I should also have mentioned “”Universe or multiverse?” Edited by Bernard Carr, which came out in 2007, and includes brief essays from about 30 of the top names in physics and the philosophy of science. That includes Stephen Hawking, Paul Davies, Weinberg etc. The book also includes two theist philosophers (who are pretty useless, as Christians tend to be) – but they’re included because almost everyone agrees that it’s either design or some version of multiverse theory.

You can get the book from Amazon. Dawkins is not included, mainly because he doesn’t admit the discussion exists. Most of the contributers are atheists, all but three or four. All these atheists have decided there’s a need for many universes in one form or another, so none of them feel the way out you guys chose was viable (life Jim, but not as we know it).

Your belief that non-carbon based life was the way out was a faith anyway, but the 25 atheists who are seen as among the top thinkers on the planet all took another way out – the multiverse. Also a faith, as although you might get predictions for experiments, multiverse ideas will only be one interpretation of experimental results, just as the first multiverse theory (Everett’s in the 1950s) was just one interpretation for quantum theory. In fact that was also an attempt to avoid design – they had realised that according to quantum theory you need an observer outside the universe to bring the universe into a concrete state of existence.

You need to realise that no physicist would go to an idea as intangible as many worlds unless they were desperate, and if there were no other way out. Every time purposeful intention seems to appear, they get out of it using many worlds, but you can get out of more or less anything that way. Think about it – what observation can’t you get out of that way?

Anyway, one of you kept asking about some microbes… I didn’t answer because it seemed a stupid question. But the answer is of course that we don’t know. Maybe life started in one place, maybe many. Recently we found it appears much more easily than we thought. Life seems to be written into the universe, and places where it can evolve into complex life seem abundant. This view is known as the biophilic universe, or biofriendly universe. It’s a view that is hugely succesful at explaining what we find, for those who are not fooled by the spin and bias.

I talked to some stupid creationists. They were weirdly similar to many atheists I’ve talked to, though less intelligent – both groups are living within a bubble of misinformation.

Christianity and atheism are equidistant from the truth (ie a long way!), don’t be fooled into believing that you must choose between them….. be skeptical about both. See you guys, DM

Or, just another nutter heads for the hills.

Meh!

I, for one, welcome our new cricket riding microbe overlords.

Yea, brother!

Clearly, the Lego speak sooth.

Yes, I noticed — you did not close your italic tag properly.

Of course, I have evidence — click on my name.

Having just finished proofing 380 pages of galleys for a new book, sending it all off to the publisher, and then finding a @#%@#$ typo on the bloody back cover,/i>, I can attest to the truth behind that maxim.

It is easier to spot a splinter in someone else’s eye, than to spot the bloody plank in one’s own eye!

Now, do you have evidence to back up that claim?

I used to work as a proofreader, and to paraphrase a biblical proverb: It is easier to spot a splinter in someone else’s eye, than to spot the bloody plank in one’s own eye!

Hmm…might I suggest proofreading before hitting submit?

Yep. However, according to Wikipedia, in some U.S. states, such as Pennsylvania, suspended sentences have not been authorized by the legislature and are therefore illegal. Not so in the U.K.

P.S. At the first line, in my previous post above, it should read: The system here, for some reason, prematurely closed the “blockquote” function at my post above.

Man, I need a coffee break; otherwise, I will kill somebody!

I see…

Time served, as it were?

@ Todd W.,

Thank you for the compliment! As for going to prison for killing someone, if the Judge were to see what kind of cranks we have to put up with on these threads, he probably will declare the killing of one of them as “justifiable homicide” and let me off on a suspended sentence.

Hmm…you can kill someone only if you are allowed to get on the internet from prison. Your posts are always so informative and refreshing. And I like the pics you find, too.

I’M GONNA KILL SOMEBODY!

Heh heh… Then they’d could come back as a ghost and Leander could study them.

How many kuhniggets would you rate the posts in this thread?