The argument from the laws of physics
When I talk to people about God, I like to use the argument of the laws of physics. I explain to them that if I give them a sheet of paper and they write a list of laws (including constants and force magnitudes if necessary) and replace the existing laws of physics with the laws written on the sheet, it is highly unlikely that a world with a complexity even close to that of our world will be created, and that’s after they can think and design the laws however they want (those who propose the theory of multiple/parallel universes offer an “alternative” that simply pushes the question one step back. Instead of the laws of physics, we can talk about the more general laws that create universes, so that’s not a problem). Although it is very intuitively clear, some people insist and claim that the universe that will be created as a result of the new laws they write on paper will be as complex as the current universe (it feels like intellectual dishonesty, but usually they really believe it). I feel that with people like that the discussion gets stuck and I have nowhere to go. Do you have an idea of how to successfully change their assumption that they can write new laws on a piece of paper that will succeed in creating a complex universe like ours? Or is this a situation where each side has a conflicting intuition and therefore it is impossible to continue the discussion?
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I agree that it is probabilistic that the lottery of natural laws will not yield applicable results with complex systems. But how can you explain this to someone who claims that the lottery will yield results?
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