Mendalla
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Physicist Lawrence Krauss argues it is not in the piece below. He is arguing against the argument made by certain theists that the universe is unnaturally biased to allowing life and therefore some higher power must be controlling the variables.
As Krauss rightly points out, our continued existence is largely a matter of luck given how many ways there are, including self-inflicted ones, for our species to go extinct. One just need look at the trilobites or non-avian dinosaurs, who both declined after millenia as the dominant clade and were both finally annihilated in catastrophic natural events.
As he says, evolution tells us that life adapts to its environment, not the other way around, and a sudden change in that environment generally means species going extinct and new species replacing them. If a deity had designed a universe that is friendly to life, evolution might, in fact, be unnecessary.
Bias alert: Krauss is an outspoken advocate for a scientific materialist viewpoint.
As Krauss rightly points out, our continued existence is largely a matter of luck given how many ways there are, including self-inflicted ones, for our species to go extinct. One just need look at the trilobites or non-avian dinosaurs, who both declined after millenia as the dominant clade and were both finally annihilated in catastrophic natural events.
As he says, evolution tells us that life adapts to its environment, not the other way around, and a sudden change in that environment generally means species going extinct and new species replacing them. If a deity had designed a universe that is friendly to life, evolution might, in fact, be unnecessary.
Bias alert: Krauss is an outspoken advocate for a scientific materialist viewpoint.
Opinion: The not-so-strange ‘unfittedness’ of the universe for life
It is true that if our universe were different, even in potentially minute ways, we might not exist
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