Why the Universe Cannot Have Arisen by Chance

The universe either had a beginning, or it did not.

If it did not have a beginning, then it has always existed.

If it did have a beginning, then it arose from nothing.

 

Neither of these possibilities is comprehensible, yet one of them must be true.

Therefore, the question of how the universe began is unanswerable.  It is futile to ask.

In any case, there is “something” instead of “nothing.”

 

Given that the universe does exist, then the next question is, why does it have the properties that we observe it to have?  Why not some other way?

 

Here, the binary alternatives are, that its properties are determined by chance, or if not by chance, then by intentional design.  Which is it?

 

The argument for chance must rely on a huge number of universes, so many that we may consider that number to be virtually infinite, as far as our comprehension is concerned.

 

Even here, however, the argument for chance falls apart, because of this:  in order for chance to operate, it must do so only within designed parameters.  Let us demonstrate this fact.

 

Trick question:  if one rolls a single die (singular of dice), what is the chance that the die will land a six?  If you answer, “one chance in six,” then you are assuming the die to be designed to have six sides, but in fact, it could have any number of sides, four or more.  Therefore, the operation of chance governing the die roll depends on the designed parameters.

 

There is no other form of chance.  One cannot meaningfully say, the chance is three, or five, or X.   It has to be three out of ten, or five out of X, etc.  Before chance can operate, its parameters must be specified, and those parameters cannot themselves be pure chance, unless constrained by other parameters.  In the end, all parameters are designed.

 

The parameters of the universe include its constants, such as gravitation, light speed, nuclear forces and so on.  Even if we say that those are determined by chance, we must specify the parameters in which that chance operates.  There is no getting away from it.  Chance requires design.

 

The universe has twenty-seven constants (more or less depending on the physicist, but in any case, a set number), and so the question is, why twenty-seven?  Why not five?  Why not a billion?  The number of the constants is not random, it is designed.  Even among billions of universes, or however many there may be, each universe has a number of parameters, and even if that is by chance, one must still operate within design—one chance in how many?

 

No matter how hard we may try to avoid design, we cannot.  We cannot substitute chance for design.  Design just will not go away.  The universe is (or the universes are) designed.

 

Designed for what?  Since our universe seems to be precisely designed to support life, technology and civilization, it is most likely that that is what it is designed to do.