Category Archives: News

Luke Barnes on the fine-tuning of the strong force and fine structure constant

By now, anyone who has had discussions about scientific evidence for the existence of God knows about the fine-tuning argument. In a nutshell, if the fundamental constants and quantities given in the Big Bang were even slightly other than they are, then the universe itself would not be hospitable for complex, embodied intelligent life.

Here is an article from The New Atlantis written by Australian cosmologist Luke Barnes.

Excerpt:

Today, our deepest understanding of the laws of nature is summarized in a set of equations. Using these equations, we can make very precise calculations of the most elementary physical phenomena, calculations that are confirmed by experimental evidence. But to make these predictions, we have to plug in some numbers that cannot themselves be calculated but are derived from measurements of some of the most basic features of the physical universe. These numbers specify such crucial quantities as the masses of fundamental particles and the strengths of their mutual interactions. After extensive experiments under all manner of conditions, physicists have found that these numbers appear not to change in different times and places, so they are called the fundamental constants of nature.

[…]A universe that has just small tweaks in the fundamental constants might not have any of the chemical bonds that give us molecules, so say farewell to DNA, and also to rocks, water, and planets. Other tweaks could make the formation of stars or even atoms impossible. And with some values for the physical constants, the universe would have flickered out of existence in a fraction of a second. That the constants are all arranged in what is, mathematically speaking, the very improbable combination that makes our grand, complex, life-bearing universe possible is what physicists mean when they talk about the “fine-tuning” of the universe for life.

Let’s look at an example – the strong force. Not only must the strong force be fine-tuned so we have both hydrogen and helium, but the ratio of the strong force must also be fine-tuned with the fine structure constant.

Barnes writes:

The strong nuclear force, for example, is the glue that holds protons and neutrons together in the nuclei of atoms. If, in a hypothetical universe, it is too weak, then nuclei are not stable and the periodic table disappears again. If it is too strong, then the intense heat of the early universe could convert all hydrogen into helium — meaning that there could be no water, and that 99.97 percent of the 24 million carbon compounds we have discovered would be impossible, too. And, as the chart to the right shows, the forces, like the masses, must be in the right balance. If the electromagnetic force, which is responsible for the attraction and repulsion of charged particles, is too strong or too weak compared to the strong nuclear force, anything from stars to chemical compounds would be impossible.

Here’s the chart he’s referencing:

Fine-tuning of the strong nuclear force and the fine structure constant
Fine-tuning of the strong nuclear force and the fine structure constant

As you can see from the chart, most of the values that the constants could take would make complex, embodied intelligent life impossible.

We need carbon (carbon-based life) because they form the basis of the components of life chemistry, e.g. proteins, sugars, etc. We need hydrogen for water. We need chemical reactions for obvious reasons. We need the light from the stars to support plant and animal life on the surface of a planet. And so on. In almost every case where you change the values of these constants and quantities and ratios from what they are, you will end up with a universe that does not support life. Not just life as we know it, but life of any conceivable kind under these laws of physics. And we don’t have any alternative laws of physics in this universe.

By the way, just to show you how mainstream these examples of fine-tuning are, I thought I would link to a source that you’re all going to be familiar with: The New Scientist.

The fine-tuning of the force of gravity

So here is an article from the New Scientist about a different constant that also has to be fine-tuned for life: the force of gravity.

Excerpt:

The feebleness of gravity is something we should be grateful for. If it were a tiny bit stronger, none of us would be here to scoff at its puny nature.

The moment of the universe‘s birth created both matter and an expanding space-time in which this matter could exist. While gravity pulled the matter together, the expansion of space drew particles of matter apart – and the further apart they drifted, the weaker their mutual attraction became.

It turns out that the struggle between these two was balanced on a knife-edge. If the expansion of space had overwhelmed the pull of gravity in the newborn universe, stars, galaxies and humans would never have been able to form. If, on the other hand, gravity had been much stronger, stars and galaxies might have formed, but they would have quickly collapsed in on themselves and each other. What’s more, the gravitational distortion of space-time would have folded up the universe in a big crunch. Our cosmic history could have been over by now.

Only the middle ground, where the expansion and the gravitational strength balance to within 1 part in 1015 at 1 second after the big bang, allows life to form.

Notice how the article also mentioned “the universe’s birth”, which is part of mainstream science.

When I’m writing to you about things like the origin of the universe, or the cosmic fine-tuning, I’m not talking to you about things that pastors found in the Bible. These discoveries are known and accepted by mainstream scientists. It’s amazing that people are constructing their worldviews without having to account for the birth of the universe and this cosmic fine-tuning. We all, as rational individuals, have to bound our view of the universe with the findings of science. Right now, those findings support the existence of a Creator and a Designer. So why am I seeing so many atheists who are just plain ignorant about these facts? Maybe we should tell them about this evidence. Maybe we should ask them why they don’t account for scientific evidence when forming their beliefs.

Positive arguments for Christian theism

Who will the Republicans nominate to run for president in 2024?

There’s only one answer: Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

And I will tell you why. Because he has real achievements, and by 2024, we will have finally learned to care about competence instead of charisma. Because we are going to have a LOUSY 4 years under Biden / Harris.

For one thing, All of this tolerance, compassion, permissiveness, etc. COSTS MONEY. We are already $28 trillion in debt, and Biden is simultaneously destroying our economy while trying to buy votes with taxpayer money. How destroying the economy? By attacking the energy sector, shutting down businesses with a pandemic panic, and talking about raising corporate tax rates from 21% to 28%.

We’re going to need someone who has results, and that person is Ron DeSantis.

Here’s an article from The Federalist:

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis denounced critical race theory at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, vowing to “expressly exclude” it from the state’s public schools.

“Florida civics curriculum will incorporate foundational concepts with the best materials and it will expressly exclude unsanctioned narratives like critical race theory and other unsubstantiated theories,” DeSantis said. “Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money.”

“No matter if your family came on the Mayflower or you became a naturalized citizen, these principles belong to you,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis said Florida would receive $106 million in pandemic-associated federal dollars. A new proposal by DeSantis would provide an additional $3,000 to public educators who are credentialed to teach American civics. About $16.5 million of the pandemic funds would be allocated to training educators and principals in civics.

In his speech, the governor laid out a plan to put $6.5 million toward public service advocacy programs between schools and the government, and $7 million for civics curricula that provide students with “foundational concepts.”

DeSantis is making himself a resume to run on by his actions. If he has success, like he did with his method of handling the Wuhan virus, then he will win in 2024. We can’t be electing people based on their words – we need to look for people who have actions. The best actions, are actions that solve problems. Critical race theory is nothing but racism, and it needs to get solved by someone with some strength to take it on, head on. No governor is doing more than Florida’s Ron DeSantis. People are flocking to Florida from all the failing Democrat-run states.

If you’re not following DeSantis now, you can start reading Daily Wire, The Federalist, Daily Caller, Daily Signal, Breitbart, and other good conservative sites to find out. Did you know he banned sanctuary cities in his state? I love that!

Look at some of these mainstream headlines from the last week:

Or you can even read far-left Democrat sources like Politico. Their headline is “How Ron DeSantis won the pandemic”.

Excerpt:

[A]fter 12 months in which he was pilloried as a reckless executive driven more by ideology than science, dogged by images of crowded beaches and bars and derided as “DuhSantis,” “DeathSantis” and “DeSatan,” Florida has fared no worse, and in some ways better, than many other states — including its big-state peers.

The most controversial policies DeSantis enacted — locking down later and opening up earlier, keeping nursing homes closed to visitation while insisting schools needed to be open to students, resisting intense pressure to issue a mask mandate — have ended up being, on balance, short of or even the opposite of ruinous.

Prognosticators’ grimmest predictions never came true — or haven’t yet — and DeSantis, for now, is more politically ascendant than any governor in the country. In stark contrast to his most conspicuous counterparts — California’s Gavin Newsom, who’s facing a recall, and New York’s Andrew Cuomo, who’s confronting political extinction — the Yale-and Harvard-educated DeSantis’ approval ratings are up from last year’s low 40s and flirting with the mid-50s.

And in spite of some traits that typically would constitute political kryptonite — he’s as awkward as he is ambitious — there’s mounting (albeit ultra-early) polling that suggests DeSantis might be (after Donald Trump) the favorite to be Republicans’ nominee for president in 2024.

“There’s a sweet spot in there that most governors have searched for but few have found,” said GOP pollster Whit Ayres, who’s worked for DeSantis in the past. “He’s managed to figure out the sweet spot between good policy and good politics.”

Buckle up, because we’re going to win in 2024.

LGBT fascism: father imprisoned for calling his biological child “daughter”

I have a lot to say about this story, so I’ll be brief in re-capping the facts.

The back story from Post Millennial:

H00g1and discovered that the school had been showing his daughter SOGI 123, the going sexual and gend3r identity education materials in British Columbia which amounts to tr4nsgend3r ideology “propaganda videos.” In the grade 7 yearbook, the child was referred to by a different name. The school counsellor changed the child’s name without telling her parents. The school “socially tr4nsitioned” the biologically female child on its own initiative, with the input of a gend3r ideologue psychologist, Dr. Wa11ace W0ng.

When H00g1and accompanied his child to a consultation with W0ng, the psychologist advised the pubescent child to take testosterone. W0ng referred the child to the endocrinology unit at the local hospital. Meanwhile, H00g1and was looking for mental health solutions to help the child without drugs.

On the child’s first visits to the hospital, a treatment plan was put into action. Both the child, and her mother—H00gland’s ex-wife—signed a consent form which explicitly stated that the “treatment” was experimental, meaning that the endocrinologists recommending the treatment didn’t know the long-term health impact.

A gend3r identity activist lawyer, B4rb4r4 Find1ey, represented the child in court. Justice B0den decided that the child’s best interests lay in destroying her long-term health to make her body appear more like that of a male.

H00gland, in contrast, thinks his daughter’s best interests lie in preserving his child’s health, in case his child ends up among the estimated 85 percent of children who desist in their belief that they are the opposite sex once puberty ends.

You can read more about W0ng here.

And here is the latest:

[A] warrant was issued by a judge for the arrest of a father after calling his biological female child his “daughter,” and referring to her with the pronouns “she” and “her.” H00g1and was found to be in contempt of court.

H00g1and is a father to a gend3r non-conforming biological female 14-year-old who identifies as tr4nsgend3r and prefers the use of male pronouns. H00g1and has repeatedly called this person his daughter, though the court has forbade it.

On Tuesday… .He was the arrested and jailed. The warrant was issued by Judge T4mmen on March 4, 2021.

H00g1and opposes his child’s undergoing “gend3r affirmative” medical procedures, and has stated this opposition again and again, in the hope of saving his child from irreversible harm. The Canadian medical system, the legal system, and the child’s mother press ahead with social and medical tr4nsition of the child.

On December 14, 2020, H00g1and was compelled by Justice M4rz4ri’s court to collude in the gend3r “tr4nsitioning” of his fourteen year old daughter and told not to call his biological female child his daughter. In response, H00g1and made a Charter challenge engaging his right to freedom of speech.

Unfortunately, there is no freedom of speech nor freedom of religion in Canada. They simply do not exist, because regardless of what is on paper, the taxpayer-funded judges and politicians who run Canada are secular left fascists – the same kind who have been at the head of Marxist governments in other times and places that resulted in so much suppression of liberty and human rights. When it comes to human rights, Canada has more in common with North Korea than it does with the United States of America.

Now my points.

First, about the man’s wife. Women are generally inclined to generate their system of values by feelings and peer approval. Now that feminism has brainwashed the majority of women to distrust concepts that are more typically linked to men, like objective truth and objective morality, it’s rare to find any women who formed their values by complying with the reality of God’s existence and the objective moral law. They are instead reckless and hedonistic in their behavior, preferring to act first and then deny responsibility later. The whole movement for moral relativism and the subsequent non-judgmentalism is an attempt by feminist women to normalize bad behaviors by demanding “tolerance” and “compassion”. My advice to men at this time is to NEVER marry. I don’t think that most women today are good partners for protecting children from predators. There just isn’t enough going on in society (churches, culture, anywhere) that is countering the pulling of women towards postmodern skepticism and moral relativism.

Second, even if you marry a good woman, one like my senior female advisors who I respect and love, you will have to live in a world run by feminist teachers, counselors, administrators, lawyers, judges, police officers, etc. Having a family exposes you to influence from woke pastors, woke parishioners, woke bureaucrats, woke corporations, woke co-workers, big government workers, etc. Your wife will want social connections, and society will become aware of your belief in God and adherence to the Bible. They will not let you lead your home. You’re already losing money from taxes to pay for fascists who oppose liberty and human rights. Don’t compound the problem by having a family that increases interactions with them. You might remember that I recently blogged about a Canadian man who was forced to pay $50,000 a month to a woman that he never married, had children with or even lived with. And another Canadian man who was taken to court for grounding his daughter, and a female judge ruled against him. Why diminish your Christian influence and effectiveness by having your resources confiscated by secular left fascists?

Third, it’s important to understand the evil consequences of feminist women’s push for tolerance and compassion, i.e. – moral relativism and non-judgmentalism. I have blogged previously about the case of the two g4y dads, who adopted a child only to abuse him and to make child pornography videos. An Australian journalist who wrote a story lauding the two g4y dads and their parenting ability (before they were sentenced for their crimes) complained that she didn’t know they were going to do that. But there are ALWAYS consequences, especially for children, from the feminist female push for moral relativism and non-judgmentalism. Just because those women cannot predict them, in their rush to virtue signal their tolerance and compassion, doesn’t mean they are not responsible. If Robert H00gland’s child regrets her tr4nsition or (God forbid) goes into a depression and commits suicide, then the people responsible will be the ones who seem so tolerant and compassionate today. By the way, there is a story from just this week about how a child court judge who championed “drag queen story hour” has been arrested for child pornography. Canada also had an education minister who championed the sexual exploitation of children in their education curriculum who was also arrested for child pornography. Why not just assume that EVERY secular leftist who talks about tolerance and compassion in public is privately involved in abusing children OR approves of it? How many times must children suffer before we see things as they really are?

Fourth and finally, it’s important to understand that secular leftists who are involved in promoting evil tend to respond to disagreement with fascism. Canada currently has a publication ban on any stories about government overriding the rights of parents. They use ARMED POLICE and IMPRISONMENT to restrict speech that criticizes many of the priorities of the secular left, e.g. – abortion, infanticide, tr4nsgenderism, g4y rights, etc. They are not afraid to use coercive methods. I have blogged about people on the secular left using doxing, termination of employment, boycotts, vandalism, violence, and even DOMESTIC TERRORISM (in the case of the g4y activist who attacked the Family Research Council building with a GUN). These methods are either performed by OR approved by secular leftists. Don’t expect them to respect your liberties and human rights, because there are no God-given liberties or human rights in a naturalistic / materialist universe. And in a naturalist / materialist universe, anything goes for a secular left fascist trying to feel good and get peer approval.

Also, in case anyone from Canada is reading this, I mean you no harm. Unlike you, I have no desire to stop people I disagree with from acting freely, according to their consciences. I want you to be able to work and earn money to survive and provide for your family. As a Christian, my job is to love you and answer your questions about Christianity so that you freely choose to bring your behaviors inline with what you determine to be true. I want you to be free to act like a secular leftist fascist, since you haven’t CONVINCED YOURSELF to act any other way. We’re not going to dox you, silence you, coerce you, or anything that would upset you. But I will use my speech to respectfully but firmly disagree with you. The history of Christianity is REPLETE with the worst kinds of sinners changing their ways and becoming heroes of the faith – loved and respected by all Christians. Look at the apostle Paul – he was a billion times worse than you! Christians hope and pray that you might become curious about the rational arguments and evidence for Christianity and change your own minds at your own pace. It happens all the time. We want the truth-centered best for you, not the self-centered best.