Jac3510 wrote:No sir, this:
- All the references in Fine-Tuning of Physical Life Support Body by Hugh Ross (Pasadena, CA: Reasons To Believe, 2002) apply. What follows are references that are in addition to those.
Ray White III and William C. Keel, “Direct Measurement of the Optical Depth in a Spiral Galaxy,” Nature, 359 (1992), pp. 129-130.
Did you look at the papers which were referenced?
Here the first one.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v3 ... DFDB2A6A20
IT WAS A LETTER TO NATURE.
FROM a statistical analysis of nearly 9,400 spiral galaxies1, Valentijn2 has claimed that the disks of spirals are largely opaque. His argument derives from a lack of inclination dependence in the average surface brightness of the spirals, which if they were transparent would be brighter when seen edge-on than face-on. This statistically derived result is however vulnerable to several selection effects3, and seems to contradict the fact that the survey was successfully performed (as we live in a transparent spiral galaxy) as well as anecdotal examples of galaxies visible through other galaxies. We have tried to measure directly optical extinction in a number of spiral disks, using pairs in which a foreground spiral is backlit by another galaxy. In our best example substantial extinction of starlight occurs, but the extinction is mostly associated with the spiral features in which much of the light arises in the first place. This correlation of extinction with emission may account for both the transparency and apparent opacity of spiral galaxies.
How did he use this in his paper on fine tuning?
???
Like I stated the first time, the numbers pulled from these papers were used in the speculation, not most of the numbers themselves. I doubt all these papers are about the fine tuning of the Universe. Would you like me to look at the second paper as well? Trust me you don't want me to.
Don't you think listing all of these papers in which the figures were pulled out of context is a little misleading? I doubt very many of these papers even detailed possibilities for the figures they reached. Do you?
So all of that is speculation on the part of the person who wrote you're supporting articles. The ranges and probabilities are all speculation none of which is supported by these references.
And lets take a look at the paper itself.
One of the factors mentioned was.
"orientation of continents relative to prevailing winds"
What does this mean and how did he arrive at that figure?
How does he know the orientation of the continents is required for the existance of life on Earth?
Or what about these?
"reduction of Kuiper Belt mass during planetary system's early history"
"mass of outer gas giant planet relative to inner gas giant planet"
Are they not related? Also the first question applies here, how does this figure into the probability of life on Earth?
Or these gems?
"galaxy size"
"galaxy type"
If it fits then it applies to all the stars in that galaxy? And again how is this required for life?
Or what about this one?
"oceans-to-continents ratio"
Does this mean if there is less or more water then life is impossible?!?!?!
This is just a cursory glance, I am sure there are many more instances of related factors and nonfactors which should not be blindly multiplied with other factors to arrive at a figure.
And check out this one from another of your supporting articles.
"parent star color"
if redder: photosynthetic response would be insufficient
if bluer: photosynthetic response would be insufficient
ROFL!!!
This would make some astronomers die of laughter.
Stars are categorized as red or blue based on their compositions and surface temperature.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/a ... 625-1.html
All stars for the most part radiate the entire spectrum of light. For example our sun is a class G yellow star.
Go get a prism during a sunny day.
Do you get a rainbow?
Again there is nothing wrong with admitting that this is speculation, or are you really saying that we know the exact probabilities, can you really possess such audacity?
And yes, it is a pet peeve of mine to see articles on the internet with lists of references on the bottom which are completely misrepresented or have such weak connection to the topic in discussion. I find it intellectually misleading and utterly irritating.