Fred Hoyle, former atheist (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, May 06, 2013, 15:43 (4010 days ago)

Sir Fred Hoyle, Astronomer Royal on Design in nature:-
Engineering and Science, November 1981, p. 12:-"Now imagine yourself as a superintellect working
through possibilities in polymer chemistry.
Would you not be astonished that polymers based
on the carbon atom turned out in your calculations
to have the remarkable properties of the enzymes
and other biomolecules? Would you not be
bowled over in surprise to find that a living cell
was a feasible construct? Would you not say to
yourself, in whatever language supercalculating
intellects use: Some supercalculating intellect
must have designed the properties of the carbon
atom, otherwise the chance of my finding such an
atom through the blind forces of nature would be
utterly minuscule. Of course you would, and if
you were a sensible superintellect you would conclude
that the carbon atom is a fix.From 1953 onward, Fowler and I have been intrigued
by the remarkable relation of the 7.65
Me V energy level in the nucleus of 12C to the
7 .12 MeV level in 160. If you wanted to produce
carbon and oxygen in roughly equal quantities by
stellar nucleosyhthesis, these are just the two
levels you would have to fix, and your fixing
would have to be just about where these levels are
actually found to be. Is that another put-Lip, artificial
job? Following the above argument, I am inclined
to think so. A common sense interpretation
of the facts suggests that a superintellect has
monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry
and biology, and that there are no blind forces
worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one
calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming
as to put this conclusion almost beyond
question." (my bolds)