If the universe is fine-tuned for life, why is life such an extremely rare part of it?

Question

To rhsaunders: That's exactly my point. But I want to here some answers from ID.

Answer 1

God has priorities. The top priorities were black holes and vasts gaseous nebulae. After those and some other cosmological phenomena, his priority was life on an obscure planet.

Answer 2

"If the universe is fine-tuned for life, why is life such an extremely rare part of it?"

This is a very insightful question.

First of all "heavy matter", heavier than hydrogen and helium, is relatively rare in the universe if you go by mere size or volume of the universe. Anything heavier than hydrogen and helium is formed in stars. Planets are formed from the remains of expired stars. So only a portion of heavy matter is found outside of the active stars.

There are many factors involved in earth being able to sustain life as we know it.

Our position in the milky way galaxy is critical. If we were much closer to the galactic spiral arm than we are, life on earth would by killed by the radiation. If we were closer or further from the sun we would freeze or burn. If the earth was not tilted on it's axis then we would have no seasons. Without the moon the earth's "hearbeat" would cease meaning the ocean tides. If the components of the earth were even slightly different then life as we know it would cease. If the earth were less massive then the atmosphere would be too thin to hold gasseous oxygen. If it were more massive then our air would mostly consist of helium which is inert and not part of the life process on earth.
There are many more factors.

There may be other life forms of life we do not know about. Planets are probably at least as numerous as the stars. Life as we know it can only be sustained within extremely thin parameters from several critical factors.

This is what makes life as we know it in the universe quite rare.

Answer 3

I don't believe life is extremely rare. How would we know? We've never even been outside the solar system, much less out of our little backwater corner of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. Look at the great spiral galaxy next door, the Andromeda, twice the size of ours. We are now discovering that stars tend to have planets circling them. The Goldilocks principle states that if a planet isn't too far from its star, or too close to its star, but juuuuuust the right distance, it will in all likelihood have liquid water. Where there's water, there's life.

Answer 4

So, you want me to assume that the universe is fine tuned for life and then answer your question on that basis? Or do you want me to discuss whether it is or is not fine tuned? And how do you define rare?

Amoeba would be considered rare in 1800 as far as humans were concerned because they hadn't seen one yet. Life elsewhere in the universe is "rare" to us perhaps only because we presently have no way to locate it elsewhere. There may be life in hundreds of millions of places in this incredibly huge universe. Of course, depending on how you define rare, it may still be rare in some sense because most of the volume of the universe appears to be a near vaccum with no apparent life.

Answer 5

Firstly, the universe isn't fine-tuned for life; we simply got lucky. Secondly, we have no idea whether life is rare or common; there are a billion trillion places where life could be, and we have no means of detecting life on any of them.

Answer 6

We are Goldilocks in a Goldilocks universe.
We’re the ‘right combination of cells’ in the ‘right circumstances’.
Big deal.
We're only slightly different to pond scum but ultimately we still only have the seven accepted characteristics of life:

1. Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, sweating to reduce temperature.

2. Organization: Being composed of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.

3. Metabolism: Consumption of energy by converting nonliving material into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.
4. Growth: Maintenance of a higher rate of synthesis than catalysis. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter. The particular species begins to multiply and expand as the evolution continues to flourish.
5. Adaptation: The ability to change over a period of time in response to the environment. This ability is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the organism's heredity as well as the composition of metabolized substances, and external factors present.

6. Response to stimuli: A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism when touched to complex reactions involving all the senses of higher animals. A response is often expressed by motion, for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun or an animal chasing its prey.

7. Reproduction: The ability to produce new organisms. Reproduction can be the division of one cell to form two new cells. Usually the term is applied to the production of a new individual (either asexually, from a single parent organism, or sexually, from at least two differing parent organisms), although strictly speaking it also describes the production of new cells in the process of growth.

Answer 7

Good point. Some people do believe this scenario. Life is rare and it is just possible that this is the only planet that has it. Of course the possibility is out there...but they know there's none in this solar system, so the changes are as good either way.

atheist

Answer 8

Life as we know it may be rare however magnificant forms of life other than the way we expect to find is plentiful in the universe

Answer 9

It's more fine-tuned for black holes than it is for life. Only people who put the cart before the horse believe the world is fine-tuned for life.

Answer 10

Because even for something abundant with life, it is mostly in concentrations around the universe because all living things depend on other living things around them.