Roger Penrose on the fine-tuning of the cosmos

"There's got to be fine-tuning. This is fine-tuning. This is incredible precision in the organization of the initial universe."

We see seeds in nature everywhere. Is it really so outrageous to suggest that the origin of our universe - i.e., the Big Bang - was itself a seed?

For life to exist in the mesoscopic dimension of human perception, it must first evolve/arise from the microscopic dimension of the subatomic/quantum. Can it not follow, then, that there is also a macroscopic dimension, one in which the cosmos itself is a living super-organism? Logic, reason, and evidence suggest that this is a rational hypothesis.

The world's major religions all put a voodoo-superstition spin on reality, but there is absolutely no need for this; it stems from a time in human history when we simply didn't know anything about the origin of the universe or the information storing capacity of DNA. The cosmos is beautiful enough, is mysterious enough: the fact that life/sentience/consciousness - indeed, the entire cosmos - emerged from a minuscule singularity is fascinating enough; there's no need to cling to a two thousand year old fairy tale about walking on water, pulling copious amounts of bread and fish from a basket, resurrecting the dead - and all the rest of it. If some people are determined to believe in yarns, so be it - they have every right to do so. They might very well be correct, but there's not a shred of evidence to prove any of it. And blind faith in any religion is as bad, perhaps even worse, then blind faith in mechanism/Darwinism and the multiverse.

Genuine enchantment is to be found by viewing the cosmos through the eyes of a child, but with the mind of an adult. Nowadays, most everyone is a jaded pedant, a materialistic automaton - corrupt to the very bone. Spontaneity, joy, beauty, love, truth, goodness - these are the things that make us human, that provide ALL living creatures with meaning and purpose and hope, that fulfill and express our innermost humanity. Who murdered these sublime qualities? I maintain that those who are fixated with Jesus are just as guilty as those who are fixated with Darwin. Both camps are dug in deep and refuse to grant the other the principle of charity; they're like children taunting each other in a sandbox. They flaunt their credentials and mouth the talking points of their respective warlords (i.e., Jesus and Darwin) - and meanwhile precious life circles the drain. Because if you look closely, if you listen carefully, you know that our cosmic oasis, Earth, is dying.

Transudationists say: Follow the evidence wherever it leads.

And where does the evidence lead? Directly to the prime hypothesis - not the law, not the theory, but the hypothesis - of Transudationism: the Big Bang was an autotelic seed.

And regarding the Big Bang/autotelic seed, the truth is this: I don't know who or what "planted" it, and neither does anyone else. And if anyone does claim to know, shield your intellect and grasp your wallet, because that's what they're after. When science becomes the domain of dogmatists and propagandists, when religion becomes an arena for hucksters and voodoo, when academia is turned into a postmodern three-ring circus, it's time to pull the plug: stop subcontracting-out your thinking, and think for yourself; you can do that without believing anything I say.

Is there anyone out there with an open mind?

The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.

- Albert Einstein -