Introduction
It’s always been a tendency in my mind to look for the reasons behind everything I see in this universe and try to find explanations for any phenomenon I encounter like asking questions about the reason for the bluness of sky, and the origin of everything in this universe begining from the myself and finishing to the biggest object to the god itself.
Asking existential questions and trying to discover and understand everything we encounter is human nature. These types of questions are inevitable, and you can’t avoid them unless you accept pre-made answers from your parents, society, or the education system.
In the following lines, I want to discuss the parallels between creating software with perfect lines of code and the fine-tuning system within this universe, which suggests the necessity of a great designer.
Table of content
- Hidden secrets behind coding
- Fine tuning
- Solar System As a Software
- Age reveals
- Who made the laws !?
- Conclusion
- References & Further reading
Hidden secrets behind coding
Programming, in a nutshell, is writing ordered and precise instructions that tell a machine how to perform specific tasks. These instructions are written using a programming language, which acts as a bridge between the programmer and the machine.
It is impossible for a rational person to believe that a program, even a simple to-do list app, can come into existence from nothing, by coincidence, or through billions of years of evolution. It is essential for someone to know how to write code, and more importantly, for a programmer to EXIST.
Recently, AI companies and clever programmers have been striving to create software that resembles human behavior and abilities, like analyzing inputs and produce correct and precise answers and solutions without human interaction. It is impressive and mind-blowing to consider how AI software is written and the logic behind it. However, you might be surprised to know that even the creators of AI giants like OpenAI don’t fully understand how it works due to the complexity and that AI at some point takes the full responsibility to teach themselves! read more
While certain programming paradigms and languages may seem to offer the freedom to implement anything imaginable, human imagination far surpasses what machines can grasp. Technology imposes limitations from various angles; for instance, attempting to replicate human abilities such as visualizing images, imagining scenarios even though they don’t happen with your eyes closed which is impossible for a machine to do with no light.
Programming in general, at some point, recommends developers to respect some rules and suggest dos and don’ts to ensure the program works properly. It starts to get complicated as your program grows and begins to rely on other programs or is used as a dependency by others; maintaining it becomes challenging and requires a strong understanding of its architecture and quirks.
In the software world, there is always a chance for a program to crash and produce unexpected outputs. It is essential for developers to continually maintain their codebase to fix bugs and ensure the stability of their applications. This important idea will be covered later when we discuss the key difference between human-made innovations and nature to clarify the obligation of god existance in the context of fine-tuning!
There’s a rule of thumb in programming that states what is stable now may become unstable after just a few months or even days, revealing many security gaps and runtime errors. This serves as a message and reminder that human creations are inherently error-prone and can always be improved. It is similar to striving for perfection, though never quite reaching it.
Fine tuning
Programming, at some level, requires intricate precision and design to implement certain features and needs a professional with experience to touch any line in the codebase to add or alter anything. But when we look closer at this universe, we see millions of systems and applications with even greater precision and fine-tuning.
From the vast natural phenomena like the precise laws and movements of planets and galaxies that create perfect conditions for human life, to the tiniest cells in the human brain that fire countless molecular processes and connections every second, it becomes essential to recognize the great designer behind the beauty and miracles within this world and humanity. This suggests that there is a purpose to this universe.
There may be objections to this subject, such as the possibility that this universe and humans came to exist by coincidence or through billions of years of evolution. We might consider these arguments valid if there were only a few places where we observe intelligence and purpose in creation. However, the marvelous thing is that whenever you look closer, you find precision and creativity in anything around us from the oxygen to the big objects like the moon and sun which engage with our planet in a precise way to give us energy and stability.
Even the trial and error model cannot explain the existence of this universe and for this model to work properly, we would need to assume that there have been trillions of instances of every aspect in this universe over millions of years, trying and failing, to achieve this fine-tuned universe with such precision which is mathematically impossible and unlike to happen.
The idea of fine-tuning suggests that the main physical constants in our universe, such as the Gravitational Constant (𝐺), and Planck Constant (h) are precisely set to allow for the existence of life as we know it. A fraction of change in one constant could result in dramatically different laws and circumstances, making it impossible for this universe to exist.
It is worth mentioning an analogy of John Polkinghorne: a theoretical physicist, theologian, and Anglican priest, in one of his books, gives an analogy to demonstrate the improbability of our existence without some form of purposeful design:
Imagine a scenario where a person is condemned to death by a firing squad of ten highly skilled snipers. Each sniper is an expert marksman, and they all fire their rifles simultaneously at the person. The probability of the person surviving such an execution would be incredibly small because it would require all ten snipers to miss simultaneously, despite their high level of skill and coordination.
Polkinghorne uses this analogy to illustrate the improbability of certain conditions being met by chance alone. In the context of fine-tuning, the analogy helps convey how precise and unlikely the conditions for life in the universe are. Just as the condemned person’s survival would seem to require some extraordinary intervention or extraordinary luck, the precise conditions for life in the universe suggest to some that there should be a great designer behind it.
Just as natural laws and fundamental constants govern the universe, programming also requires an error-free codebase for programs to function properly. A strong design and architecture are essential for adaptability to future changes and scalability. Even a minor change, such as removing one line from the source code or altering a constant value, can lead to failures, errors, and unexpected results.
When software and code are written to create a large-scale application, they are designed with a specific purpose and goal in mind before writting any line of code, much like everything that occurs within the universe. Everything serves a function and has a purpose; nothing is random. The precision, creativity, and design evident in everything we observe, and that suggest that there cannot be existence without purpose and a great designer behind it.
Solar System As a Software
Solar system is a collection of celestial objects bounded by gravity, and move around the sun which is the central star in the solar system. The main parts of solar system includes:
The sun: A massive star that release energy in form of light and heat and represents the central point if the solar system.
Planets: The known 8 planets: Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Moons: Large round objects that usually called natrural satellites that orbit planets.
Asteroids, comets, and meteors: chunks of rock, ice, and metal left over from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
Dwarf Planets: objects that orbit the Sun, and are nearly round, but have not been able to clear their orbit of debris.
The way the solar system operates is orchestrated by gravitational forces between the sun, planets, and other components, with remarkable precision that dictates every rotation and movement.
Creating a software model of the Solar System requires very high accuracy and detail to reproduce its complexity. The software must account for the mass, velocity, and gravitational influence of every object to accurately simulate the natural behavior of celestial mechanics.
In addition to logic and actions, the software must handle tremendous amounts of data and perform countless accurate calculations to predict positions and movements, much like the intricate balance of our Solar System ensures stable orbits for its planets and moons.
The gravitational forces maintain the orbits of the planets and every component in predictable and calculated paths, ensuring the balance of the entire system, much like well-designed software maintains order and functionality in a digital environment.
For example, the Earth’s orbit around the Sun follows a nearly perfect ellipse, akin to a loop in programming that reflects the consistent changes of seasons. The accurate distances and gravitational influences prevent catastrophic collisions and ensure that each component remains in its defined orbit, similar to how software architecture and great designs prevent errors and conflicts.
The precision required in both cosmic and software modules reveals the surprising complexity and harmony already existing in our Solar System, highlighting the purpose and accuracy needed to construct something complex, similar to how the solar system is structured. The fact that every motion and the existence of every object within the universe MATTERS and underscores this intricate balance.
Age reveals
No one denies that the level of intelligence the world reached is fascinating, and almost anything this day can be digitalized and automated, but there is an important observation that deserve our attention, which is the fact that with age, we always see errors and vulnerabilities in software humans build, and with all these deficiencies, no one can say that an operating system or a complexe banking application can exist without programmers who build the software.
And we all know, that the way the universe behave and operate is far more accurate and complicated and millions of calculations and movements are working together for one purpose; to make the human life possible and worth living.
The universe shows a remarkable precision, revealed in the finely tuned physical laws leading its vast expanse. Scientific discoveries continually reveal the accurate balance necessary for stars, galaxies, and life to emerge, suggesting a sophisticated designer behind the cosmic existence.
While human software reflects our iterative learning process, the universe’s unfolding revelations underscore a deeper, timeless intelligence embedded within its very fabric and laws.
Who made the laws !?
In programming, certain principles, laws, and tools must exist for a program to be written and function properly. These include a Turing completeness programming language, hardware on which the program will run, and, most importantly, a skilled programmer who knows what they are doing. Application source code must adhere to specific rules and laws to ensure the program works correctly and produces accurate and reasonable outputs.
The similar concept is present within the solar system, where certain laws and calculations should be accurate and present to observe the harmony in the motion between the sun and planets, such as Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion, and Conservation of Angular Momentum.
These laws are critical and essential for the stability of the Solar System. The absence of any one of these laws would undoubtedly result in a different and likely unrecognizable Solar System, demonstrating how essantial each law is to the system’s overall function and integrity.
And the most important question comes: Who made these laws in the first place !? As we already mentionned before, Just like software requires a programmer to write code within a conveniant environement in order for the application to work properly, It is a MUST to believe in a great designer who made this universe and made these laws and accuracy to draw our attentions by manifest his ability and greateness in the fine-tuning of tis vast universe.
We already mentioned that nothing in this universe is random, every element and every atom serves a specific role within this fine-tuned world. The laws of physics, the accurate balance of ecosystems, and the complex processes within living organisms all point to a deliberate designer. This purposeful arrangement ensures the stability and continuity of life, highlighting the fact that the universe operates with intentionality and order under the providance of its creator.
Conclusion
The idea of god existance is a theological topic whih has been a central topic for philosophers throughout ages. Many have dedicated their entire lives to searching for answers and debating the nature of a higher power behind this existance. Their explorations and arguments take centuries and decades, and this reflects the impact this question has on understanding the universe, the existence, and the meaning of human presence.
I used the example of programming in parallel with natural processes like the solar system and fine-tuning to demonstrate the necessity of god presence to explain the universe if a flimsy program cannot exists without a developer behind it. We highlighted that the universe, from the largest cosmic objects to the tiniest cell within the human body, is far more complex than any software ever written. The presence of a greater designer is inevitable and logical, helping us understand and answer many existential and philosophical questions and dilemmas.
References & Further reading
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The hammer of proof and the glass of atheism [Youtube series]
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Quarks, Chaos & Christianity: [Book]
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Fine tuning - Friday Speech of Adnane Ibrahim [Link]