- Jeffrey Beall/Wikimedia Commons
The Friday Tribune carried a lovely little essay by Michael Gerson (a former George W. Bush speechwriter) on the “God particle” (aka Higgs boson) and God. “Not only does the universe unexpectedly correspond to mathematical theories, it is self-organizing—from biology to astrophysics—in unlikely ways,” Gerson writes. “The physical constants of the universe seem finely tuned for the emergence of complexity and life. Slightly modify the strength of gravity, or the chemistry of carbon, or the ratio of the mass of protons and electrons, and biological systems become impossible. The universe-ending Big Crunch comes too soon, or carbon isn’t produced, or suns explode.
“The wild improbability of a universe that allows us to be aware of it seems to demand some explanation.”