to go through the

380
00:22:32,040 –> 00:22:36,520
program of this equation.
By carefully counting the number

381
00:22:36,520 –> 00:22:39,080
of stars in small but
representative regions of the

382
00:22:39,080 –> 00:22:43,560
sky, we find that the total
number of stars in the Milky Way

383
00:22:44,040 –> 00:22:50,200
is about 400.
There’s a lot of stars.

384
00:22:51,040 –> 00:22:56,240
What about planets?
Well, in studies of double stars

385
00:22:56,240 –> 00:23:01,000
and investigations of the
motions of nearby stars, and in

386
00:23:01,000 –> 00:23:06,640
many theoretical studies.
We get a strong hint that many,

387
00:23:07,560 –> 00:23:11,120
perhaps even most, stars are
accompanied by planets.

388
00:23:11,480 –> 00:23:17,280
So let’s take SFP, the fraction
of stars that have planets as a

389
00:23:17,560 –> 00:23:21,560
quarter.
If we were to multiply all these

390
00:23:21,560 –> 00:23:25,520
factors together, we would find
100 billion times a 10 times a

391
00:23:25,560 –> 00:23:33,960
10 or 1 billion planets.
Civilizations have risen at

392
00:23:34,000 –> 00:23:40,360
least once now.
What percentage of the lifetime

393
00:23:40,360 –> 00:23:43,280
of the planet is marked by a
technical civilization?

394
00:23:44,200 –> 00:23:46,880
The Earth has harbored a
civilization capable of radio

395
00:23:46,880 –> 00:23:50,720
astronomy only for a few
decades, the last few decades of

396
00:23:50,720 –> 00:23:52,960
a lifetime of a few billion
years.

397
00:23:53,600 –> 00:23:57,320
It’s hardly another question
that we might destroy ourselves

398
00:23:57,320 –> 00:24:00,360
tomorrow.
If that’s a typical case, then

399
00:24:00,520 –> 00:24:06,560
FS of big Del would be few
decades by a few million years,

400
00:24:06,560 –> 00:24:15,200
or 100 million, a very small
number, and then the end would

401
00:24:15,200 –> 00:24:23,400
be a billion times 100 million.
Or in maybe just 10 in

402
00:24:23,440 –> 00:24:27,240
civilization, a tiny smattering
up pitiful few.

403
00:24:28,000 –> 00:24:30,600
Ecological civilizations in the
Galaxy.

404
00:24:32,320 –> 00:24:36,200
But civilizations then might
think dooms and Gears of

405
00:24:36,280 –> 00:24:40,320
tortuous evolution to arise and
then snuff themselves out in an

406
00:24:40,320 –> 00:24:45,800
instant of unforgivable neglect.
If this is a typical case, there

407
00:24:45,800 –> 00:24:54,950
may be few others, maybe nobody
else at all for us to talk, but

408
00:24:54,950 –> 00:24:57,870
consider the alternative that
occasion.

409
00:24:58,320 –> 00:25:02,080
Civilizations learn to live with
high technology and survive

410
00:25:02,760 –> 00:25:04,960
geological or stellar
revolutionary time scale.

411
00:25:05,200 –> 00:25:10,200
If only 1% of civilizations can
survive technological

412
00:25:10,480 –> 00:25:13,000
adolescence.
Then that’s a big off.

413
00:25:13,600 –> 00:25:18,520
Would be not 100 million but
only 100.

414
00:25:19,200 –> 00:25:22,600
And then the number of
civilizations would be a billion

415
00:25:23,160 –> 00:25:25,720
times 100.
The number of civilizations in

416
00:25:25,720 –> 00:25:27,320
the Galaxy then, would be
measured.

417
00:25:36,000 –> 00:25:39,480
So this is what they believed.
There must be millions of

418
00:25:39,480 –> 00:25:42,920
civilizations out there right
now, and other planets just in

419
00:25:42,920 –> 00:25:46,360
our Galaxy, which means that it
would only be a matter of time

420
00:25:46,360 –> 00:25:48,040
before we made contact with one
of them.

421
00:25:48,400 –> 00:25:51,360
So we built great satellites and
we waited for some kind of

422
00:25:51,360 –> 00:25:54,240
communication, and we turned our
telescopes to the sky.

423
00:25:57,120 –> 00:26:00,400
For decades we listened and
heard nothing.

424
00:26:01,720 –> 00:26:03,960
But something else happened over
those decades too.

425
00:26:04,920 –> 00:26:08,200
So this is a quote from this
article from the Wall Street

426
00:26:08,200 –> 00:26:12,480
Journal at the end of 2014, Eric
Metaxas writes.

427
00:26:13,360 –> 00:26:17,960
Today, there are more than 200
known parameters necessary for a

428
00:26:17,960 –> 00:26:21,680
planet to support life, every
single one of which which must

429
00:26:21,680 –> 00:26:24,440
be perfectly met or the whole
thing falls apart.

430
00:26:25,040 –> 00:26:27,920
Without a massive planet like
Jupiter nearby, whose gravity

431
00:26:27,920 –> 00:26:31,320
will draw away asteroids 1000
times as many would hit Earth’s

432
00:26:31,320 –> 00:26:34,720
surface, the odds against life
in the universe are simply

433
00:26:34,800 –> 00:26:37,160
astonishing.
Yet here we are, not only

434
00:26:37,160 –> 00:26:39,400
existing, but talking about
existing.

435
00:26:40,240 –> 00:26:43,520
What could account for it?
Can every one of those many

436
00:26:43,520 –> 00:26:46,280
parameters have been perfect by
accident?

437
00:26:46,840 –> 00:26:49,920
At what point is it fair to
admit that science suggests that

438
00:26:49,920 –> 00:26:53,080
we cannot be the result of
random forces, Does it?

439
00:26:53,080 –> 00:26:56,120
Assuming that an intelligence
created these perfect conditions

440
00:26:56,360 –> 00:27:00,240
require far less faith than
believing that a life sustaining

441
00:27:00,240 –> 00:27:04,280
Earth just happened to be the
inconceivable odds to come into

442
00:27:04,280 –> 00:27:08,160
being.
So here’s what happened.

443
00:27:09,760 –> 00:27:13,400
At first we thought back in the
60s that there were only two

444
00:27:13,400 –> 00:27:16,440
criteria necessary for a planet
to be able to support life.

445
00:27:16,440 –> 00:27:19,000
You remember I mentioned those?
The type of star in a solar

446
00:27:19,000 –> 00:27:22,080
system and the proximity of a
planet to the to that star.

447
00:27:23,280 –> 00:27:26,920
But then scientists discovered
more parameters necessary for

448
00:27:26,920 –> 00:27:30,080
life and they discovered more
and they discovered more as the

449
00:27:30,080 –> 00:27:32,920
years went on.
And the more parameters they

450
00:27:32,920 –> 00:27:37,720
discovered, the more that
probable number of other planets

451
00:27:37,720 –> 00:27:40,760
out there with civilizations on
them started to shrink.

452
00:27:41,440 –> 00:27:44,440
It got smaller and smaller the
more things we discovered that

453
00:27:44,440 –> 00:27:47,080
were necessary, that had to be
just right for life to arise to

454
00:27:47,080 –> 00:27:51,080
the point where it got to a 0%
chance that there are any other

455
00:27:51,080 –> 00:27:54,680
civilizations out there.
And then we kept discovering

456
00:27:54,680 –> 00:27:59,320
more criteria for life.
And then the probability that we

457
00:27:59,320 –> 00:28:03,440
should ever even exist got
smaller and smaller and smaller

458
00:28:03,680 –> 00:28:06,600
until it became basically an
impossible situation, except for

459
00:28:06,600 –> 00:28:10,240
the fact that we’re here for
some reason, that we should be

460
00:28:10,240 –> 00:28:14,040
here, that there’s a planet
anywhere in a universe somewhere

461
00:28:14,600 –> 00:28:19,520
that supports life.
The fact that we’re here became

462
00:28:19,520 –> 00:28:23,640
a miracle.
And Eric Metaxas mentions over

463
00:28:23,640 –> 00:28:26,880
200 parameters now that have
been discovered necessary to

464
00:28:26,880 –> 00:28:30,680
support life in the Galaxy.
Now, I searched and I couldn’t

465
00:28:30,680 –> 00:28:33,920
find anywhere near 200, and
that’s one of the things that he

466
00:28:33,920 –> 00:28:35,880
came under fire for.
In this article, he throws out

467
00:28:35,880 –> 00:28:38,720
that number of 200 parameters,
but nobody can find it anywhere.

468
00:28:39,160 –> 00:28:43,480
I did find a good list of 22
different parameters necessary

469
00:28:43,480 –> 00:28:47,760
to support life on any planet in
our Galaxy and we’re going to

470
00:28:47,760 –> 00:28:50,200
not going to look at all of
them, but I’m going to just show

471
00:28:50,200 –> 00:28:52,560
you a few of them so you get
sort of a sampling of the kind

472
00:28:52,560 –> 00:28:55,640
of things we’re looking at.
So for example, we have the

473
00:28:55,640 –> 00:28:58,200
gravitational force constant,
which is a large scale

474
00:28:58,200 –> 00:29:00,720
attractive force.
If it’s too weak then planets

475
00:29:00,720 –> 00:29:03,400
and stars can’t form.
If it’s too strong and then

476
00:29:03,400 –> 00:29:07,440
stars burn up too quickly,
there’s the electromagnetic

477
00:29:07,480 –> 00:29:10,360
force constant.
If it was much stronger or

478
00:29:10,360 –> 00:29:12,720
weaker, we wouldn’t be able to
have stable chemical bonds and

479
00:29:12,720 –> 00:29:18,000
hence no life on the planet.
There’s the strong nuclear force

480
00:29:18,000 –> 00:29:19,840
constant.
If it were weaker, the universe

481
00:29:19,840 –> 00:29:22,840
would have fewer stable chemical
elements, including several that

482
00:29:22,840 –> 00:29:25,600
are necessary that are essential
for life.

483
00:29:26,200 –> 00:29:29,000
There’s the one that we talked
about last night, which is just

484
00:29:29,000 –> 00:29:31,240
one of many, the cosmological
constant.

485
00:29:31,240 –> 00:29:36,160
You remember that right in
Einstein’s field equation it has

486
00:29:36,160 –> 00:29:39,680
to be very close to 0, but not
zero, because we now know that

487
00:29:39,680 –> 00:29:42,160
the universe is expanding and
it’s accelerating in that

488
00:29:42,160 –> 00:29:45,760
expansion, and if it was any
other number than what it is,

489
00:29:46,240 –> 00:29:48,800
then the universe would either
fly apart or collapse in on

490
00:29:48,800 –> 00:29:53,800
itself and we will skip forward
a bunch here.

491
00:29:54,760 –> 00:30:00,080
Within the solar system, there
needs to be a large moon around

492
00:30:00,080 –> 00:30:02,960
the planet with the right
planetary rotation period, which

493
00:30:02,960 –> 00:30:05,360
establishes the right
gravitational pull, so that for

494
00:30:05,360 –> 00:30:10,560
example our Earth, our axis is
on a 23.5° angle, which is just

495
00:30:10,560 –> 00:30:13,560
perfect to ensure relatively
temperate seasonal changes.

496
00:30:13,880 –> 00:30:19,760
So that the Earth can support
complex living organisms within

497
00:30:19,760 –> 00:30:23,480
the Galaxy, the solar system, we
need to be near the edge of

498
00:30:23,480 –> 00:30:26,280
what’s called the circumstellar
habitable zone.

499
00:30:26,720 –> 00:30:29,120
Or, sorry, within the solar
system, if the Earth was just 5%

500
00:30:29,120 –> 00:30:32,280
closer to the sun, the Earth
would be just a lot like Venus.

501
00:30:32,720 –> 00:30:36,120
Of course, no life could exist.
And conversely, if it was just

502
00:30:36,120 –> 00:30:39,240
20% further away than the Earth
would be a sterile environment

503
00:30:39,240 –> 00:30:42,520
like Mars, also incapable of
supporting life.

504
00:30:44,200 –> 00:30:46,600
And now this is the one about
the Galaxy, that the solar

505
00:30:46,600 –> 00:30:49,080
system has to be within the
right zone of the Galaxy,

506
00:30:49,080 –> 00:30:51,760
because the center of the Galaxy
and anywhere close to that is

507
00:30:51,760 –> 00:30:55,040
way too dangerous to support any
kind of of life on any of the

508
00:30:55,040 –> 00:30:57,320
planets in any given solar
systems.

509
00:30:58,960 –> 00:31:02,520
And so the very fact that we’re
here, that life exists on this

510
00:31:02,520 –> 00:31:05,400
planet, is incredible.
It beats the odds by a

511
00:31:05,400 –> 00:31:08,920
significant margin.
And all of those parameters had

512
00:31:08,920 –> 00:31:11,680
to be exactly what they are for
us to be here.

513
00:31:12,040 –> 00:31:15,040
This is what is referred to as
the fine tuning of the universe.

514
00:31:15,040 –> 00:31:17,480
And we only started describing
that when we talked about the

515
00:31:17,480 –> 00:31:19,560
cosmological constant last
night.

516
00:31:20,440 –> 00:31:23,720
There are so many parameters
that had to be set just right in

517
00:31:23,720 –> 00:31:26,520
order for us to be here.
It begs the question that Nimar

518
00:31:26,520 –> 00:31:31,160
Kani Hamed mentioned last night,
doesn’t it seem like there must

519
00:31:31,160 –> 00:31:35,520
be somebody who set all of these
parameters at precisely the

520
00:31:35,520 –> 00:31:37,760
right value so that we can be
here now?

521
00:31:39,440 –> 00:31:46,640
Now, I mentioned that there was
a rebuttal article made, written

522
00:31:46,640 –> 00:31:49,800
and published by Lawrence
Krauss, and I want to talk about

523
00:31:49,800 –> 00:31:51,760
that a little bit now too.
I think it’s always important to

524
00:31:51,760 –> 00:31:54,520
get the fully rounded picture.
If somebody saying something

525
00:31:54,520 –> 00:31:57,280
like Eric Metaxas said in the
Wall Street Journal, then what

526
00:31:57,280 –> 00:32:00,440
was said in response to that?
It was The New Yorker, not the

527
00:32:00,440 –> 00:32:02,160
New York Times.
I was right the first time.

528
00:32:03,280 –> 00:32:06,640
So at the end of January, about
a month after the first article

529
00:32:06,640 –> 00:32:09,560
was published, Lawrence Krauss
published a rebuttal and the

530
00:32:09,560 –> 00:32:11,640
title you might be able to see
up here on the screen.

531
00:32:12,200 –> 00:32:16,480
The title is No, Astrobiology
has not Made the Case for God,

532
00:32:16,840 –> 00:32:18,680
and just like the first one, we
don’t have time to go through

533
00:32:18,680 –> 00:32:20,320
the whole article.
But I want to touch on some of

534
00:32:20,320 –> 00:32:24,400
his major arguments, and the
first one I’ll show you in just

535
00:32:24,400 –> 00:32:26,640
a second.
Lawrence Krauss is sort of

536
00:32:26,640 –> 00:32:30,680
ridiculing the Arcmetaxis
argument by coming up with a

537
00:32:30,680 –> 00:32:33,800
fictional, well, not a fictional
real life scenario where he says

538
00:32:33,960 –> 00:32:37,440
I could come up with any kind of
scenario where the the odds of

539
00:32:37,520 –> 00:32:40,400
of something happening are
improbable or or maybe even

540
00:32:40,400 –> 00:32:43,040
virtually impossible.
And yet here we are and he gives

541
00:32:43,040 –> 00:32:46,160
an example.
He says.

542
00:32:46,160 –> 00:32:49,000
In order for me to be writing
this piece at this precise

543
00:32:49,000 –> 00:32:52,320
instant on this airplane, having
done all the things I’ve done

544
00:32:52,320 –> 00:32:56,160
today, consider all the factors
that had to be just right.

545
00:32:56,600 –> 00:32:59,440
I had to find myself in San
Francisco, among all the cities

546
00:32:59,440 –> 00:33:01,800
in the world.
The sequence of stoplights that

547
00:33:01,800 –> 00:33:05,440
my taxi had to traverse had to
be just right in order to get me

548
00:33:05,440 –> 00:33:08,000
to the airport.
When I did, the airport security

549
00:33:08,000 –> 00:33:11,880
Screener had to experience a
similar set of coincidences in

550
00:33:11,880 –> 00:33:14,080
order to be there when I needed
her.

551
00:33:14,760 –> 00:33:18,200
Same goes for the pilot.
It would be easy for me to

552
00:33:18,200 –> 00:33:21,040
derive a set of probabilities
that when multiplied together,

553
00:33:21,040 –> 00:33:24,560
would produce a number so small
that it would be statistically

554
00:33:24,560 –> 00:33:27,120
impossible for me to be here.
Now writing.

555
00:33:27,600 –> 00:33:29,040
I’m just going to pause there
for a second.

556
00:33:29,120 –> 00:33:32,040
We’ll go on.
I never saw anybody point this

557
00:33:32,040 –> 00:33:35,640
out, but this struck me as odd
that this world renowned

558
00:33:35,640 –> 00:33:38,560
physicist and atheist would use
an argument like this one.

559
00:33:39,680 –> 00:33:43,960
Because the very point of the
Eric Metaxas article in the Wall

560
00:33:43,960 –> 00:33:48,400
Street Journal is that the fact
that we are here in a planet, in

561
00:33:48,400 –> 00:33:52,280
a Galaxy, in a universe that’s
capable of supporting life, has

562
00:33:52,280 –> 00:33:56,040
beat the odds.
It’s impossible unless we

563
00:33:56,040 –> 00:33:58,640
acknowledge there is
intelligence behind it all.

564
00:33:59,480 –> 00:34:02,440
And the example that Lawrence
Krauss gets here gives here.

565
00:34:03,080 –> 00:34:07,080
Well, certainly the example that
he gives would seem impossible

566
00:34:07,560 –> 00:34:11,679
if he was a rock and didn’t have
a mind, and so was the taxi

567
00:34:11,679 –> 00:34:14,960
driver, and so is the security
Screener, and so is the pilot.

568
00:34:15,159 –> 00:34:17,800
If there was no conscious,
intelligent force behind this

569
00:34:17,800 –> 00:34:22,719
story, then it would make sense.
But the point is that every step

570
00:34:22,719 –> 00:34:26,000
of the way in his story, he woke
up in the morning with a plan

571
00:34:26,000 –> 00:34:28,800
and he needed to get on the
airplane and write that article.

572
00:34:28,960 –> 00:34:31,800
Everybody else along the way all
had their own plans to pick him

573
00:34:31,800 –> 00:34:34,080
up, to screen him at the
airport, and to fly him to where

574
00:34:34,080 –> 00:34:37,400
he needed to go.
There is a mind behind every

575
00:34:37,400 –> 00:34:41,239
individual in this story.
Yes, it would seem impossible.

576
00:34:41,239 –> 00:34:43,560
The odds of it would seem
impossible if there was no

577
00:34:43,560 –> 00:34:45,440
intelligence behind it all.
But as soon as you put

578
00:34:45,440 –> 00:34:49,080
individuals into this story, it
doesn’t seem impossible at all,

579
00:34:49,080 –> 00:34:50,760
because there’s intelligence
involved.

580
00:34:51,360 –> 00:34:55,360
And so far from disproving the
original point, it makes it even

581
00:34:55,360 –> 00:34:57,640
stronger.
Because if all of these people

582
00:34:57,640 –> 00:34:59,840
were just inanimate objects and
he happened to end up on an

583
00:34:59,840 –> 00:35:03,040
airplane flown by an inanimate
object, yeah, sure, that would

584
00:35:03,040 –> 00:35:05,600
seem impossible.
But that’s not the case at all.

585
00:35:06,680 –> 00:35:09,120
And you see the point.
I’m surprised that I never saw

586
00:35:09,120 –> 00:35:11,120
anybody call him out on that
part of the article.

587
00:35:11,440 –> 00:35:15,400
Now he goes on to say it is true
that a small change in the

588
00:35:15,400 –> 00:35:18,480
strength of the four known
forces, but nowhere near as

589
00:35:18,480 –> 00:35:20,600
small as Metaxas argues.
So.

590
00:35:20,840 –> 00:35:23,760
So Lawrence Krauss is a
physicist, Eric Metaxas is not,

591
00:35:23,760 –> 00:35:25,080
and he really calls him.
The task.

592
00:35:25,080 –> 00:35:29,560
For this would imply that stable
protons and neutrons, the basis

593
00:35:29,560 –> 00:35:31,760
of atomic nuclei, might not
exist.

594
00:35:32,200 –> 00:35:33,920
You know, maybe not.
And then that part you say.

595
00:35:33,920 –> 00:35:37,880
And it might, it might be true.
The universe, however, would a

596
00:35:37,880 –> 00:35:40,160
rather large error in the
Metaxas piece.

597
00:35:40,160 –> 00:35:41,520
Now by the way, this was not the
point.

598
00:35:41,880 –> 00:35:43,960
The point was not that the
universe wouldn’t exist, is that

599
00:35:43,960 –> 00:35:45,720
it wouldn’t exist like we see it
today.

600
00:35:45,720 –> 00:35:48,560
It wouldn’t be capable of life.
It would be a series of random

601
00:35:48,560 –> 00:35:50,760
chaotic forces where life
couldn’t exist.

602
00:35:50,760 –> 00:35:52,520
And he says, but we knew this
already.

603
00:35:52,520 –> 00:35:54,920
This is old news, and while it’s
an interesting fact, it

604
00:35:54,920 –> 00:35:57,240
certainly does not require a
deity.

605
00:35:57,720 –> 00:36:02,600
Once again, I’d say I hate to
dismiss him so quickly here, but

606
00:36:03,480 –> 00:36:07,280
just the fact that it’s old news
and everybody knows it doesn’t

607
00:36:07,280 –> 00:36:10,760
make it any less true.
But he says it anyway.

608
00:36:11,160 –> 00:36:15,000
He says the null hypothesis is
most often the default default

609
00:36:15,000 –> 00:36:18,960
hypothesis in science.
Now the null hypothesis says if

610
00:36:18,960 –> 00:36:24,040
you see two things and they seem
to be closely related to each

611
00:36:24,040 –> 00:36:28,560
other, it seems to be this thing
that you see happen seems to be,

612
00:36:29,000 –> 00:36:33,000
you know, really incredible,
your first instinct, your first

613
00:36:33,000 –> 00:36:35,760
hypothesis should be that it’s
simply a coincidence.

614
00:36:36,560 –> 00:36:39,600
You must assume immediately that
this is just a coincidence.

615
00:36:40,920 –> 00:36:44,520
We reject, He says, the null
hypothesis only when we have

616
00:36:44,520 –> 00:36:48,360
clear evidence to back it up.
Or, as Carl Sagan often

617
00:36:48,360 –> 00:36:53,040
repeated, extraordinary events
require extraordinary evidence.

618
00:36:53,400 –> 00:36:58,800
Surely the God hypothesis is
extraordinary and the extreme

619
00:37:00,400 –> 00:37:02,680
and the entire point of these
classes.

620
00:37:02,680 –> 00:37:07,160
Just to show you the opposite,
that belief in a God is actually

621
00:37:07,160 –> 00:37:09,640
the most logical, reasonable
thing to believe.

622
00:37:09,640 –> 00:37:13,440
That when you examine the
evidence, that’s where it leads

623
00:37:13,440 –> 00:37:15,520
you.
If you’re truly interested in

624
00:37:15,520 –> 00:37:18,760
truth and you’re following the
evidence wherever it leads, then

625
00:37:18,760 –> 00:37:21,640
those who are intellectually
honest with themselves will see

626
00:37:21,640 –> 00:37:24,120
the stamp of the Creator when
they look at the creation and

627
00:37:24,120 –> 00:37:27,000
when they look not just at the
Bible but within the book of

628
00:37:27,000 –> 00:37:29,920
nature that God has given us as
well.

629
00:37:32,000 –> 00:37:38,120
And one of the questions that
Richard Dawkins asks in his book

630
00:37:38,120 –> 00:37:40,320
The God Delusion is this or one
of the points that he makes.

631
00:37:40,320 –> 00:37:45,000
He he says, if you’re going to
tell me that God, there’s a God

632
00:37:45,000 –> 00:37:48,040
that created everything He says,
then I have the right to ask you

633
00:37:48,040 –> 00:37:49,960
the question, who created that
God?

634
00:37:52,080 –> 00:37:53,640
And of course, the Bible tells
us nobody.

635
00:37:53,800 –> 00:37:55,760
God is forever.
He is eternal.

636
00:37:55,760 –> 00:37:58,440
He has always existed.
And I don’t know about you, but

637
00:37:58,440 –> 00:38:01,720
ever since I was little, that
has just completely overwhelmed

638
00:38:01,720 –> 00:38:03,360
me.
I can’t even begin to comprehend

639
00:38:03,600 –> 00:38:05,840
something, having been always in
existence.

640
00:38:06,080 –> 00:38:09,600
And so the point that Richard
Dawkins makes rings home to me.

641
00:38:10,120 –> 00:38:13,000
You know, I struggle with that.
How could there have been a God

642
00:38:13,000 –> 00:38:16,080
that was not created, that has
always been in existence until I

643
00:38:16,080 –> 00:38:17,600
realized the truth of the
matter.

644
00:38:17,840 –> 00:38:20,760
You see, if it’s fair for
Richard Dawkins to ask the

645
00:38:20,760 –> 00:38:23,720
question, who created God, then
think about this.

646
00:38:24,760 –> 00:38:28,440
If you don’t believe in God,
then you probably you believe in

647
00:38:28,440 –> 00:38:31,040
something.
You believe that matter has

648
00:38:31,040 –> 00:38:33,040
always existed.
Perhaps you believe in The Big

649
00:38:33,040 –> 00:38:36,800
Bang bang, and that’s when it
matter from it’s very condensed

650
00:38:36,800 –> 00:38:40,840
form exploded and became the
universe that we see today.

651
00:38:42,200 –> 00:38:47,480
And even if you don’t believe in
God, you believe in matter that

652
00:38:47,480 –> 00:38:50,560
has always existed.
So if there’s no God, then

653
00:38:50,560 –> 00:38:55,440
matter has existed for eternity.
And I’d have the right to ask

654
00:38:55,440 –> 00:38:57,800
you the question who created
matter?

655
00:38:58,840 –> 00:39:01,600
Because no matter what you
believe, the very fact that

656
00:39:01,600 –> 00:39:05,600
we’re here means that we’re
faced with the reality that

657
00:39:05,600 –> 00:39:09,280
something has lasted forever for
eternity.

658
00:39:09,680 –> 00:39:12,600
And as hard as that is for us to
comprehend now, in our current

659
00:39:12,600 –> 00:39:15,200
mortal state, we realize that
must be true.

660
00:39:15,720 –> 00:39:18,400
And we realize that no matter
what position you take, whether

661
00:39:18,400 –> 00:39:20,520
you believe there is no God or
whether you believe there is a

662
00:39:20,520 –> 00:39:24,640
God, we live in a world that we
can not begin to comprehend.

663
00:39:24,640 –> 00:39:27,600
Because we live in a world where
something has always lasted

664
00:39:27,600 –> 00:39:29,560
forever.
And it’s no more ridiculous to

665
00:39:29,560 –> 00:39:32,360
believe that God has no
beginning or no end than it is

666
00:39:32,360 –> 00:39:34,520
to believe that matter has no
beginning or no end.

667
00:39:34,680 –> 00:39:37,120
But we know that one of those
things is definitely true.

668
00:39:37,920 –> 00:39:39,920
So the question becomes a moot
point.

669
00:39:41,920 –> 00:39:46,320
Now, within science and and
outside of science too, there’s

670
00:39:46,320 –> 00:39:48,480
a principle called Occam’s
Razor.

671
00:39:48,480 –> 00:39:54,600
But before we get there, I want
to show you a quote from Fred

672
00:39:54,600 –> 00:39:56,760
Hoyle.
Let’s talk a little bit more

673
00:39:56,760 –> 00:39:58,680
about the fine tuning of the
universe.

674
00:39:59,360 –> 00:40:03,560
Now, Fred Hoyle is the scientist
who coined the phrase Big Bang.

675
00:40:04,520 –> 00:40:07,040
He came up with it.
At the end of his career, he

676
00:40:07,040 –> 00:40:08,440
decided he didn’t like it
anymore.

677
00:40:08,440 –> 00:40:11,320
He he stopped believing in The
Big Bang, but nevertheless he

678
00:40:11,320 –> 00:40:14,200
was an atheist for his whole
life and died an atheist.

679
00:40:14,680 –> 00:40:16,960
But he’s perhaps most famous for
saying this.

680
00:40:16,960 –> 00:40:22,160
He did some groundbreaking work
within his field, and he found

681
00:40:22,160 –> 00:40:25,080
at one point that his faith as
an atheist, he had said, was

682
00:40:25,080 –> 00:40:27,720
greatly shaken.
He said if you wanted to produce

683
00:40:27,720 –> 00:40:30,520
carbon and oxygen in roughly
equal quantities by stellar

684
00:40:30,520 –> 00:40:33,760
nucleosynthesis, this is where
he did his work, which would

685
00:40:33,760 –> 00:40:37,040
explain the origin of life or
how we’re here.

686
00:40:37,040 –> 00:40:39,520
These things have to have
happened for life to exist.

687
00:40:40,080 –> 00:40:43,000
These are the 2 levels.
You would have to fix the levels

688
00:40:43,000 –> 00:40:45,080
of these two quantities, and
you’re fixing would have to be

689
00:40:45,080 –> 00:40:47,720
just where these levels are
actually found to be.

690
00:40:48,920 –> 00:40:52,680
A common sense interpretation of
the fact suggests that a super

691
00:40:52,680 –> 00:40:55,720
intellect has monkeyed with
physics as well as with

692
00:40:55,720 –> 00:41:00,120
chemistry and biology, and that
there are no blind forces worth

693
00:41:00,120 –> 00:41:04,840
speaking about in nature.
This man remains an atheist, but

694
00:41:04,840 –> 00:41:07,360
he said this is the kind of
thing, like the earlier quote we

695
00:41:07,360 –> 00:41:10,360
saw, that kept him up at night,
that shook his faith like

696
00:41:10,360 –> 00:41:11,920
nothing else had ever shaken his
faith.

697
00:41:11,920 –> 00:41:14,840
His faith, in fact, that there
is no God, he said.

698
00:41:14,840 –> 00:41:18,000
Just by looking at it, it would
seem that there must have been

699
00:41:18,000 –> 00:41:20,600
an incredible intellect behind
it all.

700
00:41:21,400 –> 00:41:25,680
And Paul Davies, that man who we
quoted much earlier, the

701
00:41:25,680 –> 00:41:28,520
physicist wrote, There is for me
powerful evidence that there’s

702
00:41:28,520 –> 00:41:30,080
something going on behind it
all.

703
00:41:30,080 –> 00:41:34,080
It seems as though somebody has
fine-tuned nature’s numbers to

704
00:41:34,080 –> 00:41:37,480
make the universe the impression
of design, he says is

705
00:41:37,480 –> 00:41:41,280
overwhelming.
This man is actually a Quaker,

706
00:41:41,280 –> 00:41:43,000
so he is religious.
He does believe in God.

707
00:41:43,000 –> 00:41:45,600
He Co published a book with
Stephen Hawking before he died,

708
00:41:46,240 –> 00:41:49,640
George Ellis wrote.
Amazing fine tuning occurs in

709
00:41:49,640 –> 00:41:53,240
the laws that makes this
complexity possible.

710
00:41:53,640 –> 00:41:56,120
Realization of the complexity of
what is accomplished makes it

711
00:41:56,120 –> 00:42:00,160
very difficult not to use the
word miraculous without taking a

712
00:42:00,160 –> 00:42:03,320
stand as the to the ontological
status of the word.

713
00:42:06,640 –> 00:42:09,760
And Arnold Penzias, also another
man who won a Nobel Prize in

714
00:42:09,760 –> 00:42:13,320
Physics.
He said astronomy leads us to a

715
00:42:13,320 –> 00:42:16,720
unique event, a universe which
was created out of nothing, one

716
00:42:16,720 –> 00:42:19,520
with the very delicate balance
needed to provide exactly the

717
00:42:19,520 –> 00:42:22,400
conditions required to permit
life, and one which has an

718
00:42:22,400 –> 00:42:26,440
underlying, one might say,
supernatural plan.

719
00:42:29,320 –> 00:42:33,120
My point of showing you these
quotes is to say, yes, I’m not

720
00:42:33,120 –> 00:42:34,560
an expert.
I’m not a scientist.

721
00:42:34,560 –> 00:42:37,200
I don’t, I don’t study in these
fields.

722
00:42:37,360 –> 00:42:38,840
Here’s what the experts have to
say.

723
00:42:38,840 –> 00:42:42,240
Some of them agnostic, some of
them atheist, who nevertheless

724
00:42:42,240 –> 00:42:47,000
have to begrudgingly admit that
everything we’ve seen seems to

725
00:42:47,000 –> 00:42:51,320
lead to the same conclusion,
that there must be a mind behind

726
00:42:51,320 –> 00:42:58,680
it all now in the sciences.
Occam’s razor is a phrase that

727
00:42:58,720 –> 00:43:01,120
originally is attributed to
William of Occam back in the

728
00:43:01,120 –> 00:43:04,120
12th century.
You see it in the in the Latin

729
00:43:04,120 –> 00:43:05,360
up there.
Here’s the English

730
00:43:05,360 –> 00:43:08,800
interpretation of this.
It is futile to do with more

731
00:43:08,800 –> 00:43:12,760
things that which can be done
with fewer.

732
00:43:12,960 –> 00:43:16,680
Now, most scientists that have
ever existed have applied this

733
00:43:17,080 –> 00:43:19,520
this sort of philosophy in
general in their work.

734
00:43:19,520 –> 00:43:21,760
For example, here’s a similar
quote by Isaac Newton.

735
00:43:22,160 –> 00:43:25,200
We are to admit no more causes
of natural things that such as

736
00:43:25,200 –> 00:43:30,360
are both true and sufficient to
explain their appearances.

737
00:43:31,080 –> 00:43:33,080
So what they mean by that is
this.

738
00:43:33,800 –> 00:43:38,640
In the sciences, scientists in
all fields will look at at

739
00:43:38,640 –> 00:43:42,120
phenomena and the natural world
and they’ll try to come up with

740
00:43:42,120 –> 00:43:45,200
theories to explain it.
They say what could explain what

741
00:43:45,200 –> 00:43:48,640
we see right now.
And to be a scientist, you have

742
00:43:48,640 –> 00:43:51,240
to go through the scientific
method, which is to come up with

743
00:43:51,240 –> 00:43:54,720
working theories, and then find
a way to test those theories,

744
00:43:54,720 –> 00:43:59,080
perhaps in a lab somewhere.
So you perform the test and you

745
00:43:59,080 –> 00:44:01,440
see if it makes sense, If it
plays out the way you think, and

746
00:44:01,440 –> 00:44:02,640
you go back to the drawing
board.

747
00:44:02,880 –> 00:44:05,760
Usually you’ll come up with a
whole bunch of theories at once.

748
00:44:05,760 –> 00:44:07,360
You go through a brainstorming
session.

749
00:44:07,840 –> 00:44:11,160
What are all the various things
that could describe why this is

750
00:44:11,160 –> 00:44:15,040
happening?
Occam’s razor says something

751
00:44:15,040 –> 00:44:16,600
like this.
When you’ve got a bunch of

752
00:44:16,600 –> 00:44:19,160
theories and none of them have
evidence to support them any

753
00:44:19,160 –> 00:44:23,240
more strongly than any others,
then you’ve got to go with the

754
00:44:23,240 –> 00:44:26,520
one that is the simplest that
requires the least amount of

755
00:44:26,520 –> 00:44:30,520
explaining, because that one is
the most likely to be true.

756
00:44:32,280 –> 00:44:35,960
A new atheist like Richard
Dawkins have used Occam’s Razor

757
00:44:35,960 –> 00:44:42,280
to say that belief in a God is
ridiculous because to explain

758
00:44:42,480 –> 00:44:47,040
humanity and life on this earth
and and the whole universe, you

759
00:44:47,040 –> 00:44:52,000
are theorizing a being that you
call God, who by definition

760
00:44:52,000 –> 00:44:55,600
would have to be more complex
than the thing that he created

761
00:44:55,600 –> 00:44:57,520
in order to create that thing,
he says.

762
00:44:57,520 –> 00:44:59,840
By simple virtue of the
scientific practice of

763
00:45:00,240 –> 00:45:03,680
application of Occam’s Razor, we
should rule that possibility

764
00:45:03,680 –> 00:45:05,720
out.
Because you’re theorizing

765
00:45:05,720 –> 00:45:09,920
something far more complex to
explain something far less

766
00:45:09,920 –> 00:45:13,120
complex.
But the important thing to

767
00:45:13,120 –> 00:45:16,000
understand about Occam’s Razor
is that it only applies in a

768
00:45:16,000 –> 00:45:19,680
situation where all things are
equal and one theory doesn’t

769
00:45:19,680 –> 00:45:21,240
have any more evidence than
another.

770
00:45:21,400 –> 00:45:24,200
In fact, throughout the history
of science, we found that if we

771
00:45:24,200 –> 00:45:27,280
were to only use Occam’s Razor
in that case, we would have gone

772
00:45:27,280 –> 00:45:29,920
far wrong.
So let me show you.

773
00:45:29,920 –> 00:45:32,400
This is the last video clip I’ll
show you in this series of

774
00:45:32,400 –> 00:45:36,920
classes.
This is another clip from the

775
00:45:36,920 –> 00:45:38,320
debates.
One of the debates that we

776
00:45:38,320 –> 00:45:42,040
listened to last night between
Richard Dawkins, the atheist,

777
00:45:42,040 –> 00:45:46,360
and John Lennox, the professor
of mathematics, also were also

778
00:45:46,360 –> 00:45:50,200
at Oxford University, where
Richard Dawkins comes from.

779
00:45:50,200 –> 00:45:53,680
And and this is one of his two
debates with Richard Dawkins.

780
00:45:53,880 –> 00:45:57,000
He suggested that introducing
God would mean an end of

781
00:45:57,000 –> 00:46:00,200
science.
God is no explanation, since by

782
00:46:00,320 –> 00:46:03,520
definition God is more complex
than the thing you are

783
00:46:03,520 –> 00:46:06,640
explaining.
Now this, he states, is the

784
00:46:06,640 –> 00:46:11,120
central argument of his book.
I would not have expected an

785
00:46:11,120 –> 00:46:15,120
argument like this from a
scientist because explanations

786
00:46:15,120 –> 00:46:19,040
in science themselves are
usually in terms of increasing

787
00:46:19,040 –> 00:46:22,240
complexity, and apple falling is
a simple event.

788
00:46:23,000 –> 00:46:26,000
The explanation in terms of
mutants, low gravitation is

789
00:46:26,000 –> 00:46:29,000
already stretching the minds of
many people, but it’s

790
00:46:29,000 –> 00:46:33,640
explanation in terms of warp and
space-time is stretching the

791
00:46:33,640 –> 00:46:37,320
minds of.
Of the cleverest, simplicity

792
00:46:37,320 –> 00:46:39,480
isn’t the only criterion of
truth.

793
00:46:39,480 –> 00:46:44,240
Let me give you an example.
Suppose you’re an archaeologist

794
00:46:44,880 –> 00:46:49,080
and I’m a story, a cave with
you, and you’re a Chinese

795
00:46:49,080 –> 00:46:51,720
expert.
And on this cave you see two

796
00:46:51,720 –> 00:46:55,920
stretches and you say human
intelligence.

797
00:46:55,920 –> 00:46:58,160
And I say, pardon, they’re just
two structures.

798
00:46:58,400 –> 00:47:01,800
And you say, but those are the
Chinese paddock that run, which

799
00:47:01,800 –> 00:47:05,240
means a human being.
I said look what you That’s no

800
00:47:05,280 –> 00:47:08,600
explanation at all.
You’re postulating something as

801
00:47:08,640 –> 00:47:12,240
complex as a given brain to
explain 2 structures.

802
00:47:12,600 –> 00:47:16,320
That means that your explanation
is more complex than the thing

803
00:47:16,320 –> 00:47:19,080
you’re explaining.
That’s no explanation at all.

804
00:47:19,160 –> 00:47:22,160
It seems to me that’s exactly
what you’re saying in your book.

805
00:47:24,520 –> 00:47:27,840
I really like that analogy, and
it applies directly to what

806
00:47:27,840 –> 00:47:29,520
we’ve talked about in this
class.

807
00:47:29,880 –> 00:47:33,640
Did you follow it through?
He’s attacking that idea that

808
00:47:33,640 –> 00:47:36,840
that that we should be able to
dismiss the belief in God,

809
00:47:36,840 –> 00:47:39,480
simply because God would have to
be more complex than the thing

810
00:47:39,480 –> 00:47:41,480
that he created.
It would require more

811
00:47:41,480 –> 00:47:44,720
explanation than simply thinking
that we came here perhaps

812
00:47:45,080 –> 00:47:48,280
randomly, he says.
But look, let’s let’s let me

813
00:47:48,280 –> 00:47:51,000
give you another scenario.
If you were to if, if you and I

814
00:47:51,000 –> 00:47:54,160
were exploring and we discovered
a cave and ancient cave with

815
00:47:54,160 –> 00:47:56,520
with two scratches in it, but
they were symbols.

816
00:47:56,520 –> 00:47:58,720
They were characters, and you
know the ancient Chinese

817
00:47:58,720 –> 00:48:01,520
dialect.
You recognize this as language,

818
00:48:03,000 –> 00:48:06,600
and you say human intelligence,
but by your same logic, applying

819
00:48:06,600 –> 00:48:10,480
that same principle there, you’d
have to say no, no, you’re

820
00:48:10,560 –> 00:48:13,680
you’re theorizing something as
complex as a human being just

821
00:48:13,680 –> 00:48:19,320
described 2 scratches.
Because since the beginning of

822
00:48:19,320 –> 00:48:23,400
our existence, or at least from
very early times, we have, as a

823
00:48:23,400 –> 00:48:26,720
species discovered a language
more and more as history has

824
00:48:26,720 –> 00:48:31,680
gone on, a language that we
didn’t write, that nevertheless

825
00:48:31,680 –> 00:48:36,080
seems to govern every aspect of
the world in which we live.

826
00:48:38,400 –> 00:48:41,440
And as I said before, there’s
only one thing in all of human

827
00:48:41,440 –> 00:48:43,840
experience that we’ve ever
encountered that’s capable of

828
00:48:43,840 –> 00:48:47,080
creating a language, and that’s
a mind.

829
00:48:48,520 –> 00:48:53,040
And I hope at this point in our
discussions you’d you’d agree

830
00:48:53,040 –> 00:48:58,080
with me that there is absolutely
extraordinary evidence

831
00:48:58,120 –> 00:49:02,200
everywhere that we look, and not
just for the existence of God,

832
00:49:02,720 –> 00:49:06,280
but for the truth that Jesus was
the son of God, for the truth

833
00:49:06,280 –> 00:49:09,400
that God can and will resurrect
us from the dead.

834
00:49:10,400 –> 00:49:13,800
And in the next class we’re
going to ask the question, but

835
00:49:13,800 –> 00:49:17,120
what evidence do we have that
this, that we have in here in

836
00:49:17,120 –> 00:49:21,040
front of us really is the
inspired word of that God?

837
00:49:22,400 –> 00:49:24,960
So that’s where we’ll be going
next in the last class today.