* A Fun RSR List Show: For this Thanksgiving weekend, a special rebroadcast. In our List of the Fine-Tuned Features of the Universe, Real Science Radio host Bob Enyart quotes leading scientists and their astounding admission of the uncanny and seemingly never-ending list of the just-perfect finely-tuned parameters of the physical features of the Earth, the solar system, and the entire cosmos. This program is brought to you by God, maker of heaven and earth and other fine products! * The Finely Tuned Parameters of the Universe: Barrow & Tipler, in their standard treatment, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, admit that "there exist a number of unlikely coincidences between numbers of enormous magnitude that are, superficially, completely independent; moreover, these coincidences appear essential to the existence of carbon-based observers in the Universe." Examples include the wildly unlikely combination of: - there is the same number of electrons as protons to a standard deviation of one in ten to the thirty-seventh power, that is, 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (37 zeros) - the 1-to-1 electron to proton ratio throughout the universe yields our electrically neutral universe - all fundamental particles of the same kind are identical (including protons, electrons, down quarks, etc., even, in QED, photons!) - energy exactly equals mass (times the conversion factor of c²) - the electron and the massively greater proton have exactly equivalent opposite charges - the electron to proton mass ratio (1 to 1,836) is perfect for forming molecules - the baryon (protons, neutrons, etc.) that decays must conserve the number of baryons - the free neutron decays in minutes whereas it is stable within the nuclei of all the non-radioactive elements (otherwise eventually only hydrogen would exist because the strong nuclear force needs neutrons to overcome proton repulsion) - the proton can't decay because it is the lightest baryon (otherwise all elements would be unstable) - the electromagnetic and gravitational forces are finely tuned for the stability of stars - the gravitational and inertial mass equivalency - the electromagnetic force constant is perfect for holding electrons to nuclei - the electromagnetic force is in the right ratio to the nuclear force - the strong force if changed by 1% would destroy all carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and heavier elements - the precise speed of light, the square root of the inverse of the product of space's permeability and permittivity (i.e., its magnetic field resistance, 4π * 10-7 Weber/Amps * meter, multiplied by its electric field resistance, or 8.8542 * 10-12 Coulomb2 /Newton * meter2), or 186,282 MPS, is integral for life - etc., etc., etc. (including the shocking apparent alignment of the universe with the orbit of the Earth) Leading atheist physicist and biologist admit * The Most Famous Scientist Atheists Agree: The world's most famous scientist atheists in physics and biology have fully admitted half the question as to fine tuning, that the world APPEARS to have been fine tuned. Richard Dawkins: "Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose." Stephen Hawking: "The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted..." * An Atheist's Index to Replies: Here's an index to (failed) attempts to rebut the fine-tuning argument for God's existence. * Omitting the Cosmological Constant: We have omitted from this list the commonly reported fine-tuning of the cosmological constant to one part in 10 to the 120th. This is so very precise that if the entire universe had as much additional mass as exists in a single grain of sand, it would all collapse upon itself. That is, if a big bang actually formed our universe, and if it created a miniscule additional amount of mass than it is claimed to have created, then no planets, stars, or galaxies could exist. Conversely, if the universe ha