Quote:
Originally Posted by NatCh
 Personally, I find that idea that the universe was designed requires a much smaller leap of faith than the idea that it all happened by accident.
But I'm willing to agree to disagree on the point, HarryT. |
As to "why" the universe came into existance, I'm as happy to call that "God" as anything else. However...
There are some 300,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy, and at least 400,000,000,000 other galaxies out there. That means that the total number of stars in the universe is something like:
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
We know now that virtually all stars have planetary systems and that the Earth is just a very average planet around a very average star. It seems very likely that life is an equally typical phenomenon - just a set of chemical reactions, and that we are merely animals who happened, through a random chance, to evolve intelligence as a survival characteristic; something that's probably happened on countless billions or trillions of other planets.
Another thing to consider: the universe is approximately 13.7
billion years old. Modern humans have been around for no more than about 100,000 years. Was the universe just "hanging around" for 13.6999 billion years just waiting for us to show up?
We are just insignificant animals on an insignificant planet which orbits an insignificant star in an insignificant galaxy. To claim that the universe exists for our exclusive benefit seems to be a rather extreme case of self-aggrandization to me
.
To get back at least vaguely on topic, have you ever read any of Richard Dawkins' books? "The Blind Watchmaker", "The God Delusion", etc? Great stuff - thoroughly recommended if you haven't. A man I have a great deal of respect for.