Chapter 2:

The Anthropic Principle
Do scientists think that the universe appears to have been designed?

Footnotes

[1] There are literally hundreds of examples. Many of the examples as listed here are derived from The Signature of God by Grant Jeffrey (Nashville, TN: Word, 1996). These facts or “coincidences” are supported by highly recognized and noted cosmologists and physicists such as Sir Martin Rees, John Gribbin, Stephen Hawking, Alan Lightman, George Greenstein, John Barrow, Frank Tipler, Sir Frederick Hoyle, and others.

[2] Stephen Hawking, The Illustrated A Brief History of Time (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1996), p. 160; emphasis added.

[3] John Boslough, Stephen Hawking’s Universe (New York, NY: Quill, 1985). To avoid confusion, Hawking is not here advocating any particular belief; he is simply stressing in general terms the metaphysical implications of the origins of the universe.

[4] Boslough, Stephen Hawking’s Universe.

[5] Illustration taken from Jeffrey Satinover, Cracking the Bible Code (New York, NY: W. Morrow, 1997).

[6] John Gribbin and Martin Rees, Cosmic Coincidences (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1989), p. 247. Some (including Gribbin and Rees themselves) argue that this explanation is just one of many other possible explanations which may evade us. The most popular alternative explanation to “intelligent design” is the “many worlds” view. In this view, our universe is but one in a vast ensemble of universes, and just by chance ours happens to be life-permitting. However, there is no evidence for such additional universes; in fact, no evidence is even possible. Some objections to the “many worlds” view are raised in Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. See Stephen Hawking, The Illustrated A Brief History of Time (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1996), p. 161.

[7] Max Planck, Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http:// members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=115045&sctn=1

[8] Aron Barth, The Creation in the Light of Modern Science (Jerusalem: Religious Section of the Youth and Hechalutz Dept. of the Zionist Organization, 1968).

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