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RTB Design Compendium (2009)

“Why the Universe Is the Way It Is” and “More Than A Theory”

As a supplement to material presented in Why the Universe Is the Way It Is (see Appendix C) and in his university lectures, Hugh Ross makes available a catalog of cosmic design evidences, along with a bibliography of the journal articles and books from which they are drawn. These unedited notes are offered in the hope that they will stimulate further study—more specifically, further testing of various creation and evolution models, including the Reasons To Believe creation model.

This compendium is divided into four major segments, available as one unit or in parts:

Part 1: Fine-Tuning for Life in the Universe — lists 140 features of the cosmos as a whole (including the laws of physics) that must fall within certain narrow ranges to allow for the possibility of physical life’s existence.

Part 2: Fine-Tuning for Intelligent Physical Life—describes 402 quantifiable characteristics of a planetary system and its galaxy that must fall within narrow ranges to allow for the possibility of advanced life’s existence. This list includes comment on how a slight increase or decrease in the value of each characteristic would impact that possibility.

Part 3: Probability Estimates for Features Required by Various Life Forms—identifies 922 characteristics of a galaxy and of a planetary system physical life depends on and offers conservative estimates of the probability that any galaxy or planetary system would manifest such characteristics. This list is divided into three parts, based on differing requirements for various life-forms and their duration.

Part 4: Probability Estimates on Different Size Scales for the Features Required by Advanced Life—presents a breakdown of the characteristics required by advanced life (from Part 3) as they must occur, separately, in the galaxy cluster, galaxy, star, planetary system, planet, moon, planetary surface, and ecosystem where advanced life exists.