Fine-Tuning and the Multiverse

Join Jeff Zweerink and Rabbis Elie Feder and Aaron Zimmer as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.

Scientists have discovered that the fundamental constants needed to describe our universe provide evidence of an intelligent cause that made the universe. In recent years, many scientists have argued that the multiverse provides an alternative explanation of the fundamental constants. However, for a multiverse to fulfill this role, it must exhibit specific features. A close examination of those features shows that workable multiverse models also demonstrate the same evidence of an intelligent cause. In this episode, we discuss the fine-tuning argument and multiverse response with Rabbis Elie Feder and Aaron Zimmer.

Links and Resources:

• 3 Proofs of God from Science

Join Hugh Ross in this breaking News of the Day episode of Stars, Cells, and God. Hugh interviews fellow RTB astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink while Jeff is in Antarctica. Jeff is part of a research team that’s preparing to launch a balloon loaded with instruments that will either detect dark matter particles or impose more stringent constraints that will guide future efforts to find the universe’s elusive dark matter particles. The quest to find dark matter particles is considered the holy grail for astrophysicists, with a Nobel Prize in the waiting for the discovery team.

Links and Resources:

No Dark Matter Near the Sun—Oh Wait, We Found It

Designed to the Core

Join Jeff Zweerink in a conversation with authors Krista Bontrager and Monique Duson as they discuss their theological and philosophical journey toward understanding what the Bible says about racial harmony.

How good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity! Yet conversations between people who hold different views on the topic of race rarely bring unity. Join Jeff, Krista, and Monique as they provide a shining example of how seeking biblical truth can bring true unity even while exploring a divisive topic.

Will AI Ever Be Like Us?

In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana and philosopher Kristen Davis explore the question, Will AI ever be like us?

One of the most important questions to emerge from advances in AI is the age-old, Who are we as human beings?

Some people claim that when we achieve artificial general intelligence—the ability of machines to learn intellectual tasks that human beings can—AI systems will be persons, just like us. Others claim that when we achieve artificial superintelligence—the ability of machines to surpass human beings’ capabilities—AI systems will represent the next stage in evolutionary history.

Are these viewpoints valid?

AI and the Genome

In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana describes recent insight from two investigators who make the case that genomes are generative AI systems. The architecture and operation of biochemical information is far more sophisticated and complex than previously recognized and points to purposeful design.

Earth’s Past Temperature

Two new studies on Earth’s past climate have provided important data for predicting Earth’s future climate, as well as exoplanet habitability. Oxygen-18 measurements from shale, iron oxide, carbonates, and chert show that Earth’s climate was warm from 2.0–0.5 billion years ago. Then a drop in global mean surface temperature (GMST) occurred 500 million years ago to a decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide. An integration of geological data with climate model simulations shows that GMSTs varied from 11–36°C over the past 485 million years, a much larger range than previous reconstructions. Temperature changes were especially dramatic at high latitudes. During the Phanerozoic, Earth spent more time in warm climate states than cold ones and atmospheric CO2 was the dominant control on climate. Throughout the past 2 billion years, atmospheric CO2 played the most important role in compensating for increasing solar luminosity.

Links and Resources:

Hot and Cold Earth Through Time

A 485-Million-Year History of Earth’s Surface Temperature

Oxygen Isotope Ensemble Reveals Earth’s Seawater, Temperature, and Carbon Cycle History

Join Jeff Zweerink and Kevin Birdwell as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.

Winter Gatekeeper Hypothesis

Virtually all public discussion about climate changes focuses on greenhouse gases—usually only carbon dioxide. Clearly greenhouse gases impact the climate, but scientific research demonstrates that the climate system is far more complicated than any single set of gases could describe. Specifically, one of the dominant drivers of the climate may be Earth’s capacity to transport energy from the tropics to the poles. This episode describes the winter gatekeeper hypothesis and its consequences for the global climate.

 Links and Resources:

• The Winter Gatekeeper Hypothesis (VII). A Summary Plus Q&A

Nuclear Power and Climate Change

One undeniable question accompanies any discussion about climate change: How much power do we need and what existing technologies are capable of generating that power? Most technologies capable of producing sufficient power for the world’s energy needs also emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. Technologies emitting fewer greenhouse gases don’t produce abundant power—except for nuclear power. In this episode, atmospheric scientist Kevin Birdwell and astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink discuss how current and future nuclear power technologies dramatically impact our ability to generate adequate power for humanity in an environmentally friendly way.

Links and Resources:

• Safe, Clean, Proliferation Resistant and Cost-Effective Thorium-Based Molten Salt Reactors for Sustainable Development

Join Hugh Ross in this breaking News of the Day episode of Stars, Cells, and God. Hugh describes a search for dark photons, a candidate for comprising a large fraction of the universe’s dark matter. The search consisted of comparing a detailed map of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) with a catalog of more than 500 million galaxies.

• Dark matter makes up 24.5% of the universe.

Links & Resources

• Dark Photon Limits from Patchy Dark Screening of the Cosmic Microwave Background

Interview with Physician Raj Kumar Songa

In this episode of Stars, Cells, and God, Hugh Ross interviews Raj Kumar Songa, a physician specializing in internal medicine. Raj is a Reasons to Believe Scholar Community member and serves on the board of directors of RTB APAC (Asia-Pacific). He lives in Hyderabad, India, where in addition to his medical practice he heads up several enterprises, including a Christian bookstore. He also serves as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

In this interview Raj shares his testimony of how he became a follower of Jesus Christ, his role in launching RTB APAC, biblical principles of giving, and the responsibility of all Christians to use the wealth they create to further the kingdom of God.   

A Medical Analysis of the Hallucination Hypothesis

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Dr. Joe Bergeron as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.

Jesus’s disciples experienced something that made them believe Jesus bodily resurrected from the dead after a grisly death by crucifixion. As a naturalistic explanation to explain away the biblical narrative, critical scholars have proposed that Jesus’s disciples were hallucinating when they saw the resurrected Jesus. This has been referred to as the hallucination hypothesis. Dr. Bergeron provides a medical analysis of hallucination hypotheses and explains why they are unsupportable and inconsistent with current medical understanding.

Links and Resources: 

• The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Medical Doctor Examines the Death and Resurrection of Christ