Are you familiar with the concept of the “Goldilocks Universe”? The observation by Science that there exists in Nature an overwhelming number of variables that must meet very precise values in order for life to be possible?
Is this the elusive Proof of God that said deity apparently goes through so much trouble to conceal? Or is it just a trick of perception similar to desert mirages or matter becoming conscious?
Just imagine the staggering number of coincidences and alignments that have (and are) occurring just to produce you. Right now. Right here.
Does the very thought of this make you feel unbelievably special?
Or maybe just a little suspicious?
The “Goldilocks” or Finely-Tuned Universe observation is a compilation of all the minutely perfect arrangements of elements and forces that exist to make life possible. The slightest change in parameters such as the strength of gravity or in the odd, asymmetric relationship between matter and anti-matter would result in a sterile or unsustainable universe.
So how could this be? Why would we exist in a universe that is perfectly suited to us? Pop-science is currently having fun with the idea that perhaps we are programmed characters living in some Great Computer Simulation. That idea, like that of Panspermia giving rise to life on Earth is a red herring that begs the question by merely pushing it out another layer.
Might the difficulty here be that the original premise is wrong? Why should we assume that Something Out There is the cause of us? Is there any evidence that we might be the cause of It?
Speaking as a person who works daily with the mentally ill, I can vouch for the fact that what some of us accept as reality can bear very little resemblance to what others experience. We can argue until we are blue in the face (and I have) about who’s reality is more real. In the end of course, the problem originates in our inadequate ability to communicate and the prevailing assumption that we must live in only one world.
At this level, on this world, seven-billion or so humans are defining our reality based on what we can agree upon. Have you noticed that pretty much anything we imagine in science-fiction eventually becomes real? The limits fall away once we agree that they can. The barriers only exist when we say they do.
There are others who have not elected to join us in this project and so have no reason to limit themselves to our current rules and regulations. Our occasional encounters with them leave us frightened and mystified. Aliens? Spirits? Angels?
None-of-the-above. They aren’t playing this particular game by our particular rules. My advice is not to communicate with them. They will tend to mess with your head. Not because they’re evil. Simply because it’s funny.
This is after all, just a game.