Does God exist???

I’ve always been wary of scientific arguments for the existence of God, or any arguments for the existence of God for that matter. In fact I think they do more for those who believe than they do for those who don’t believe. Seldom do I hear a conversion story that includes a moment when someone just knew God existed because Bill Craig’s version of the cosmological argument became overwhelmingly convincing. In fact I think that the most compelling argument contains no scientific data at all, the anthropological argument. I suppose it’s more of an existential appeal and probably the reason I like it a little better. I think that makes sense though. Faith is more existential than it is scientific.

Yet, tonight as I was watching the National Geographic Channel I’m reminded of the power of the anthropic argument. On Naked Science, they are examining the possibility of finding life elsewhere in the galaxy/universe…whatever the correct technical nerd term is. One point they made, traveling at the speed of light, it would take a message from the other side of our galaxy, 100 million years to get here. Imagine that. Light travels around the world 7 times a second. At that speed it would take that long just to get across the universe. Makes even the travel speed of the Millennium Falcon seem inadequate.

Anyhow, back to the power of the anthropic argument. Caveat here, I’m not going to check these numbers, but rather guess what they are based on memory. The factual numbers almost serve as hyperbole in and among themselves. Ergo, corroborating their accuracy is not necessary. When you add together all the factors that go into creating not only a perfect planet, but also galaxy etc. to sustain life you come up with some obnoxious number like 1 x 10 to the 120 power. To put that in perspective there are 1 x 10 to the 70ish power electrons in our universe. Keep in mind how exponents work. That isn’t like double the number. Every time you move up an increment in an exponent you account for everything previously and then double it (I think)…any calc. nerds out there to verify that one? That’s freakin’ incredible.

It’s funny though. As crazy and wow-factor as that is, we are the type of beings who are conversely more puzzled by the deep wounds of death and the absurdity of things like the tsunami. I guess that goes back to the existential thing. No one really gives a rat’s ass how complex the universe is when a loved one is sick or their social structure is rattled by an external factor. Maybe that’s why God did the cross thing and not the spell it out in the clouds thing.