FYI, I wrote to the author of that fine tuning paper to ask his opinion about some of what we have been discussing.

Basically, he agrees that a model that would predict the creation of carbon and oxygen, etc via stellar nucleosynthesis would be a lot more complicated than the one in the paper he published.

The next step would be getting those elements out of star, which he agrees is another open question – would stars just die, or would they explode, making the elements available for later solar systems to form?

The last question was “would galaxies form”? If stars exploded, but weren’t near each other, then those elements couldn’t get reused. On this question, he felt it was 50/50 whether a universe would form galaxies, depending on the relative strength of dark energy vs gravity.

So it seems there is a lot of room for more research in this area!

Here’s some quotes from Harun Yahya’s websites:

“In order to alienate people in Islamic countries from true religion, Masons are intent on offering the idea of intelligent design as the most appropriate alternative in these countries.” – http://us1.harunyahya.com/Deta....._THEORY___

“Even children at primary school know that it is Allah, and not “intelligent design,” Who created the sky, gazelles, fish, lambs, apples, bananas, grapes and oranges.” – http://www.harunyahya.com/new_.....design.php

While Harun Yahya is no friend of evolution, he is also no friend of intelligent design creationism. Herb’s right – you really should avoid him like the plague.

I’ll try to look for it, but does “fine tuning” mean that galaxies billions of light years away were constructed with physical constants most convenient to the appearance of human life on earth? That puts a stretch on hubris I’ve previously not considered humanly possible.

I just got done reading a book published in Turkey called Evolution Deceit, which helps me understand why Turkey alarms many materialists – but more on that later.

Excellent post all around, but this part concerned me. The author of Evolution Deceit is Harun Yahya, a Holocaust denier who has said some fairly uncomplimentary things about ID. I would avoid him like the plague. Just my 2 cents.

Forget my last question. I found the search box for the site.

Thank you for the link to a prior 2005 search. I assume the current list cannot be searched except through google.

For more information, see the preliminary program and other information at http://www.asa3.org/ASA/meetingASA.html.

If anyone here attends as a result of this little announcement, please be sure to greet me there and mention this.

Fine tuning has been discussed often, though not usually very systematically, on the ASA list. The archive at http://www.asa3.org/archive/asa/ can be searched.

Dr Messer’s talk is not available on the Faraday web site, as far as I know. Usually it is the research seminars that are made available, not the short courses.

I can not find the talk by Messer. Do you know when it was?

On a separate topic, we have some anti ID people here denying the fine tuning of the universe. Has this ever been discussed on the ASA forum? If so do you have any recollections on when? I can then go and look it up.

I know some of the people there think the universe was so well fine tuned that it led to everything including origin of life and evolution but I was wondering if there were some discussions that might have cited references. I have a bunch but wanted to see what else was out there.

I do not share your low view (”in general”, to borrow your words) of programs sponsored by the Faraday Institute. Last spring I attended a short course on science and ethics (http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.u.....minars.php) that was the best workshop I have ever attended. You would actually have applauded much of what was said, esp the talk by Neil Messer.

Their seminar series (http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.u.....minars.php) is also outstanding. Many here will want to download multiple talks, I would venture to say.