"The Privileged Planet"

[Josh]

6/30/06:

Sometime in July, we'll be watching a DVD for IC Forum entitled The Privileged Planet (a recent offering from the Intelligent Design movement). This highly acclaimed (and controversial), beautifully filmed documentary looks at the miracle of life on planet earth- giving us a taste of all the finely-tuned factors that make Earth suitable for complex life.

Regardless of your opinions of the ID movement, this video inspires awe- you will be reminded of how our very existence is from moment to moment is unlikely and amazing!

We can use this space after the viewing to post any further thoughts/ comments/ questions.

[Josh]

7/11/06:

A big theme of this video is the Anthropic Principle- the increasing realization of scientists that for life to exist- even more so human life- a vast array of finely-tuned but often independent variables must be in place. Without these hundreds (and the list is ever increasing) of specific conditions, the earth would be as forbidding as Mars and every other planet we've ever discovered.

This finely-tuned precision of factors has led many researchers to conclude that life here on planet earth is no accident- but a divinely orchestrated plan strongly challenging the notion that it could have all come about through random processes.

That's the rub, though.

One of the hot questions about the anthropic principle is what exactly can we conclude about the "odds"? Is the probability of these factors coming together so remote that it does indeed mitigate against naturalism, or are we just one of the lucky planets in the solar system?

Should we be persuaded that our existence here is a miracle, or are we to simply conclude that since we *are* here, it *must* be naturalistically explainable?

For more dialogue on this (anthropic principle), please take this link to the Questions about Christianity forum, and jump right in:

www.aletheia.proboards76.com/index.cgi?board=science