I’m not a particularly religious person. I’m definitely not an Atheist, but I would find the majority of the Bible very hard to believe. I find it absolutely hilarious that ‘Creationists’ actually think the world is 6,000 years old and that all our evidence of Evolution, is a result of a term they plucked out of the sky: “Intelligent Design”.

What prompted this post was a really fantastic documentary I watched the other night called “What we still don’t know about the Cosmos“.  It was quite nerdy and scientific, so parts 1 and 2 were not massively interesting, but it was part 3 that really knocked me for six.

Scientists are generally at loggerheads with religion because their beliefs conflict succinctly. However this is the first program in which the scientists actually agree there is a higher power. Let me explain.

So, they were telling us about just how big the known universe is, and really I just don’t think any human can come anywhere near to contemplating how vast its actual size really is. So – we are a minuscule little planet orbiting the sun, which is actually a very small star. We are part of a galaxy called the Milky Way – and it is thought that again, this is not a very big galaxy compared to the many others around us. However, there are BILLIONS of other stars in our galaxy, and there are thought to be Billions if not Trillions of other galaxy’s in our universe. That is a simply staggering number to try to absorb.

Now, the first thing to think about is, why is it that we are the only known form of life (intelligent life or other) in our universe? There are several factors that have to come into play to allow life to live on another planet like ours, a few simple rules like the distance from the sun for correct amount of heat and light,  the existence of water, and the right amount of gravity being the most basic ones. These factors all coming together correctly to allow life, statistically will be rare, but playing those odds on the truly gargantuan scale of the known universe, and there are still bound to be millions of planets exactly like ours that should have spawned life in the same way ours did.

However, we cannot see any at all. Hmmmmm.

The other incredibly interesting fact, is that scientist have mapped the apparent laws that rule the cosmos and allow life. I have absolutely no idea how, but scientists seem to be able to, using mathematics, map out these rules and laws etc that came to be after the “Big Bang” – which explains everything in physics as we know it. This is known as the “Cosmological Constant”. The interesting thing is  just how precise these rules are. Most other rules in the cosmos are precise to about 1% of maybe 1/10th of a percent – that being any more of a difference and it just would not work. The rules that govern the Cosmological Constant – the fact that we are here and life can exist -  are calculated to be to be precise to “1 part and 1 to 10 the 120″. In actual words that means that the chances of all these rules and laws coming together and working by chance are:  One in a Trillion,  Trillion, Trillion, Trillion, Trillion, Trillion, Trillion, Trillion, Trillion, Trillion! (I did not make that up, watch from 15 minutes here). Otherwise the universe would be so drastically different, it would have been impossible for life to start at all. No one believes that it would be possible for this to happen by accident.

So, that leaves only one possible explanation… One that some scientists still find very difficult to contemplate. How very interesting…