by Dr David, Editor / Publisher

As a child I remember being very impressed with how things fit: the box just fit the depth of the closet; this random object matched perfectly the width of that random container; a length of wood served perfectly to separate those two things.

There are two dozen cosmological forces (including gravity, electromagnetism and nuclear forces) that just fit. A trifle more or less of any of these forces and the universe would not exist. A little bit this way or that and the problem would be that matter, propelled by the force of the Big Bang would forever keep expanding and fail to condense into clouds and then stars. Stars are the nuclear furnaces that transform the hydrogen, helium and lithium made during the Big Bang into other elements. No stars, nothing but hydrogen, helium and lithium, just little atoms growing farther apart forever. The Cosmological Constant is the most fine-tuned of all these forces. It measures 0.000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001. That's 132 zeros to the right of the decimal point. And if there were only 131, or if the 1 to their right were a 2, you guessed it, nothing would exist, just little atoms growing farther apart forever.

It's hard for us non-mathematicians to appreciate how infinitesimal a number with 132 zeros to the right of the decimal point is. To give a little perspective, a billion minutes is 1900 years. And 132 zeros is a billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billionth.

Physicists are good mathematicians. They appreciate the improbability of it all. They are forever struggling with the idea of God; Fred Hoyle, the man who discovered that stars are the nuclear furnaces that transform hydrogen, helium and lithium into other elements, wrote, "I do not believe that any scientist who examined the evidence would fail to draw the inference that the laws of nuclear physics have been deliberately designed..." Steven Hawkins, returned over and again to the subject of God, trying to deny the need for Him, but ultimately, "In his final paper on the multiverse hypothesis, the world's best-known atheist made a supernatural creator more plausible." -The Guardian

Infinity is another mathematical concept that is difficult to imagine. But there needs to be an infinite number of other completely separate, distinct universes with their own separate and distinct settings for their laws of physics (the Multiverse) to allow for our universe's perfectly-tuned-for-life laws of physics to have happened by chance.

Throw into the mix the Hard Problem of Consciousness, how it is that thought and awareness arise from non-sentient matter, and it's fair to ask, who is more reliant on faith? who is the bigger believer?; someone who believes in an infinity of other universes and that the elegance of consciousness is a random occurrence or someone who believes in God?

Something is going on here. My childhood impressions prove themselves true; it all just fits together too well.

Physicists, like biblical Jacob, wrestle with God. Lately, I've been wrestling with my car. When I am going very slowly, it stalls and then refuses to start until I leave it alone for 30 minutes. It's happened three times. Lucky for me, the first two times were off-road. Once I had just arrived home and was turning the car around. Today I was pulling into the school in Atotonilco where my girlfriend, Veronica works. I wanted to spend some time in the country and give her a ride home. The man who unlocked the gate helped me push it in. An hour or so later, when we were ready to leave, it started right up.

The third episode was a little trickier. It happened on the way home when we were going up the hill of Cinco de Mayo, just crossing the speed bump at the intersection of Rosales. Boom, or rather, nothing (just little atoms growing farther). All systems stop. I started my hazard lights and cars went around me. When it was all clear behind, using gravity I started to roll backwards, put it in reverse and popped the clutch. No luck. Thinking to turn around, face downhill and pop the clutch going forward, I swung across into the other lane putting my rear wheels up onto the sidewalk. Again, cars were able to pass. I turned the front wheels downhill and a passing young man helped me push the car forward until it started rolling on its own, just clearing the car parked on the other side of the road. I was just able to call out "Gracias" to another man who stopped his car and was walking up the sidewalk to to help.

Up in the States this episode would have sparked road rage. In Mexico cars break down with greater regularity. Two months ago, when Cinco de Mayo was the diversion for traffic while the tunnel was being built, my turn-around maneuver would have been a lot harder to accomplish. As it was, the car popped to a sickly kind of life, rolling a hundred yards or so down the hill and into the yard of my mechanic, where it stalled again and refused to start.

The car could have stalled at the new stoplights on the Libramiento (highway). It could have conked out while we were going over the speed bumps on the Salida de Celaya. But it didn't. It gave up where gravity, some quick thinking and a little push brought it to the mechanic's workshop.

We were just arriving at my Uncle Jimmy's house for a family get-together. It was summer. Uncle Jimmy, my father's brother, had an in-ground pool. I was 10 years old. Earlier in the day a car had been stolen from Uncle Jimmy's car lot, five or six miles away. (He sold Chryslers.) Suddenly, as Dad was passing us things out of the trunk of our car, this stolen car came speeding down the suburban street, struck the curb across the road from ours and stopped. As Uncle Jimmy looked out his front door, and unsuccessfully urged my father to "Stop him!" the driver of the car, jumped out, and heading across the lawn of the house across the street, disappeared into the back yard only to be apprehended by an off-duty police officer on the next block. I remember thinking, What are the odds that the stolen car would come to rest outside Uncle Jim's?, but no one mentioned it.

Now, I'm not saying that the episode at my Uncle Jimmy's or my car breaking down just uphill from my mechanic's or even the fine-tuning of the laws of physics to permit life prove the existence of a biblical God, but it all does tend to confirm the religious point of view.

You wouldn't think so from the media (social or mainstream) today, but the Golden Rule still rules. God bless Joe Biden, but politics alone is not the answer. Everything, politics included, depends on recognizing our common humanity. How we treat others, left, right and center affects our psychology and well-being, our consciousness in this world and our soul in the next.

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Dr David has created Lokkal, a social network that is not commercially-driven (just being launched, starting here in San Miguel) as an alternative to the abuses of social media.